Tasty Treat Tuesdays: Simple Brown Sauce/ Homemade Chinese Food

Hand-y Feats and Other Treats proudly presents: Tasty Treat Tuesdays!

A new segment that will take place every Tuesday!

Hello all and welcome to the very first Tasty Treat Tuesday. Since beginning my blog late last year, I have been randomly posting recipes for your enjoyment. I wanted to be more structured with my posting of treats and I think this way I will be more inclined to post more. 

I can get pretty lazy...especially when it comes to cooking. With that said, most of the recipes I plan to share with all of you will be simple and easy to make, this one included. For the first segment of Tasty Treat Tuesdays, I am going to do a recipe that I have tried out several times now and have altered several times. I hope you enjoy!

The recipe I have to share with you today is for my homemade Chinese food, that uses a simple brown sauce!

Sauce is essential to creating Chinese food and in my opinion, one of the most common sauces used is a brown sauce. Since I love Chinese food, I figured I should learn how to make it at home and so my research into recipes began. Just by typing brown sauce into Google, I found all sorts of recipes on how to make it. But I kept running into a problem. I didn't have all of the ingredients! So with some experimenting and combining, I developed an easy brown sauce recipe.

Simple Brown Sauce

4 and 1/2 cups of water

3 tsp. beef base*

3 TB. low sodium soy sauce**

7 TB. Worcestershire sauce

4 tsp. sugar

3/4 cup water combined with 6 TB of cornstarch (set aside)

1 tsp or more of red pepper flakes (optional)

*I use beef base because I feel it gives more flavor to the broth. Beef bullion cubes can be used if you have those, however I am not sure how many cubes you would need. 

**I suggest using low sodium soy sauce. The beef base and Worcestershire sauce already has enough sodium, you do not need more. 

Additional ingredients you will need:

What ever meat you desire, cooked and cubed

An assortment of vegetables.

 I used:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
• 1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 1/4 of a very large zucchini, you can probably get a way with using 1 small one
• 2 cups of frozen broccoli 
• some olive oil

Using a large pan, saute the raw vegetables in some olive oil until they appear to be translucent. Set aside. If using frozen, you will add them in later. Begin by bringing the water and beef base to a boil. While waiting, combine water and cornstarch. Set aside. Once the liquid is at a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add soy sauce, Worcestershire and sugar. Mix well into the broth. Add in frozen vegetables. Once the frozen vegetables start to get tender, add in the other cooked vegetables and the chicken. If desired add red pepper flakes, this is to create heat to the sauce. If you want a lot of heat add more pepper flakes. Simmer for about 5-7 minutes. Remix the cornstarch mixture, add into the sauce pan. The cornstarch will thicken up the sauce. Cook for another 3-5 minutes and viola! Homemade Chinese food!

Best served over rice.

This recipe yields... a lot. I live with hungry guys so I am required to make a lot of food at once. This recipe is great for hungry lads and left overs. 

What I love most about this recipe is how versatile it is. I have made this using pork and chicken, with a variety of different vegetables, like brocolli, stir fry veggies, and even bell peppers. I imagine it would taste great with beef and even shrimp and you can add what ever vegetables you want! 

What combination will you try? If you try out this recipe, make sure to give me feedback! I hope it comes out delicious for you!

Until next time,
Erin