Your Cooking Secret Weapons
 

I was going to respond to Willystyle's post, but it ended up branching off with me talking about the stuff I use in my kitchen.

Let's discuss our "secret" weapons in our kitchens. The tools and ingredients we absolutely cannot live without and more importantly, where to acquire these items cheap!



So carrying on from Willystyle's Chinese Chili Oil thread, I'll talk about how I add spiciness to my dishes.


To me, these are my requisite heat sources in my kitchen:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...522_030227.jpg

I use the same brand as Willystyle's, but their other type, it's a finer grind.
I actually don't use sriracha and I stopped using cayenne months ago.

I use the first 2 sauces pictured here when making mapo tofu for my non-fancy meals.
The gochugaru (korean red pepper powder) is my substitute for cayenne, I find it has a much more lively flavor.

The one pictured is a fine grind like cayenne.
I also have a coarse grind I use in spicy Chinese and Korean cooking.

In an asian kitchen, I think these are all pretty standard, nothing special.
T&T will have the first 2 for sure, but will probably hella overcharge for the gochugaru.


Gochugaru and sea salt is heavily used for kimchi, so it's actually quite cheap at H-Mart.
H-Mart is actually your ultimate source for sea salt. They sell in various sacks at 1/4 of the price compared to Western supermarkets.



The last ingredient I use is sacha sauce otherwise known as Chinese BBQ sauce. It's actually not quite spicy, but used similar to the other spicy ingrdients. The name is actually a bit confusing.
Sacha sounds like satay, but is not even close at all. Sacha is deep, meaty and oniony whereas satay sauce is usually lighter in flavor and peanut-based.
And to make matters worse, sacha has nothing to do with Chinese-style BBQ. None of the 3 major items (roast pork, bbq pork and roast duck) use sacha.

Culinary uses: Stir fry and finish with a spoon or 2 of it. Mapo tofu. Hot pot dipping sauce.

Cheap Source: Buy in bulk, it lasts forever. Rice World or Kuo Hua.
You probably won't use it too much in day-to-day cooking, but come hot pot season, you will burn through this.

I don't know if I can call these secret weapons....

I cannot cook without lemon, butter, garlic, kosher salt, & freshly ground pepper.

For buffalo chicken wings and other spicy dishes, I like to use Frank's Hot sauce.

Secret weapon? For me the weapons is not be flustered and be well prepared. I find nearly all kitchen equipment are pretty good these days don't have to be expensive but one must to have spares.. eg in my kitchen has 3-4 1" bamboo cutting board from $ stores. 2x hand held mixer wisks, blender heads, kitchen aid bowls, knives etc. So when you are going through the cooking process you don't have to wash.. oh ditch the stainless steel pans and just go cast iron (a heck lot cheaper too at princess auto).

Cumin and tamarind.

msg

sweet thai chilli sauce=p

mine's MSG








jk, I find it hard to live without chicken/beef/vege stock. Water just doesn't cut it!

HUNGARIAN SMOKED PAPRIKA GOES ON EVERYTHING

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iHTuAJw2pZ...%2BPaprika.jpg

this is the same brand, but I use the HOT stuff, not the sweet.

Freshly ground salt and pepper!
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Another thing I do:

Grow a lot of basil (around now).. harvest them, put most of them in the blender, add fresh garlic cloves, salt, pepper and olive oil.. blend and store them in ice tray cubes.. then you have handy pre portioned pesto for the season.

Also don't let basil plants grow too tall.. they will die quicker.. pick quick and don't let them flower.

winnar :toot:

sesame oil and smoked paprika
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a big o'tub of pork fat and beef fat..
i try to cook with them as much as possible

Fresh ground pepper, cook it up a bit in the hot oil
to activate the flavour.
Works for other seedy/oily spices.

onions if i can incorporate it

bacon

Omg I could list a thousand things...but..:

Garlic, shallots, fish sauce, sea salt, chilli flakes/peppers, chicken stock (homemade is even better),
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Interesting tidbit.
I have recently swapped over to Korean sesame oil instead of the Chinese stuff I grew up using. I find it has a much nicer toasted and nutty flavor.

Smoked paprika, lemon.

The entire spice rack because I am exactly the type of idiot who assumes everything is better with herbs and spices.

I'll definitely try the Korean stuff whenever I run out.
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Jalapeno peppers cut up in a blender then put into a zip lock back and frozen. Just break a piece off and throw it into anything I am cooking.

Ingredients: fish sauce

Tools: pepper mills, mortar&pestle.

make shit good