I use a couple different Chinese cookbooks for stir fry. One is an old one handed down from my father that I only use for a few favorite recipes.

The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Diana Kuan is my go too cookbook for most of my Chinese dinners now.

I've probably made at least half of the recipes so far. The recipes are easy to follow and with great instruction on timing. It has entrees, appetizers, soups, and a few sweets too. The ingredients are also easy to find at Asian groceries. The sauces vary a bit for each entree but most have some of the same basic ingredients.

ETA: Like the title suggests the cookbook is not true Chinese cooking as you might find if you traveled there but you will find most all of the same meals that you would find at Chinese restaurants in the US.

Stir fry is all about techniques, not so much about recipes. You can just about making up unlimited kinds of creative sauces for stir fry.

I made combination seafood stir fry a couple of days ago. The sauce was 1/4 cup Paul Newman Caesar Salad Dressing, 2 TBS low salt soy sauce, 3 TBS cooking wine, one TBS hot sauce. 1 tsp sesame oil to finish.

It was a very good stir fry dish.

dcarch

Sadly, I'm not very good at making up recipes in the realm of Asian cooking. That's why my stir fry sauces are always kind of "meh" as are my curries, because I make them up. I have a couple of bottled commercial ones that I like but really can't afford such things now, trying to make my own from scratch. I don't like strong clove and anise flavors so have never been able to buy the Chinese five spice powder as a flavoring. Also don't like fenugreek, which is a problem in most commercial curry powders.

If you like a couple of commercial sauces, why not start by trying to replicate them? They list the ingredients, and you can find copycat recipes online for most things. They're not always accurate, but perhaps a good jumping off point.

When you're balancing a sauce, think about the tastes: sweet, bitter, salty, sour, acid, hot/spicy, umami/meaty/earthy. If one of those is missing, adding it will add punch.

I also have a hard time winging Asian sauces and do find recipes helpful and ended up buying another Chinese cookbook, Chinese Takeout Cookbook, while looking at the one Lone Jack posted, which I may use my digital points on.

I usually make my own but there are any number of 'general purpose' stir fry sauces available online. Typically, they are a combination of soy sauce, sugar, rice wine or sherry and seasonings like minced garlic, minced ginger, white pepper, and red chili flakes. Sometimes included are broth, vinegar, sesame oil, additional or varied seasonings (citrus rind, lime or orange juice, chilis, Chinese 5 spice, etc.) And all can be thickened with a corn starch slurry as desired.

I just ad lib according to how I think it should it taste :-)

Oh no, Jack and Bumblebeez have sent me down a rabbit hole of cookbooks . . . they all sound fab! Wonder if I will have any more luck mastering Chinese takeout-style cooking than I did with sourdough bread baking . . . :)

I just make my own when I stir fry and just go by eye based on the size of the dish and what is in it. I never buy sauces where you use the entire thing as the sauce but there are some sauces worth getting where you only use a spoonful or two and they add tons of flavor. In addition to soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, chili oil, and sesame oil add tons of flavor. If you are near an Asian grocery store, get some dried salted black beans with ginger and you can use it to make black bean sauce. As someone above mentioned, fresh ginger and garlic add tons of flavor. I prefer Thai curries and usually buy Thai curry paste, where you use a spoonful or so and heat it up and add some coconut milk.

A similar query came up on the NYT cooking site recently. I was surprised at how many people said that oyster sauce is important to them. I've never purchased oyster sauce. I do keep soy sauce, fish sauce, chili oil with black beans, and hoisin on hand.

One of my very favorite cook books, China Moon, starts out with a group of base recipes. The fermented black bean-orange- chili oil combo is very nice and I've had it for a scary long time.

I have soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, sweet chili sauce and I think maybe hoisin. I got some black bean sauce once but it was too hot for me. Maybe it was the brand or maybe it was the nature of the beast. Making it from scratch sounds interesting . . .

I don't have any Chinese cookbooks, and I'm not remotely interested in authenticity but the book by Kwoklyn Wan looks good!

Black bean sauce is not hot unless you make it that way. I make it fresh each time and it takes hardly any time. You just have to remember to soak the beans ahead of time. I do it before I do any vegetable prep and by the time I finish cutting things up, they have softened enough to mash and use.

Oyster sauce is wonderful. And the big containers are much more cost effective than the small bottles.

Here are links to two of my favorite websites for Asian cooking. The links go to their all-purpose stir fry sauce recipes. But you can peruse the sites and find all sorts of other sauces.

https://rasamalaysia.com/easy-stir-fry-sauce/

https://www.recipetineats.com/real-chinese-purpose-stir-fry-sauce/

I always start with onion then garlic and ginger. Lots. Then hard veg, meat, soft veg, then whatever in have on hand..oyster sauce if I have it, if not, soy. Not very adventurous but we like it..

... from the link above

Stir Fry Sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/2 cup water

I'm going to have to check out oyster sauce. One of my issues is I am allergic to MSG and also can't tolerate much salt. Some food from Chinese takeout places makes me ill from the level of salt. That's the main problem with our local Chinese takeout place. I get a stomach ache or headache and also severe thirst from it. Hubs and I eat low salt. That's why we got so lucky at the last place we lived, we found a Chinese takeout restaurant that didn't oversalt things or use MSG.

Yes, you do want a recipe that uses oyster sauce.

I use this one for broccoli beef and chicken with bok choy, asparagus or mixed vegetables.

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp Chinese rice wine

2 tbsp soy sauce (you can buy low-salt)

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 c. chicken broth or water

Stir-fry minced garlic and ginger, meat and veggies in peanut oil. You can also use a pinch of red pepper flakes for heat. When meat and veggies are done, stir in sauce. Add 1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water and boil until thickened.

Your stirfy should be lightly coated with sauce, not swimming in it, so this makes enough for about 3/4 of a pound of meat. I use a 10" French skillet and it's pretty full of meat and vegetables. It's enough sauce.

I like the 'Charlie' sauce from Shambo's link above. Very similar to what I do but lest quantity. I like the make ahead. Spreads out the chore. Sometimes a few days ahead. Usually enough for just two stir fry meals. It is a very customizable recipe.

Since I have to think about next day lunches, I like to make an egg fried rice with veg and cabbage first, then make a second dinner stir fry. (while I got everything out and all the chopping)

I also need to be careful with ingredients. Especially 'natural' flavorings that are not natural at all and caramel coloring. Kikkoman does not have MSG but the first three ingredients are water sugar salt. Modified corn starch is fine being just a thickener. So I use RedBoat fish sauce instead of the oyster. Just anchovy and sea salt. Lasts forever as such little is needed.

Same reason I only purchase unseasoned rice vinegar.

Perusing the Internet and ingredient lists, I think oyster sauce is going to be somewhat problematic for me, because I don't do well with maltodextrin or modified starch or yeast extract either, although not as bad as with MSG. There are vegetarian versions made with dried mushrooms . . . MSG is the worst for me, the other ones are OK in small doses . . . it's also the salt factor though . . . I do have some hoisin sauce that I realized has been languishing in the fridge . . . tamari does not seem to bother me, although it has a salt factor. There are lower salt versions but not as available to me locally. I used to be able to get locally made tamari when I lived near a big college town . . .

Really seems to be a challenge to get all the flavors of the Chinese sauces but without the salt. Of course a lot of those ingredients are from slow cooking processes and fermentation, which is not available widely to commercial markets. Like I mentioned, we are limiting ourselves to sourdough and yogurt right now as far as fermentation. We don't really do it very well, I must say. I wonder if a "Ferment" store would be a popular new endeavor, specializing in slow processed ferments . . . I see a possible weekend educational getaway, like looking for a "Miso making" workshop, etc. I saw a video on this, can't quite remember the host, anyway he visited one of the last real miso farms in Japan . . . also kimchee . . . I think it may have been David Chang and he actually has a business specializing in selling fermented foods . . . hmmm

It's interesting that the naturally derived glutens etc. don't seem to bother people as much. For me as with a lot of people, I think it is a matter of concentration. Seems like most "faster" versions of the slow products use concentrates to give the flavors, just does not seem to be the same . . . same with compost, it gives way better results over the long haul than chemically concentrated fertilizers. The slow release lower concentrations work well there too . . .

I wonder if it's even possible to make/get an American Chinese restaurant type sauce that isn't totally loaded with sodium?

Oyster sauce has between 700 and 1000 mg of sodium per TBL,

Even low sodium tamari has 700 mg of sodium per TBL

Fish sauce has around 1500 mg of sodium per TBL (I know that's a lot of fish sauce for most dishes)

Fermented black bean sauce has 500 - 700 mg of sodium per TBL

Add one or two of those ingredients to make a sauce in an amount that is likely to be in excess of a TBL and you're in very high sodium per serving territory.

I'd try to retrain my taste buds to less saucy stir fry dishes and use lots of sesame oil, fresh lime juice and zest with an abundance of garlic and fresh ginger with your veggies and low sodium chicken or veggie broth if you need more moisture.

eta: I forgot to add that hoison sauce seems to have less sodium than other commercial sauces. 200-400 mg per TBL depending on the brand.

Pink, look at recipes for crystal sauce. I believe this is what a local restaurant that was very good used on veggies and shrimp. I'll never forget the pea shoots cooked this way. One of those magical never to be repeated dishes.

you all have it all wrong.

asian sauces are easy they have 4 parts.

base/stock, starch to thicken it,; then the fat; spices\herbs

Today I tried an Asian tofu curry for breakfast because I am trying to cut down on dairy and meat, and also eat healthy and I usually like curries for breakfast. However, it was a pretty typical Asian saucing cooking experience for me. The results were just OK, edible but not enjoyable. I was going to do straight Indian style curry, but I have a tin of "Penang Curry" from the Tiny Spice Company (love them) which had a recipe on the top of the tin so I tried that with improvisation. Penang is in Malaysia. It called for 4 TBLSP of soy saucce and 4 TBLSP of fish sauce. I don't have fish sauce so I used 2 TBLSP of worcestershire sauce and 2 TBLSP tamari, so half the sodium. It also called for 4 TBLSP of maple syrup, I used 3. 2 TBLSP of the curry powder and 2 TBLSP olive oil.

I tasted the results and they seemed a little bland, so I added a dollop of sweet chili sauce and a healthy dash of hot sauce. In the end, the results were way too hot, so I had to eat it with yogurt. It was too sweet and too hot and mostly what I tasted was the hot and sweet. Hence my typical experience, that "winging it" is not something I do well with Asian cuisine.

Looked nice though . . .

you all have it all wrong.

Thank you, you are very helpful as usual. I can throw out all of my Asian cookbooks now.

True to form, hubs being a better improvisational cook than me, he did a stir fry tonight with a sauce that was a mix of sesame oil, tamari and our bottled Chinese sweet chili sauce and some added ginger. Good. Not low salt but not as bad as takeout. Just the right amount of sweet and hot. I think I at least deserve some credit for making the baked marinated tofu with a sauce from the Penang curry powder.

I don't mind the brevity War garden. Worth a try. A lot of the lighter sauce I know are velveted chicken broth as a base. Which in French cooking would be a velouté sauce.

Lone Jack that's what sauces are :base/stock, starch to thicken it,; then the fat; spices\herbs in all cuisines. they help you eat normally dry or fatty foods.

lone jack .... we can have local firefighters gather them and pile them up in the town square, where they will promptly heat them to 451 degrees ... with the Dr Seuss books ...

Bragu - I will bring the the hotdogs and smores!

Sorry WG, but very few of the sauce recipes in my Asian cookbooks use any stock and other than a small amount of sesame oil there is no fat. I prefer to use a recipe for the sauces so I can make a repeatable dish that tastes like it is supposed to every time.

I believe I have it all right.

As pointless as the snark was, it actually caused me to look up some "velveting" techniques for Asian cooking and sauces. Found this recipe that does use chicken stock and also fat, which is sesame oil. Sounds pretty good actually and I'm going to try it next time I do stir fry.
All purpose Chinese white sauce

Chicken and broccoli is one of my favorite Chinese dishes and one of the few that I use stock in.

We are having 3 dishes from The Chinese Takeout Cookbook for dinner tonight. Mongolian Beef using sirloin tip from the steer we had processed last spring and leeks from my garden that I froze last summer. Sweet and Spicy shrimp, and Crab Rangoon...unlike what you usually get at most Chinese joints this recipe actually has crab meat in it. I was gonna make some Hot and Sour soup as well but decided I didn't want to drive into town to pick up a couple of the ingredients that I did not have. Never have Tofu when I need it :-)

I've already done most of the prep work except making the CR. Can't do those too far ahead or the wonton wrappers will get soggy.

Gonna have to get both woks out. The kitchen's gonna be a mess but well worth the effort.

LoneJack, can you get shelf stable tofu where you are? I keep it in the pantry so I always have it on hand. https://www.amazon.com/Mori-Nu-Silken-Tofu-Extra-Ounce/dp/B000LKZ86K

olychick - Thanks for letting me know! I didn't even know that there was such a thing. I've always bought it at my regular grocery from a cooler case right next to the wonton wrappers. Sprouts might carry it but I haven't gone there since before Covid hit. Maybe I'll order a little just to have on hand. I've only used it in a couple Chinese dishes and the H&S soup.

I most often find silken tofu in the shelf stable, but I only buy organic and have not seen the firmer in that. But I buy it at my food co-op and they only carry certain brands. If I want it firmer, I just wrap it in a tea towel and put something heavy on it to squeeze out some moisture. It still doesn't cube up nicely, but it's in there!

Olychick, I didn't know such a thing existed either, and, of course, I've never looked for it so I can't even tell you whether it's available here or not.

I do like Sol's Caramel Chicken, which is Vietnamese, I think, but I tend to like the sweet/sticky/unhealthy/fried versions of Americanized/Chinese/Asian food, like sesame chicken, sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken. Of course, Sol's Caramel Chicken is sweet.

Elery likes a beef and broccoli recipe that I make using venison in place of beef but I think it's far too salty. I'm not enamored with most stir fry, it's meat and vegetables in a skillet. (shrug) Edible, but not wonderful, so I keep trying, although most of the soy sauce type sauces just taste like salt to me and I haven't been pleased with any of them. Thus, I'm of no help to Lpink, but I've been watching this thread.

Annie

The Chinese white sauce was good. Less salty than the brown sauces. But I adapted and used less of the salty ingredients. And used no-salt chicken broth, for example. Also used the velveting technique for the meat. Kind of makes the slurry for thickening the sauce ahead of time.

I too like the sweeter "sweet and sour" profile in my Asian sauces, but hubs is not a fan. Hence my quest for less sweet, less salty sauces for our stir fries. I used to make stir fry about once a week to use up bits and bobs of vegetables I had on hand. Kind of stopped due to my sauces mostly being a bust so it wasn't that great of a meal. Plus I usually used tofu as the protein so that was two strikes against it in hubs book. Plus back when we lived out East we had a great local takeout place . . .plus I used to be able to afford good quality store bought stuff, but either can't get or can't afford nowdays.

Wanting to get back into it, motivated to try and up my game . . . not sure how long this phase will last . . .

My local groceries do not carry the Mori-Nu tofu in the aseptic cardboard boxes that is shelf stable. I never liked it for stir fry, but used it. I had too many fresh tofu cartons go bad on me . . . the best I could do with the silken tofu, even the extra firm, was bake it and try and dry it out a bit. On the flip side, it makes the best sub for creamy eggy stuff, like dips, cream pies, quiche, smoothies, pudding, fake scrambled eggs, etc. I am going to have to stock up next time I am in a big town. Our foodie run is usually to nearby Horrocks in Battle Creek, 45 miles away.