The one factor higher than an excellent recipe? When one thing’s really easy that you simply don’t even want one. Welcome to It’s That Easy, a column the place we discuss you thru the dishes and drinks you may make together with your eyes closed.
The great thing about an excellent marinade is that it requires little or no of you. It should forgive you for leaving it alone within the fridge—mingling with some veggies or tofu or meat that it solely simply met and now has to actually change into one with. And regardless of all of that neglect, it would nonetheless come by and reward you with the sorts of wealthy, umami flavors that may solely be gained with time. I’m in a season of life the place that is the cooking strategy I want: flavorful and senseless.
If this sounds such as you too, you’ll need to know this: I stumbled throughout a superb marinade recipe in Lara Lee’s latest cookbook, A Splash of Soy. Fish sauce and soy sauce are the facility gamers, permeating no matter you’re marinating with their unabashed funky, salty notes. And an excellent pinch of sugar helps the whole lot caramelize in a pan or the oven. It “sings from the Thai music sheet of taste profiles,” says Lee. Like me, she grew up in Australia, the place we allegedly take pleasure in extra Thai eating places per capita than another nation outdoors of Thailand.
Lee’s marinade is a part of her seua rong hai recipe, which interprets to “crying tiger” in English. It’s marinated and grilled beef served with a smoky, piquant dipping sauce. The stability of flavors within the marinade “amplify the enjoyment of an excellent, juicy steak,” says Lee. However fortunately for pescetarians like me, it additionally works with any protein or meaty vegetable—from mushrooms and eggplant cubes to shrimp and tofu hunks.
Right here’s find out how to make the marinade:
Combine three components soy sauce, three components fish sauce, and one half coconut or brown sugar in a bowl. (For reference, that would shake out to 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. fish sauce, 1 tsp. sugar—and might scale up infinitely from there.) Switch your chopped veggie or protein of selection right into a sealable container and canopy it within the marinade. Depart the combination to take a seat for at the least quarter-hour—although I believe refrigerating in a single day is definitely worth the wait. When you’re able to prepare dinner, warmth a big, oiled frying pan and sear till caramelized on all sides.
I like consuming marinated shiitakes with fluffy white rice, a boiled egg, and a crumble of roasted seaweed. As a substitute of sautéing marinated tofu, I coat the cubes in oil and cornstarch and toss them into my air fryer till they’re audibly crunchy. And as soon as I’m lastly out of my flop period, I’ve goals of meals processing marinated shrimp into patties, with egg and panko, and pan frying them for Thai-style burgers. At any time when I’m prepared, my sweet-salty marinade can be there—asking nothing, giving the whole lot.
Recipe tailored from A Splash of Soy: On a regular basis Meals from Asia. Copyright © 2023 Lara Lee. Images © 2023 Louise Hagger. Tailored with permission of Bloomsbury.
