Professionally cooked western food also uses a lot of sugar and salt - especially frozen foods. Sugar is really fucking addictive so eating high sugar foods regularly will lower how much sweetness you’ll get from it - this sounds especially relevant if you’re directly adding sugar in addition to the sauce.
Sugar and salt both have very negative side effects if over consumed but a moderate amount of them is fine. I’d suggest trying to scale back the total sweetness to whatever level you can tolerate without it becoming bland and use more flavored spices to make up the difference. Additionally, not all sugars are created equal and it might benefit you to try switching off of refined sugar to one of the alternative sugars so that your body can more easily process your sweeteners.
Opinions may vary but I think it’s incorrect to try to completely eliminate sweeteners from your diet, usually I’ve seen people suffer from extreme cravings that drive them to occasionally binge eat candy before returning to a “sugar free” lifestyle. It’s important to respect yourself and allow for moderation rather than trying to cold turkey yourself. Duck sauce is extremely sweet but having a small quantity of meat smothered in duck sauce among an otherwise balanced meal can be a nice and reasonable treat.
Many western foods made at home can easily made with less salt and rarely require sugar to be added.
I can’t reduce the salt or sugar in the premade sauces that are required in east asian dishes. I don’t know what duck sauce is but we don’t eat that in asia; it’s also a condiment and not a required ingredient in our dishes like fermented bean paste
this sample recipe for taiwanese spicy beef soup which is a classic taiwanese dish as you can see requires both rock sugar and salt to be added to the already salt doubanjiang: seonkyounglongest.com/taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup/
Duck sauce is a name that was adapted in American Chinese cooking. The original product, which is used in Asia (particularly known with Canto food), is plum sauce. Same thing, though you may get a slightly different product depending on where it was made.
There’s a huge difference between using salt and sugars, and adding TOO MUCH of them. Just cutting the suggested amount added in half gets you closer to what you’re asking for. As for the premade stuff, just add less, or dilute them a bit maybe.
I think you were the only one who understood my question
Cutting down on the sauces is a good alternative and what I’m doing in the meantime; unfortunately I think these sauces are heavy contributors to the flavour of the dish so the result is the flavour is kinda weak in the dish. Doubanjiang or gochujang for example are staples of the respective Asian cuisines and dishes.
I think some kind of food is just not designed to be healthy. It was made to be tasty without thinking about health. You can either make it more healthy and less tasty or you can eat it less often (as a treat).
I think some kind of food is just not designed to be healthy. It was made to be tasty without thinking about health. You can either make it more healthy and less tasty or you can eat it less often (as a treat).
yep, that’s true. our typical dishes are actually not much meat and have a lot of vegetables like water spinach dishes
Most probably you need soy sauce for asian dishes. Luckily there are a bunch of soy types. Maybe you could check out sweet soy sauces, perhaps those have lower sodium content.
I am not referring to soy sauce, I don’t know about gochujang but I have not seen low sodium versions of doubanjiang anywhere, maybe I can’t look around
are you by chance an enterprising individual? it sounds like you’ve stumbled onto an underserved and untapped market: healthier alternatives to traditional base ingredients. i’d be very surprised if there were not methods waiting to be discovered for prepping bean paste, fish sauce, doubanjiang etc in more health-conscious ways. the question is, who can combine culinary expertise, fermentation knowledge, cultural respect and a drive to innovate?
i’d be very surprised if there were not methods waiting to be discovered for prepping bean paste, fish sauce, doubanjiang etc in more health-conscious ways.
i think the problem is all of these pastes are fermented and i at least don’t know how to ferment something without using a lot of salt. even make your own doubanjiang paste will tell you to use a lot of salt to ferment the beans
i don’t know either, but i do know that with the kimchi and kombucha trend train taking over the west, learning about fermentation should be much more accessible. maybe there are some creative alternative prep methods, like pairing less salt with celery juice, or even seaweed - or starting with leftover whey/brine from a previous fermentation. if i were you i’d try a deep focused dive on fermentation methods around the world and experiment. hope you figure something out and when you do, brand it and revolutionize cuisine!
I don’t really know anything about cooking Asian food past a curry, but in general I tend to just skip out on unhealthy stuff I won’t miss when I cook at home for my family.
For example, if I was making barbecue chicken for a gathering, I’d use a good amount of brown sugar for a nice caramelization and depth of flavor. I made it at home for myself last week, however, and just didn’t add the sugar. Was it worse? Sure, a little, but I likely wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t tell me and it’s one less meal full of sugar.
I am trying to train myself that not every meal I make has to be a treat, and that sometimes just being healthy and filling is enough.
Going a different direction with the flavors is another option. Lemon pepper chicken instead of barbecue chicken, or a vinaigrette dressing instead of a cream sauce. Some of these alternate recipes still have plenty of intense flavors without being as intense on the calories.
You could maybe sub half the doubianjiang with low sodium miso, its not an exact subsitute but i figure it’ll still provide that strong flavor you want
If you already have the cheese on hand, do an experiment. Cut off a piece and freeze it overnight. Next day, defrost it and see how it is. Because the issue you’re concerned about is change to texture or taste after freezing and thawing, you only need to leave it long enough to be fully frozen through - not as long as you normally would for storage.
(You wouldn’t want to buy a bulk size piece of meat/cheese just to experiment, but if you already have some on hand it’s worth trying for yourself to find out if you’ll find the result satisfactory.)
That’s the egg sticking to the pan, try using more fat, that worked for me. Or maybe I just needed to break in the pan. Either case, stop using metal on non stick. Use a silicone out wooden spatula
Probably because of the steep learning curve, especially for stainless.
I’ve been using stainless for years and I have a stoneware nonstick for cooking sticky stuff like potatoes and eggs. I just don’t have the skill down for those yet.
Also cast iron being cheap is kinda laughable. It’s really expensive, even though it will last forever.
It’s not particularly expensive. Cast iron and stainless steel are both about $50 for a pan, with prices going basically as high as you want for either.
I used to think this too. It just takes a little bit of time to learn the proper technique. Managing heat and a little bit of fat will make them more or less able to be wiped out. I pretty much only use carbon steel and stainless now. I used to use cast iron but I got tired of lugging it around, so it only comes out if I need to sear a steak now.
I only ever cook eggs in my cast iron skillet. If I am patient enough to get it hot enough and cook with butter, and don’t mess around with the egg too much very little sticks and what does is a cinch to clean. The pans are heavy as hell though. I don’t lug except car camping. I haven’t tried stainless yet but it sounds like it would be worth doing.
I remember someone once saying, “hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick”. So I heat my pan, put a little butter in it. It should sizzle and melt but not brown. If it starts browning then the pan is too hot. Swirl it around a little then add egg. Temperature control is really the biggest factor I’ve found. It’s also ok to take the pan off the burner if it’s too hot. This is especially true if making scrambled eggs.
A single steelwire sponge can clean a cast iron easy in 60 seconds for even the biggest messes.
Most people that say cast iron are difficult just haven’t been properly taught how to take care of one (including myself in the past). They are a buy for life product, my wife has skillets that have been in the family for generations.
You can get similar non stick properties from learning to use cast iron or stainless steel. If you’re interested, I’d say start with cast iron, it’s cheaper and while you’re still learning how to make it non-stick super easy to clean by literally scratching it with chainmail!
Google “stainless steel water test” but basically the water starts sliding around on the pan.
For eggs it needs to be hot enough to just maintain this effect, or else they can burn and start sticking again. You can also add a bit of oil at this point but it’s not strictly necessary and can cause smoke depending on the oil used.
Unfortunately the quality of your pan also has an effect here. 3-5 layer “all clad” is best. But if you wound up with partial clad like me (the kind with a visible disk on the bottom) the section that isn’t clad will almost always get at least a bit of food stuck to it.
Learning stainless steel imo also takes more patience if you’re on electric, because you’ll need to wait longer for the temperature to settle, but not impossible. I switched to magnets! If you want to give magnets a shot, but don’t want to spend $2000+, you can get an induction hot plate online for ~$100
It’s okay, just practice getting the water to bead, that’ll help a lot, and if something gets stuck, plastic or wood scrapers and barkeeper’s friend will help.
Sometimes I’ve also boiled stuck on food, that’s helped it release too.
And worst case, you make mistakes and can learn from them, no harm no foul I’d say!
that is what you get when you burn an egg, in my experience. I’m not sure why it’s happening no matter how low you have the heat, though.
Is it a super cheap, all aluminum (or aluminium) pan? If it’s very thin and extremely heat conductive, you might not be able to get your heat low enough to not burn the egg.
First thing I’d try is adding some fat to the pan before putting the egg in. Even with supposed non-stick, throw some butter in there.
You have the heat too high and no surface liquid to transfer heat from pan to egg (like a fat) so the part of the egg that hits the pan first is denaturing super fast into a puck while the rest of the egg cooks slower. First, ditch the non-stick or be ready to spend a LOT more, second, cook your eggs with a spot of fat.
Yes, I’ve had that happen multiple times. This happens when you’re technically not frying your eggs because of not enough fat. Sure, it won’t stick even without, but it will also come out like this.
Seems like the fat keeps the egg from burning and will also influence the underside. What you got there is a disk of nearly-burned protein.
I wish you luck with your issue! I’m just here to say that, I bought dirt cheap Walmart cast iron pans which I abuse, and they are so much better than non stick pans in my experience.
You've got some good suggestions here but also, consider ditching nonstick stuff for something safer like cast iron or stainless steel: There's all sorts of nasty shit used in the creation of nonstick surfaces and they can come off if the coating is ever damaged (which can be very easy to do).
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