Have you ever gone all the way to the supermarket just to buy a particular bottle of sauce? Braved through traffic just to get a specific item, only to end up using it only twice in your life! Yes, sometimes you need to go the extra mile if you want to cook your dish perfectly. But then again, sometimes it’s also possible to make do with what you’ve already got in your kitchen without making life so difficult for yourself. Here are some easy substitutes that you can get away with.
Grilled salmon with a bit of teriyaki sauce tastes amazing. — Filepic 1 Teriyaki sauce Used in Japanese cuisine, this particular thick and sweetish sauce is often used to cook chicken or fish. It has a bold, tangy flavour that perks up your meat and vegetable dishes, and the paradox is, a bottle of store-bought teriyaki sauce never tastes the same as the sauce in Japanese restaurants anyway! You probably have better luck making your own: mix a couple tablespoons of good quality soy sauce with honey and/or brown sugar.
Some add a bit of garlic and ginger powder for extra kick. Use this as a glaze over fish and grill – you’ll be amazed how good it tastes! Mix your own black vinegar. — Filepic 2 Black vinegar Ran out of black vinegar for your jiaozi (Chinese dumplings)? No big deal, mix some white vinegar - which is more commonly found in our kitchens than black vinegar - with some soy sauce.
Voila! You can also enjoy other foods with home-made black vinegar such as grilled fish, steamed ch.