/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>9757567
-The dried chilis are a must.
-The stock needs to be Chinese stock, not westernized (French) style. If you're using storebought "chicken stock" or bullion cubes it won't taste right. You want stock made with no western herbs. It should be chicken, ginger, scallions, and sugar.
-MSG? Yeah, that would help, but better yet use pic related (doubanjiang, sometimes written toubanjiang)

>>9390515
Sounds like some kind of bastardized westernified recipe.

Watch chinese cooks do stir-fry. The procedure described above is the standard:
-fry armomatic veggies and paste in oil
-fry the other ingredients
at that point it's done. If it's a "saucy" dish then the sauce is made by adding a mix of cornstarch and water. This combines with the aromatics from the first step to form the paste.

Pic related is probably the most common one. Doubanjiang. It's made from fermented broad beans and chili. This is what cheap Chinese restaurants sub out MSG for.

>>8416370
I like Tajin, but I think it has very limited applications. I like it to rim drinks like anon mentioned. It's great on fruit. It's decent as dry rub for fajitas if you don't have fresh lime on hand. But I think it's other uses are really limited.

My roomate is also a pretty serious cook (and even has some pro experience). He's put it into stews and soups but frankly I don't think it was very good in those applications.

As for my suggestion? Doubanjiang. It's a fermented paste made from chili peppers and beans, very common in Sichuan Chinese food. I discovered it making Mapo Tofu. Since then I've used it in many other dishes. It's great to use in BBQ mop sauces, marinades, chili, etc.

>>8218695
>ideas to give it some more flavor

The trick that restaurants use and that you won't see in whiteboy recipes is the very first step: You start by frying an aromatic spicy paste like doubanjiang in the wok before any of the other ingredients go in.