Dear Friends,
I thank you for joining us at our Christmas 2020 pop up @Haus Wabi Sabi! If you enjoyed the menu offered by Secret Sauce on this day, you can find the specific recipes below (which reflects the exact levels of spice etc at the event).
Liebe Freunde,
Ich danke Ihnen, dass Sie an unserem Pop-up-Fenster Weihnachten 2020 @Haus Wabi Sabi teilnehmen! Wenn Ihnen das Menü, das an diesem Tag von Secret Sauce angeboten wurde, geschmeckt hat, finden Sie unten die spezifischen Rezepte (die den genauen Gewürzgehalt usw. der Veranstaltung widerspiegeln).
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(Deutsch unten)
1 Large Onion, chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
20g parsley, chopped
Rapeseed Oil
3 Medium sized Peperoni or Paprika (1 of each red, yellow and green), chopped
1.2 Kg Vegetable stock
Sea Salt (3 teaspoons)
300gm Lentils, rinsed (Coop Bio Fine Food Beluga & Green Lentils)
30g of Secret Sauce Tamarind Curry sauce paste
*Be aware that the Tamarind Curry is very spicy and so I encourage you to add the suggested amount prior to adding more to make it spicier.
Sauté onions, garlic and parsley in oil until onions are soft. Add Tamarind Curry sauce paste and fry till fragrant. Add peperoni and sauté for about 5 minutes. Pour in vegetable stock and salt, bring to boil and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. Add lentils and cook for 30 minutes.
*I used the Thermomix to make this soup, and of course you can adjust the amounts accordingly.
See this recipe on Natalie's Secret Sauce Instagram
1 große Zwiebel, gehackt
2 Knoblauchzehen, gehackt
20g Petersilie, gehackt
Rapsöl
3 mittelgroße Peperoni oder Paprika (je 1 rote, gelbe und grüne), gehackt
1,2 Kg Gemüsebrühe
Meersalz (3 Teelöffel)
300 g Linsen, gespült (Coop Bio Feinkost Beluga & Grüne Linsen)
30 g Secret Sauce Tamarinden Currysauce
*Seien Sie sich bewusst, dass das Tamarinden-Curry sehr scharf ist, und deshalb rate ich Ihnen, die vorgeschlagene Menge hinzuzufügen, bevor Sie mehr hinzufügen, um es schärfer zu machen.
Zwiebeln, Knoblauch und Petersilie in Öl anbraten, bis die Zwiebeln weich sind. Tamarind-Curry-Saucenpaste hinzufügen und braten, bis es duftet. Peperoni hinzugeben und ca. 5 Minuten anbraten. Mit Gemüsebrühe und Salz aufgießen, zum Kochen bringen und bei mittlerer Hitze 20 Minuten kochen. Linsen zugeben und 30 Minuten kochen lassen.
*Ich habe den Thermomix für diese Suppe verwendet, und natürlich können Sie die Mengen entsprechend anpassen.
Siehe dieses Rezept auf Natalie's Secret Sauce Instagram
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(Deutsch unten)
150g Zucchini, sliced
150g Finger Aubergine, sliced
Rapeseed oil
Coconut milk (separate cream from coconut milk, then use 50g cream)
30g Secret Sauce Tikka Masala Curry Paste
Sauté zucchini and aubergines in oil until they start to become soft. Add Tikka Masala curry paste and sauté it with the vegetables for a few minutes. Then add coconut cream, melt it in gently with the curry and vegetables. Then add in coconut milk until desired curry consistency.
How to separate Coconut Cream from Coconut Milk: Leave Coconut Milk tin or packet in refrigerator. The cream will harden in a few hours. Then open up the container and you can easily scoop out the cream, it will be in a block on the top of the milk. You can drink the excess coconut milk on its own, it tastes like coconut water but a little milky.
150g Zucchini, in Scheiben geschnitten
150g Finger Aubergine, in Scheiben geschnitten
Rapsöl
Kokosmilch (Sahne von Kokosmilch trennen, dann 50 g Sahne verwenden)
30g Secret Sauce Tikka Masala Curry paste
Zucchini und Auberginen in Öl anbraten, bis sie anfangen, weich zu werden. Tikka-Masala-Currypaste hinzufügen und mit dem Gemüse einige Minuten anbraten. Dann die Kokosnusscreme hinzufügen, mit dem Curry und dem Gemüse sanft einschmelzen. Dann Kokosmilch zugeben, bis die gewünschte Currykonsistenz erreicht ist.
So trennen Sie Kokosnusscreme von Kokosmilch: Lassen Sie die Kokosmilchdose oder -verpackung im Kühlschrank stehen. Die Sahne härtet in wenigen Stunden aus. Dann öffnen Sie den Behälter und Sie können die Sahne leicht aushöhlen, sie wird in einem Block auf der Milchoberfläche liegen. Sie können die überschüssige Kokosmilch allein trinken, sie schmeckt wie Kokoswasser, aber ein wenig milchig. Demnächst wird es ein Kochvideo über diese Methode geben.
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KALBI PULLED JACKFRUIT
(Deutsch unten)
250g Jackfruit
Sea Salt
Rapeseed Oil (replace with Olive / Sesame oil)
3 Tablespoons Secret Sauce Korean Kalbi Cooking Sauce
1 packet of frozen Peking duck pancakes
Creamy Sauce:
50g Soyananda
50g Alpro Skyr Style Yogurt, without sugar
Handful of Carrots, Shredded
1.5 Tablespoon Korean Kalbi Cooking Sauce
Cook jackfruit in water with 1 teaspoon of salt. Fill water in pot till the jackfruit is just covered. Bring to boil and then cook on medium heat for 30 minutes in a covered pot. Drain water and squeeze out as much water as possible from the jackfruit. When squeezing the Jackfruit, it will start pulling apart by itself.
Mix in 2 tablespoons of oil and 3 tablespoons of Korean Kalbi Cooking sauce. Put in a covered oven proofed pot/dish and heat for 20 minutes at 130˚ celsius.
For the creamy sauce, mix in all ingredients till smooth.
Heat Peking duck pancakes per package instructions. Then toast each side of the pancake on a pan on high heat.
KALBI PULLED JACKFRUIT
250g Bio Jackfrucht
Meersalz
Rapsöl
3 Esslöffel
Secret Sauce Koreanische Kalbi-Kochsauce
1 Packung tiefgefrorene Pekingente-Pfannkuchen
Cremige Soße:
50g Sojananda
50g Joghurt nach Alpro Skyr Art, ohne Zucker
Handvoll Karotten, geschreddert
1,5 Esslöffel koreanische Kalbi-Kochsauce
Jackfrüchte in Wasser mit 1 Teelöffel Salz kochen. Wasser in den Topf füllen, bis die Jackfrucht gerade bedeckt ist. Zum Kochen bringen und dann bei mittlerer Hitze 30 Minuten zugedeckt in einem Topf kochen. Wasser abgießen und so viel Wasser wie möglich aus der Jackfrucht herausdrücken. Wenn die Jackfrucht gequetscht wird, beginnt sie sich von selbst auseinander zu ziehen.
2 Esslöffel Öl und 3 Esslöffel koreanische Kalbi-Kochsauce untermischen. In einen zugedeckten ofenfesten Topf/Schüssel geben und 20 Minuten bei 130˚ Celsius erhitzen.
Für die cremige Sauce alle Zutaten glatt rühren.
Pekingente-Pfannkuchen nach Packungsanweisung erhitzen. Dann jede Seite des Pfannkuchens auf einer Pfanne bei starker Hitze rösten.
-------------------------------------------- Enjoy! Guten Appetit!
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Flavoured by our Korean Kalbi sauce, this is the easiest way to make pulled beef! I've finally finished working on this cooking video too. Took me forever! Really makes me admire those who can keep filming and churning out daily and weekly videos! It is really quite a skill!
There's so many different flavours one can make pulled beef with but the most important part is the method. The easier the better! Right? Yep!
I've always made Korean Kalbi braised beef with the boneless beef short ribs but one can use the brisket cut too of course. However in Switzerland, the cut is slightly different and sometimes the marbling isn't so nice. Only recently I found the perfect marbled brisket and also short ribs from a butcher not too far from me - so you can imagine how happy I am!!
This started about 10 years ago and I was cooking them in the oven for a straight 8 hours..... my whole apartment smelt of Kalbi the whole entire day! If it's winter, it's quite alright as I can leave some windows open and air the house. If it's in the summer, I can't!!! The bugs and mosquitoes will just swamp my home! As it's a rented apartment then, it didn't come with window or door insect screens. So it is really quite annoying and seriously hot in the apartment when I made these braised ribs.
Thus, I began to experiment various ways till I found the essential trick that must be followed when making braised/pulled beef - that is one must use a proper fitting lid with a pan (I used to just cover my roasting tin with aluminium), and one must use the right size of pan to cook a particular size of meat. If the pan is too big, then the sauce will dry up in the process. It also can't be too small - pieces of meat shouldn't be stacked on top of another as this would mean the pieces on the top will not be braised in the sauce.
So finally, it is a breeze to make braised beef and thus pulled beef. It only takes 3.5-4.5 hours in a 130˚ Celcius fan oven. So if I cook a strip of 1.3 kg boneless beef short ribs (as in the cooking video), I will use a smaller pot and when I want to make 5 kg of braised beef, I will use my larger roasting pan with a fitting lid. The amount of time is exactly the same.
Well I didn't start to make pulled beef from this cut till a few of years ago when everyone around me was going crazy over pulled meats here in Switzerland. Essentially, braised beef is the same as pulled beef - it's soft enough to be pulled into strands and it's definitely more deliciously to me than the common BBQ sauce which is often too sweet for my tastebuds.
Our Kalbi sauce is perfect for this as it is full of flavours from ginger and black pepper with the acidity from kiwis - it helps to cut through the fat essential to break down and moisten the meat. It is tradition to use pears to add acid to the Kalbi sauce but since I live here in Switzerland, it is not at all easy to get the right pears.... so a friend recommended a different solution - Kiwis! Our sauce is also not too sweet which thus gives a balanced flavour of savoury and sweetness. This is quite the most important criteria to me when I created my recipe for the Kalbi sauce.
One of my favourite ways to eat pulled beef is on crispy Peking duck pancakes! It's the usual frozen ones one can buy in the Asian supermarkets. I like to make them crispy by toasting them on the pan, after they're been heated up. Really easy to do and you can keep them overnight uncovered and they become even crispier! Like chips! My kids loved eating them like chips!
My favourite condiments with pulled beef are my homemade Kimchi, smashed avocado, Japanese mayonnaise and Srirarcha chili sauce! I never enjoyed store bought kimchi and only loved to eat freshly made kimchi so I've been doing without it since I moved out of the UK. I've always thought that it was very difficult and takes too much time, so I kept putting it off! So I've finally gotten off my lazy bum and started to make my own kimchi! As it turned out, it was really quite easy! I may make a video out of it and I'll definitely write more on this on a different blog post.
It's never an issue to make too much pulled beef as this can be easily kept frozen and one can always add it to almost any dish - salad, noodles, rice, and in all sorts of wraps with many different combinations!
The grilling of my favourite Kalbi flank rib steaks (like the Korean American style) is essentially the same, except that it requires less cooking time in the oven, a different cut of the meat and the sauce reduced to a thick gooey goodness!. This I will elaborate more in another video that will be dedicated to that method.
I sincerely hope that you will start making pulled beef after watching our video! You can use any marinade and not just our Secret Sauce. The method stays the same. I guarantee it is the easiest method to make pulled beef! Ever!
So summer is here! Who is enjoying a staycation, making a roadtrip or flying off to see the big blue sea? Well for me and my family, I'm doing all of the above!
To me, to eat is to travel so for those enjoying a staycation, we can also travel with our tastebuds and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Switzerland or where ever you are located.
Featuring in this newsletter, my cooking video on cooking with Tomato curry will show you how to reduce chili spice in curries. As our Tomato curry is the mildest curry in our curry range, it's therefore the easiest curry to remove the taste of chili spice from the curry. This way, anyone who doesn't like chili, specially young children, can still enjoy the curry taste in this fragrant curry. The method shown can be used for all our other curries but the level of chili spice reduced will be individual to each curry.
It's also the school summer holidays for many of us and so we also don't want to spend so much time in the kitchen cooking meals even if we aren't on vacation. Our easy to cook cooking sauces are made just for that. So in our video, I'll show you how you can make our curry in just 15 minutes, both the original curry and the less spicy curry in that same time.
Our Tomato Curry is mild, light and fragrant and so is a great curry even on a hot summer's day. Nevertheless, us South East Asians enjoy all cuisines all year round as for most of us, we only have 1 weather - HOT & HUMID! Truly we believe everyone else should do the same and enjoy any type of food you like at anytime of the year.
I've tips for how you can use our curry sauce in a different manner. You can use our curry sauce for apéro as well. Mix our Tomato Curry in light cream cheese or crème fracîhe and serve it as a dip with tortilla chips, crackers, bread or vegetable sticks. These dips can be served immediately.
I also recommend it with green olives or edamame. So marinate those for at least a couple of hours before serving. I tend to marinate them overnight in an air tight box. You can also serve up Tomato curry edamame as a side to any grill, or use it as a seasoning on top of grilled vegetables. The amount you use will be according to your taste. For those who don't know what edamame is, you can find out more here.
All our curries are Vegan, Lactose and Gluten Free so everyone can enjoy it in many different ways.
They are also made from scratch with fresh ingredients whenever possible. So cooking with our sauces mean that you are also cooking a healthy meal from scratch, with no added preservatives, colouring and additives!
Check out our instagram gallery on our Tomato Curry Page for ideas on how to use this cooking sauce. I will continually upate the pictures as and when I make the dishes.
In the meantime, I'll be working on my next cooking video and till then,
🌞⛱🏄♂️🌊 Happy Summer! 🌞🏖🏄♀️🌊
]]>I hope that you are all doing well through this pandemic that has put the world to an almost stop. Many of us can finally take some time off from our busy schedules and slow down. However, I understand that for some others, it may have become more hectic and stressful instead. For us in the Secret Sauce household, we were able to spend more time together and there was no longer a need to rush anywhere everytime. Here in 🇨🇭 life has almost gotten back to normal now but I understand that most of the world hasn't yet done so. So stay strong 💪!
Eating well and deliciously for all of us is a must. During this time, I've heard many people are getting bored with the usual repertoire of food on the table as now they have to make at least 3 meals a day at home. Being able to expand meal variety is extremely important, it helps keep cooking interesting and tastebuds tingled. So adding the Secret Sauce variety to daily meals will definitely widen the choice for all families.
So below you will find links to our instructional Cooking Video on Teriyaki Sauce. We are cooking Stir Fry Turkey and Mixed Vegetables in Teriyaki Sauce. There's one only in English and the other, there's German subtitles instead. The amount presented in the video is good for 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids, plus rice or noodles. Stir Fry is also a quick and healthy option but always an option of great variety as you can put any mix and amount of meat/fish/seafood and vegetables together. The flavours may change slightly depending on the type of ingredients you decide to cook with as the food chemistry then changes. Which in itself gives the dish vareity on its own.
Quite often during our tastings, many asked how can one get crisp vegetables when making a stir fry. Well, the main tricks in a successful stir fry are: high heat, all ingredients are ready to use immediately, full attention, and thickening (if you choose to do so). It also must be served immediately and can't be lying around as the vegetables will start wilting... in a manner of speech.
In the Western world, the cooking heat is often not high enough as it is not a characteristics of Western cooking. The Chinese kitchen is very different from the Western kitchen. Even majority of us Chinese, do not have those conditions found in restaurants at home. In the Chinese world of cooking, in all good Chinese restaurants, they employ the use of wok burners (aka a gas burner), iron woks and powerful extractors. So the heat used is extremely high🔥🔥. This is difficult to replicate at home, specially when there are less and less main gas outlets available in modern homes. In addition, the home gas burners do not heat to the same temperatures as well. I have met so many great Chinese chefs who do not cook at home due to these reasons. So the best we can do is learn how to cook comfortably at the highest heat obtainable at home. The more we do it, the easier it gets. However, if you have gas cookers at home, there may be possibilities to make a DIY to create better stir fry conditions! I've seen some videos and read some blogs on it. Unfortunately I live in an area that doesn't have gas mains so unless I set up an external kitchen in my backyard, it will still be a dream to achieve it. Besides, I really don't want to get in trouble with the local authorities 😅or burn the grass off my backyard while learning to manage the fire.... 😱!
During this time, I have finally learnt how to 🎥 cooking videos, navigate YouTube and spent countless hours learning to edit 🎬and subtitle films 🎞, and finally recording a proper voiceover 🎤! I have spent days on end making multiple videos (now discarded as they weren't really of good quality), repeating the same words and deleting them over and over again! Finally, light at the end of the tunnel. I've even grown to be ok to listening to my own voice!!!
The main purpose of 'Secret Sauce instructional videos' is for all of you and others to be able to learn how to use our sauces easily and have a reference guide each time you want to refresh your memory.
Then the purpose of our other section 'Secret Sauce Inspirtational Videos' is to give you other ideas on how you can use our sauces in other daily recipes to add to variety in flavours.
I sincerely hope that you will find them useful and entertaining. I might be trying different ideas on how to record and edit new videos and I welcome your ideas on the subject matter of our cooking videos.
I wish you a good summer ahead and hopefully be free to roam, time to relax and free yourself from the stress this lockdown has brought to you.
Be and stay #lostinflavour with Secret Sauce.
You can add Secret Sauce to your basket now or check out our other sauces perfect for Stir Fry here.
Till Next Time.
Love Deliciously,
Natalie from Secret Sauce
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You don't have to always cook curries with Secret Sauce curry sauces. Our sauces are full of flavour and therefore very versatile to use in cooking all types of dishes. Please find in our video below how you can use Tomato Curry Sauce in everyday pasta, Spätzle (German pasta) or Knöpfli (Swiss pasta) dishes.
Bear in mind that Crème Fraîche can be easily replaced with double cream, mascarpone or ricotta cheese. If using cream, you'll need to add a thickener otherwise the sauce will be too runny. You can also replace Spätzle with any type of pasta or noodles. Lastly, try this same recipe with other Secret Sauce curries, Tikka or Tamarind, and decide on a favourite!
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