Of all the foods I mourn since all my diet restrictions set in, take-out Chinese food is probably at the top of my list. Yup, even before pizza. It feels so indulgent to me to eat straight out of a Chinese take-out box, while on the couch, in my jammies. I really miss that.
And Chinese is one of those foods that is just not allergen-friendly by its very nature. So it’s not even like I can recreate something at home and just leave out the allergens. So up until now, I have filled that desire for Asian food and flavors with food from China’s neighbors to the south–places like Thailand and Cambodia and Vietnam. But I found this recipe in my file and remembered how very delicious it was the first time I made it. I really wanted it again. So I challenged myself to make a black bean stir fry…without the black bean sauce.
You may not be familiar with black bean sauce as an ingredient in your kitchen, but if you’ve ordered Chinese food with a “brown sauce”, you will recognize the flavor. Black bean sauce is made by fermenting and salting soybeans. The resulting flavor is complex, both salty and sweet at the same time, and extremely delicious. But being made from soybeans, it is an allergen no-no for anyone sensitive to soy. Not to mention most commercial black bean sauces also have gluten in them.
So my first task was to find a substitute for the black bean sauce. A quick search for “allergen free black bean sauce” confirmed that I was in virgin territory. Any substitution here was going to have to be of my own invention. Here is what I came up with:
Allergen free “Black Bean” Garlic Sauce
Source: original
Course: Condiments
Serves:
Ingredients
- 1 tsp grapeseed oil
- 1⁄4 tsp sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1⁄2 cup Cybele’s soy-free sauce
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp gluten free flour mix
- 1 tsp potato starch
Directions
- Heat the oils in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic cloves and saute until fragrant. Add Cybele’s sauce and honey and bring to a simmer. Slowly whisk in the gluten-free flour mixture. Keep whisking until dissolved. Slowly whisk in the potato starch and keep whisking until dissolved. Continue whisking the sauce until thickened. Remove from heat.
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This came out better than even I had hoped. I couldn’t do a side-by-side taste test with the commercial sauce, but no one in my family found it lacking. Just look at The Peanut, who can’t resist grabbing for more
Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry with(out) Black Bean Garlic Sauce
adapted to be allergy-friendly
Source: Fine Cooking magazine
Course: Main (Beef)
Serves:
Ingredients
- 8 oz skirt or flank steak sliced across the grain 1/4 inch thick
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 6 dried shiitake mushrooms soaked in 1 cup boiling water for 20 minutes
- 1⁄4 cup black bean garlic sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon chile sauce
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 4 teaspoons fresh ginger minced
- 2 pounds broccoli stems peeled and thinly sliced
- 1⁄2 cup toasted cashews coarsely chopped
Directions
- Combine the steak, soy-free sauce, and garlic in a small bowl and set aside.
- Drain the mushrooms, reserving 2/3 cup of the soaking liquid. Discard the stems and thinly slice the caps. In a small bowl, combine the reserved mushroom soaking liquid and the black bean sauce, wine, potato starch and chile sauce. Stir to dissolve the potato starch and set aside.
- Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, 15 seconds. Add the broccoli and 1/4 cup water, cover and steam until the broccoli is just tender, 3-5 minutes. Stir in the black bean sauce mixture and the mushrooms and cook until the sauce is thick and bubbly, about 1 minute. Add the cashews and toss to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl.
- Put the skillet over high heat. Add the remaining 1 tbs oil and add the beef and its marinade. Stir-fry until the meat is just browned, 45-50 seconds. Remove from the heat. Return the remaining broccoli to the skillet and toss to combine with the beef.
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