This condiment is used extensively for grills and barbecues in Cambodia. It's origins are Southern Vietnamese where it's called Muối Tiêu Chanh
Dipping mixtures of Fish sauce aren't the only kinds of these dips. This mixture is used extensively in Cambodia and in Vietnam. It's a refreshing dip and could easily be used as a substitute for Fish sauce dip for vegetarians and vegans.

Ingredients:

• Crystalline sea salt
• Black or White pepper
• Lime wedges
• Thinly sliced Thai chillies

Method:

1. Into a small d...

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Vincent made contact with this blog with a comment on "Lao Salad Dressing" as posted advising us of the lack of traditional authenticity and an example recipe showing the commonly used dressing. In this formulation was reference to Pa Daek and reference was made to its familiarisation by western palates. In this note Vincent has taken an extract from his book (Lao Cooking and The Essence of Life) to further describe the process and aspects of the "condiment". Please enjoy the following descri...
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Ingredients:

• 20 red Chillies or Lomboks (approx. 6 - 9 cm. long).
• 2 teaspoons Salt.
• 1 teaspoon ground Trassi (shrimp paste: any shrimp paste can be used for this preparation)

Method:

1. Wash and dice the chillies and mix with the salt and shrimp paste.
2. Grind or homogenise into a coarse paste.
3. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 months.

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A condiment of grated coconut, peanuts, onions and spices. and used to enhance the flavour and texture of rice.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm (~8 3/4 oz) grated Coconut
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 4 Shallots
• 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 100 ml (~7 Tbsp) Tamarind extract
• 1 stalk Lemongrass (bruised)
• 150 gm (5 1/3 oz) Peanuts (pref unsalted)
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 teaspoon Trassi (toasted) (Trassi/Ngapi/kapi/blachan are all Shrimp pastes usin...

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Bean paste, or bean sauce, varies in color, texture, and composition and is a popular ingredient in many dishes in Asian cuisines. Some varieties of bean paste include miso, red bean paste, yellow bean paste, brown bean paste, and black bean paste. Most but not all bean paste or sauce products use one or more of these products as a base.


Miso

Miso (pronounced MEE-soh) is a dense bean paste made from soybeans and a grain such as barley or rice, fermented with yeast mold. This mixture is combine...
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Ingredients:

• Salt
• White pepper

Method:

1. Freshly grind some white peppercorns. Mix with an equal amount of table salt.
2. Place in small ceramic bowls for for each person.

Diners simply dip the food to be seasoned into the bowl and eat.
Typically this is used for poultry dishes and most noticeably for White Chicken and Taiwanese Fried Chicken.
A variation on this simple mixture is to saturate the dry mix with fresh lime juice. This adds a delightful tang and retains the true flavour of the basic simplicity.

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Ingredients:

• 500 gm (1 lb) fresh young ginger (shin shoga)
• 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) rice vinegar
• 240 ml (1 cups) sugar
• 1 tsps salt

Method:

1. Wash young ginger root and rub off skin.
2. Slice the ginger thinly and salt them.
3. Leave salted ginger slices in a bowl for one hour.
4. Dry the ginger slices with paper towels and put them in a sterilized container/jar.
5. Mix rice vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil.
6. Pour the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar over the ginger slices.
7. Cool them. Pickled ginger chan...

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Dehydrated shitake mushrooms have a stalk that doesn't soften on rehydration. Instructions invariably direct you to remove and discard the stalk.
The thing here is to allow the stalks to dry again and store them until a suitable quantity is collected. These re-collected stalks need to be very dry before storage, either by oven drying  at a low setting or out in the sun for the day. This is then the starting material.

Ingredients:

• 50g dried mushroom stalks
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 shallo...

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• Crisp Fried Garlic in Oil. (Recipe here) Serve with a minimum of oil in the serving dish.
• Crisp Fried Dry Shallots, (Recipe here)
• Crisp Fried Pulled Shitake Mushroom Stalks (Recipe here)
• Pickled Mustard Greens. (Commercially available)
• Shredded Cilantro/Coriander leaves. (Prepare freshly)
• Diced Chinese Celery Leaves and stalks. (Prepare freshly)
• Finely Sliced Green Onions (Green tops and White Shoots)
• Dried Baby shrimp. (Widely available in supermarkets and Asian Grocers)
• Ground Dried Chillie. (You...

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Ingredients:

• 115 gm (4 oz) garlic, chopped
• 115 gm (4 oz) fresh ginger, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Method:

1. In a food processor or with pestle and mortar, combine the garlic and ginger. Adding small amounts of olive oil to facilitate the blending and homogenise after each addition, until it makes a smooth paste.

Refrigerate maximum of 10 days.
Freeze indefinitely.

Please don't use this to make an oil infusion for long term storage. This is an unsafe process with albeit a very low possibility o...
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These all are included in the Recipes. The names are linked to the specific listing so that you may be able to jump directly to the method.


Garnishes

Chinese Crisp Shallot Garnish 脆葱配菜

Fried Garlic Garnish 

Crispy Mushroom Condiment. 
Ideal as a crunchy topping on siu mai, jok (congee) and breakfast dishes.




Sauces & Condiments



Chillie Vinegar. General condiment with heat and sour. Generally used as ingredient.

Zhajiangmian Sauce. Beijing Noodles and Beijing Duck.

Nam Phrik Num.  Thai dip wi...
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Ingredients:

• 10 – 15 red Thai chillies
• 600 ml (~1 pt) white wine , rice wine or distilled white malt vinegar

Method:

1. Trim the chillies and slit open.
2. Bring the vinegar to the boil and add the chillies. Return to the boil.
3. Pour into a wide-mouthed warm sterilized jar.
4. Cover tightly and leave to stand in a sunny place for at least a month, shaking occasionally.
5. Strain through muslin and pour into a sterilized jar/bottle.
6. Seal and label.

Suggestion:

Great for a spike to many dishes including salads.
M...
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Ingredients:

• 50g dried mushroom stalks
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced lengthways
• 2 teaspoons crushed dried chillies
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• pinch of salt
• peanut oil to fry garlic & shallots

Method:

1. Once the mushroom stalks are dried again after re-hydrating, grind in a pestle and mortar until they resemble feather-like strands or floss. You can indeed use a food processor and blitz into a coarse powder.
2. Heat plenty of oil in a saucepan and fry the shallots until...

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Ingredients:

500 gm shallots
3 -4 tbsp cooking oil


Method:

Wash and remove the loose skin of the shallots while wet. Top and tail the corms.
Shake the shallots dry.
Slice the shallots finely
Heat the oil in a wok over moderate heat. Test with cumin seed for sputtering.
Add the shallots and stir fry mixing continuously until browned.
Transfer the cooked shallots onto a paper lined plate and shake to maximise the oil removal as soon as transferred. Do this thoroughly (a little like winowing rice.)
When t...
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