Sacha Sauce and Sweet Corn Kernels Stir-Fry

Sacha sauce or shacha sauce? You know what, I've always been calling it sacha sauce, the one without the "h" after the letter s. Even the correct pronunciation in Chinese doesn't sound like shacha. Just sacha, no h after the letter s. So why I still see shacha being used everywhere on the internet?

Sacha sauce and sweet corn kernels stir-fry - 

Ingredients?

• 280 sweet corn kernels
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 stalks scallion
• 1 to 2 red chilies
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sacha sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

How?

I used canned sweet corn kernels this time, so simply drain out the liquid inside the can before use. Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Destem and chop the scallion, separate the white and green parts. Destem and chop the red chilies, remove the seeds if you can't handle too much heat.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and switch to medium heat. Add in chopped garlic, red chilies, and 1/2 cup of scallion white. If you don't have enough scallion white, it's totally fine to use some green sections. Also add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir-fry till aromatic but not burning the garlic bits.

Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of sacha sauce. Let the sauce in contact with the pan and stir-fry a little. The heat from the pan will further bringing out the aroma from the sacha sauce. 

Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce along the side of the pan. Same thing, the direct contact of the heat from the pan will help drawing out even more aroma from the soy sauce. Give the whole thing a quick mix.

Add in sweet corn kernels and give it a quick stir-fry, about one minute.

Mix in some chopped scallion greens in the end, I used about 1/4 cup. Taste and adjust with additional seasonings if needed. Once all checked, plate and serve right away.

I used corn kernels for the sake of easy-eating. Otherwise corn ribs might look even more appetizing here. 

It's just that I'm a bit lazy to use my hands and bite along the core, especially some of these are going to get packed into lunch boxes. Corn ribs won't be able to fit inside a lunchbox as well as simple corn kernels. 

Extended reading:

• Sacha bell pepper and beef fried rice 沙茶青椒牛肉炒飯

Blanched Okra in Miso Dressing 涼拌味噌秋葵

Too eager to use the new glass plates that I bought few weeks back, so I decided to make something light, also something chilled, so the food can better suited to the somewhat see-through plating material.

Blanched okra in miso dressing 涼拌味噌秋葵 -

Ingredients?

• 20 okra
• Some salt
• Some toasted white sesame seeds
• Some cold water or water with ice cubes

Dressing: 

• 2 tablespoons white miso
• 1 tablespoon Japanese tsuyu
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon toasted white sesame seeds

How?

Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients listed under the "dressing" section. Set aside for later use.

Rub the okra with grainy salt on a cutting board, this will help removing fine hairs from the okra.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile fill some icy cold water in a bowl on the side, or water with ice cubes, use drinkable water too. 

Add the okra to the boiling water. Just a quick dip, shouldn't take more than a minute. 

Drain and transfer the okra to the cold water, let's blanch the okra so to speak.

Drain again and pat dry the okra with paper towel. Trim-off the stems then slice the remaining part diagonally to shorter sections. Transfer prepped okra to a bowl.

Pour the premixed dressing to the bowl filled with okra. Gently mix till these two till evenly blended.

Plate the okra to the actual serving plate. That means my newly bought glassware. Sprinkle some toasted white sesame seeds on top.

You can also premix the okra and the dressing, then store them in the fridge for later use. The okra won't get much saltier even after blending with the white miso. So don't worry too much about that. 

Up to this point I'm not sure whether I'm happier with the okra or the new plates. To be honest, serving little sweets on these colorful glass plates should look better, but I'm trying to cut back on sugar intake recently, so chilled okra serves as a good candidate savory food-wise. 

Extended reading:

• Eggplant cold dish in flavorful Chinese seasonings 中式涼拌茄子
• Make-ahead chicken nanbanzuke (鶏肉の南蛮漬け)
• Colorful julienned king oyster mushroom cold dish in Asian sauce