The Secret is In the Sauce

My love for dips and sauces takes its inspiration from gourmet-chef Conrad Calalang, the man behind the popularity of all-you-can-eat Mongolian barbecue and Pasta Festival in my country. I have known the seasoned chef for years having worked with him and his family promoting and drumbeating  their restaurants. 

Conrad's Mongolian barbecue created a craze in the city.  I remember the extra tables he had to set up outside the restaurant in the once burgeoning Mile Long strip in Makati and, 3 weeks after, had added another outlet in the same buiding just to accommodate the ever growing set of Mongolian lovers.

The secret, indeed, was in the sauce.  Conrad had a knack for whipping up sauces that resembled like a symphony in the mouth, i.e., you can use 5 different kinds of sauces in one dish and you come up with a dish that's 5 times tastier the dish that came with the basic sauce!   Now that's hard to duplicate.  For his Mongolian barbecue, he was kitchen-genius enough to premix the sauces so diners can choose from either of these formula-- sweet, sweet and sour, regular and spicy-- without having to worry about the taste afterwards.

And so my love for sauces continues and, the sauce that I will be sharing with you today is my signature recipe-- this is the same sauce that sent call center agents craving for my siomai (honestly I don't make tasty siomai but what the heck-- they bought it just for the sauce!)

So here it is:   SauceChinoy (best with dimsums, fried fish, steamed prwans or just anything to your delight!)

Note:  You can play around with the ingredients and its quantity depending on your taste. : )

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 tbsp dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tbsp water (approx. 3/4 cup mixture)
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 large bulbs of garlic or approx. 36 cloves finely chopped
• 1 Red cayenne thinly sliced (depending on how spicy you'd like your sauce to be)
• 4 tbsp oil
• achuette seeds
• 1 tsp onion finely chopped (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ginger finely chopped (optional)

1. Heat oil and achuete seeds in a pan (use low heat or you end up the achuette seeds in your eyes-lol).  Remove achette seeds once oil turns reddish-yellow.
2. Toss in thinly sliced cayenne. Fry for a few seconds (careful not to burn it!) and remove from oil once done.  Set aside.
3. On the same oil (add more oil if needed), brown (but not too brown) finely chopped garlic. Add in onion and ginger.
4. Add remaining ingredients including the red cayenne. Bring to a boil.

Happy saucing!