Homemade delicious flatfish shacha sauce, the spice queen shows you how to make it
At noon on a Sunday, the "Cooking . Southeast Asia" course offered by the Kaohsiung China Youth Corps was about to begin. In the distance, someone was pulling a cart and walking quickly toward the cooking classroom. As they brushed past, I stole a glance at what was in the cart. I could vaguely make out bags of plump onions, packets of bright red dried chilies, and jars of yellowish-brown powder whose names I could not tell. Before I had time to think about what these ingredients were for, the person pulling the cart called out energetically, "Hurry, hurry, hurry! Today we're making shacha sauce! We need to prepare a lot of ingredients!" This person was Chen Ailing, from Malaysia, known as the "Spice Queen."
"Many people think that 'health' means less oil, less salt, and no flavor, but that's not true. 'Spices' are healthy seasonings that can layer upon layer build up umami and aroma, stimulating people's appetite." Chen Ailing did not truly begin to understand spices until she came to Taiwan more than ten years ago. "Although Southeast Asia produces and uses spices, perhaps because it is so commonplace, people do not pay special attention to them, or even overlook them."
Chen Ailing, who originally knew almost nothing about "spices," unexpectedly awakened the spice spirit buried deep in her heart because she taught a Southeast Asian culture course at Kaohsiung First Community University. "At that time, talking only about culture always felt a bit rigid. In a flash of inspiration, I realized that 'food' is the best medium for transmitting culture, and also the closest to the students." With that, Chen Ailing set foot on the path of studying spices.
Missing Home, So She Studies Spices
"Actually, I pour my longing for home into spices!" I had thought Chen Ailing would sink into homesickness, but unexpectedly, she said excitedly, "After the New Year, I'm going to fly to Laos for fieldwork, to see what spices Laos has locally and how spices are used in cooking there!" Over these eight years, Chen Ailing has flown to Southeast Asia every two years to study and observe the local philosophy of spices.
Over these twenty years, because of "spices," Chen Ailing has come closer to and come to know her homeland, and because of "spices," she has made friends on the land of Taiwan and is no longer lonely.
[How to Stir-Fry Shacha Sauce with Spices]
1. First, deep-fry Penghu flatfish and dried shrimp skin until crisp and grind them up. The ratio of flatfish to shrimp skin is about 3:4.
2. Pour peanut oil into a pot, stir-fry minced onion until the moisture has completely evaporated (when the bubbles in the oil become smaller, it means the moisture is almost fully evaporated.)
3. Then add minced red shallot to the oil pot and stir-fry until fragrant
4. Add chili paste, lemongrass paste, and galangal paste in order and stir-fry
5. Then add five-spice powder, coconut powder, peanut butter, and sesame paste and stir-fryTip: You must use peanut oil. Peanut oil is the soul and essence of shacha sauce
(This article was sponsored by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel funding, but it does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)