Stock your pantry to prepare Asian dishes so that when the cravings come, you're ready.
Instructions
1. Always have lots of Asian short-grain or Thai jasmine rice, dry egg noodles and/or dry rice noodles handy. Every Asian delight is accompanied by a filling starch.
2. Store a variety of sauces, such as soy sauce, tamari (Japanese soy sauce), oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and black bean sauce, to name a few. These sauces are used in both marinades and stir-frying.
3. For Southeast Asian cooking, stock red or green curry pastes, coconut milk and fish sauce.
4. Keep plain or rice vinegar, dry sherry or Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing), and sugar for stir-fry sauces.
5. Get some dried shiitake mushrooms, which add incredible depth of flavor to stir-fries and other dishes. Plus, after you soak the dried mushrooms in water, the water itself is delicious to use in your cooking.
6. Stock a block of firm tofu at all times for instant protein.
7. Refrigerate pre-prepared wonton skins and egg roll wrappers. These are readily available in most supermarkets and are great for making dim sum, spring rolls, wontons and pot stickers.
8. Keep a variety of oils for use in the wok and to flavor your creations. Vegetable oil is great for the wok; dark sesame oil provides a popular Asian taste.
9. Store garlic, garlic, garlic. It's as popular as rice. Fresh ginger root is great to have around, too.
10. Keep an assortment of Asian teas handy (one green, one black, one oolong) to serve with and after food.
11. Get some cornstarch. It's often used to thicken sauces and hold together the ingredients in wontons and dim sum.
12. Buy a wok and other Asian utensils, such as a bamboo steamer, a rice cooker and a cleaver.
Tags: garlic garlic, rice noodles