 Restaurants keep `shrimp sauce' secretFood marketing experts say ketchup has been superseded by salsa as the country's most popular condiment, but that doesn't mean it's the only dip around. Judging by Mail Tribune reader queries this month, I'd say the ubiquitous pink sauce found in Chinese restaurants, quirky diners and, recently, Burger King outlets, may be nearly as popular. Question No. 1: My daughter has been bugging me to ask you for a sauce that a lot of kids like (on everything) found in restaurants. At Young's Corner Cafe in Medford, they call it "fry sauce" and at Colony Far East restaurant, it's "shrimp sauce." Do you know of a recipe we could use to make some for home? -- Jo Ann L., Medford
Question No. 2: Do you by any chance have a recipe for the "pink," "shrimp," Chinese sauce/dip that the local restaurants serve? I love that stuff with French fries and on tacos and as a dip for chicken and fish. It's very expensive to buy a bottle in restaurants and when you live out of town and on a limited budget, it doesn't take long to use it up. If you could find and print that recipe, I know a dozen people that would wish you everything you wanted for Christmas to come to you. -- Kathe S., Rogue River
You might not believe it, Jo Ann and Kathe, but the forumla for that pink sauce, whatever it's called, seems to be quite a secret. Managers of several area restaurants were either unavailable or declined to share their sauce recipes with the Mail Tribune. Dusty Campbell, a chef at Young's Corner Cafe in Medford, provided a basic list of ingredients for the fry sauce, listed below. But it's up to readers to tinker with the flavorings to achieve the best balance. That's the best I can do, unless there's a restaurant manager who's willing to share, after all. Why does simmering water froth when you add salt to it? -- Bill K., Grants Pass I knew that I couldn't get away with simple recipe requests forever. Fortunately, I'm a better researcher than I am a food scientist. According to Robert L. Wolke, a retired chemistry professor who writes for the Washington Post, salt makes boiling water froth because it offers more opportunity for creation of bubbles. "Adding salt (or almost any other solid) gives budding bubbles many new places (techspeak: nucleation sites) upon which to grow.'' Wolke is a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, so I'll take his word for it. Now that the sun is finally out, I have a lawn full of dandelions. My grandmother used to make a salad of dandelion greens, and I wonder if it's OK to use the weeds in my yard. What do you think? -- Amanda C., Medford From one lawn slave to another, I say eat the darn things, Amanda! There's some satisfaction to be drawn from exacting revenge on those weeds by wilting them in a late-spring salad. Dandelion greens have, of course, been used in salads for ages. They take their name from the French "dent de lion," meaning lion's tooth, a reference to the leaves' jagged edges, according to "The Food Lover's Companion" by Sharon Herbst. The best candidates for salads are the tender young leaves plucked before the plant flowers. You can use the dandelions from your yard just as long as you haven't use pesticides, weed-killers or other chemicals on them, of course. If you're buying dandelions in the store, be sure to choose bright green, crisp leaves. Dandelions might be a plague in your yard, but in your diet they're a prime source of Vitamin A, iron and calcium.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl; whisk well. Because restaurants guard their "secret sauce" recipes, home cooks will have to experiment with the proportions on seasonings. Recipe from Dusty Campbell, chef at Young's Corner Cafe restaurant in Medford. Send cooking questions to JoNel Aleccia, The Mail Tribune, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501. Call 776-4465, or send e-mail reporter@mailtribune.com |
