We spotlighted Hoisin Sauce earlier in the week… And it is now our pleasure to bring you one of the easiest recipes you can undertake to demonstrate just what Hoisin can do for a simple piece of meat. Behold the Sticky Soy Steak Skewer!
I came across a recipe with the name featured in the headline above and had a great idea… Keep the name; ditch the recipe! Or some of it, anyway…
“Leave the gun, bring the cannoli…”
Who can forget the famous line from The Godfather, where an older gangster has just given a younger one a tutorial on ‘greasing a rat’ (making a hit on as fellow gang member who proved unloyal)?
Overkill? Maybe… But it amply describes what we’re going to do today with a typical Asian skewer dish that – I think, anyway – has too many ingredients for its own good.
The dish
There’s nothing unusual about this Asian skewer dish. But it illustrates something that’s always ir-ritated me about cook book Asian recipes. It calls for a whole lot of ingredients already included in its principle flavour component: Hoisin Sauce.
If Hoisin is so great – which I truly believe it is – why do we need to add more of so many of the same ingredients it already contains to balance or enhance or elevate it? Or whatever? Let’s ‘not and say we did’, and see what happens…
Here’s all you need
Start with a bottle of your fave Hoisin Sauce from your go-to supermarket or Asian Grocery. You’re going to want just a couple of tbsp. for this recipe. But if you can save a buck or two by buying a larger jar.bottle, do it. You’re gloing to using a lot of Hoisin in the fairly-near future…
I like to add a blend of fresh juice from one large orange plus a half cup more from the bottle of breakfast O.J. in the fridge. If you have fresh oranges in the house, a squirt of lemon juice is just as good. But it will produce a different flavour in the finished dish.
If you like garlic, press or mince an extra clove over and above what’s already in the prepared Hoisin sauce.
What you should keep:
DO retain the chopped scallions called for in the source recipe.
Do retain the rice wine vinegar (or substitute the same amount of plain white vinegar or bone-dry white wine) called for in the original recipe It makes the stickiness of the glaze just right. And bal-ances off a little of the dish’s overall sweetness.
DO retain the baking soda – though we won’t get into why it’s used in thus recipe. That’s going to be a whole separate post down the road, at some point. Just trust me, for now. The dish won’t be the same without it!
DO retain the dab of chili garlic oil called for. But cut the amount in half, or experiment ‘to taste’. You can substitute Thai Red Chili Paste for the chili garlic oil if you like, and already have that in the house.
Remember: this is supposed to be s spicy – nor necessarily hot – dish. With the Hoisin, it becomes ‘swicy’. And you can plug it to ‘foodie’ dinner guests as ‘newstalgic’! (“You’re such a clever chef, darling!”)
Have salt on hand and a little sugar (or honey), so you can add some if needed at the end of cooking, when you ‘taste for salt’.
What you can ditch:
Start with ditching at least half of the chili garlic oil called for. (See the adjustment, recommended above.)
Then cross off the original ingredients list altogether: the sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, honey and onions. They’re reundant here!
Procedure
Follow the procedure as described in the original (source) recipe.
Serve over plain white steamed or boiled rice. With stir-fried veggies on the side.
My take
Presto! Beautiful Hoisin Orange Beef!
Remember… You can taste all along the line, to adjust the flavour to suit your personal preferences…
Enjoy!
~ Maggie J.