There is no standard stir-fry sauce when it comes to Thai cuisines. Thai cooking has adapted the basic Chinese stir-fry sauces by adding chilies to give the flavor a little kick. The basic seasoning in Chinese stir0frying is soy-sauce. Thai cooks will generally use fish sauce which is also known as nam pla instead, which is basically soy sauce infused with fermented fish extracts taken from various fish. Nam pla tastes salty, very much like strong anchovy sauce, and can be found in Asian shops and some supermarkets.

Like the Chinese, Thai cooks use sesame oil, garlic and ginger to season their stir-fries. The recipe below is for an all-purpose sauce that you can use to give your usual stir-fry dishes a Thai taste:

Thai Stir-Fry Sauce Recipe
Makes: Enough to season
500g vegetables, fish or meat
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: none

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons chili paste
1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped green ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce

Method:
Mix together the oil, chili paste, sugar, pepper, garlic and ginger. Add some cooking oil to the wok according to your usual recipe, then add the sesame oil mixture. When it comes to the boil, add the fish sauce, then your other stir-fry ingredients and cook in the usual way.

** Asian Recipes **