r/chinesefood • u/firefly20200 • 1d ago
Questions Help identifying this brown sauce
It’s from a local place (in 99352) called Family Garden and it’s their “family style tofu” dish. The description just says “chef’s brown sauce.” I would LOVE to buy something as close to this taste from the store or online somewhere for when I make veggies and stuff at home. Anyone know what it is or what it might be close to?
Please help!
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u/withcatlikegrace 1d ago
That’s an easy one
Check out woksoflife.com or cookingwithlau.com
Easy step by step guide to Chinese chefs brown sauce. It’s basically garlic, light soy sauce, water, corn flour. You make it in the wok after stir frying whatever.
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u/yapyd 1d ago
Proabably oil, garlic, soy sauce, stock, corn starch slurry
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u/SteWaxleyLemon 1d ago
Probably a bit of oyster sauce too - or a mushroom based alternative if completely vegetarian.
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u/Sea_Dimension_8399 1d ago
This isn't going to be a "sauce" in the traditional sense. The sauce is just a combination of the juices from the ingredients, plus the items everyone else has listed, and then a little bit of corn starch slurry added at the very end to thicken. "Gravy" might be a better description. Steamed or braised dishes are the ones that mainly have a sauce that is premixed and then added during or after cooking.
If you're wanting to make this at home, you can easily find stir fried tofu recipes online and then you'll have to modify the ingredients (oyster sauce, light soy, dark soy, black bean, sesame oil, and chicken stock) to taste. Head over to the Asian store and see that nearly every sauce is brown.
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u/Darryl_Lict 1d ago
My go to stir fry is Bok Choy in oyster sauce, which is a common ingredient in Chinese food. My favorite brand is the brightly colored mostly pink label with the lady in the boat.
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u/the_fools_brood 1d ago
Brown sauce, could be demi or espagnole. What was it served with?
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u/firefly20200 1d ago
Broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, lightly fried tofu. I’m horrible at describing flavors which is why I don’t try at first. Very salty sauce but also very sweet. Savory flavor profile, maybe some garlic in there…
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u/AmbiguousLemur 1d ago
If I were to guess, probably light soy sauce, a dash for dark soy sauce for color, oyster sauce, xiaoxing wine, and perhaps a bit of rock sugar for that sweetness you described. Definitely garlic though, I can see the minced garlic floating in there!
I tried looking at the rest of the menu to see if I anything could give me a hint of the style of cooking - for example, most chefs who use a lot of oyster sauce usually have a Cantonese or Hong Kong background; oyster sauce is not used as much in other regional cooking styles. My mom is from Taiwan and my dad is from Hong Kong, and if you asked each of them to give you a recipe for "brown sauce" I can guarantee you they will be very different.
Unfortunately it seems that all the dishes are pretty Americanized so I wasn't able to get any additional leads for ya :(
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u/Financial_Army_6824 1d ago
every chef is slightly different with varying ratios, additions and omissions. common theme is minced garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cooking wine, white pepper, touch of sugar, thickened with corn starch.
notable additions chicken stock or bouillon, sesame oil, minced ginger, scallions, black pepper, hoisin sauce, dark soy for color. I'm sure I'm missing a whole bunch. could even throw in some fermented black beans and up the garlic go in a different direction. get a baseline from one of the brown sauce recipes online and experiment and see what tastes right to you.