Stir-fries are all about the sauce!

At college I never made my own sauce so I relied on the store-bought stuff for my stir-fries. They were good but I found they were missing something and could never figure out what it was.

I would add salt, hot sauce and even beer to them (not sure why) to boost the flavor and they still never tasted much better.

What I wasn’t aware of at the time was the 5 S’s of cooking.

A good sauce is built on the five elements listed in the picture above.

Store-bought stir-fry sauces are generally very sweet and contain a lot of salt. Sometimes they’ll even be spicy.

It’s usually the sour and savory elements that are missing.

The easy fix is to add a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar (sour) or grated fresh ginger (savory) to your store-bought stir-fry sauce. I often go with fresh ginger because it’s the least expensive option.

It’s the ingredient that added extra zip to the store-bought Teriyaki sauce I used in the stir-fry recipe I posted on the cafe’s menu earlier this week.

The bonus is fresh ginger lasts a long-time (if you freeze it) and it can be used in more than just stir-fries.

It’s an excellent addition to store-bought carrot or squash soup and it’ll infuse your cup of tea with some exciting flavor!  

The pics below will give you the skinny on how to buy, store and grate it so you always have some available in your freezer when you want your college stir-fries to taste authentic and awesome! 

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Thanks for stopping in at the cafe. Cheers!