Oyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from sugar, salt and water thickened with cornstarch, flavoured with a little oyster essence or extract and some versions may be darkened with caramel, though high quality oyster sauce is naturally dark. It is commonly used in Cantonese, Vietnamese and Khmer cuisine.

Development

The development of oyster sauce is often credited to Lee Kam Sheung, from Nam Shui Village, Guangdong. Lee made his living running a small eatery that sold cooked oysters. One day, he was cooking oysters as usual, but lost track of time until he smelt a strong aroma. Lifting the lid of the pot, he noticed that the normally clear oyster soup had turned into a thick, brownish sauce. He started to sell this new invention which turned out to be very popular. So in 1888, he formed Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce House to mass produce oyster sauce. flavoured with oyster essence or extract and darkened with caramel.

Oyster sauce adds a savory flavor to many dishes, making it an ideal choice for flavoring meat and vegetables. The sauce is a staple for much Chinese family-style cooking. It is commonly used in noodle stir-fries, such as chow mein. It is also found in popular Chinese-American dishes such as beef with stir-fried vegetables. Oyster sauce can also be used as a topping for some dishes. ''(For examples see Kai-lan, Buddha's delight, Hainanese chicken rice, Cashew chicken, Lo mein, Cha siu baau, Yum cha, Har gow, Kai yat sai, Wonton noodles, and Daikon cake. For further information see Thai cuisine, Hmong cuisine, cuisine of Cambodia, Cantonese cuisine, Cuisine of Hong Kong, and American Chinese cuisine)

Vegetarian oyster sauce

Vegetarian oyster sauce prepared from mushrooms, often oyster mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, is also popular and generally lower in price. It may contain more taste enhancers if less mushroom extract is used to reduce costs.

Non MSG

Most of the oyster sauces available on the market contain added monosodium glutamate (MSG). Though in recent years MSG-free varieties can also be found. The taste of MSG and non-MSG variants is similar as oyster sauce naturally contains large amounts of glutamate.

Health

In 2001 the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency found in tests of various oyster sauces and soy sauces that some 22% of samples contained a chemical called 3-MCPD (3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol) at levels considerably higher than those deemed safe by the European Union. About two-thirds of these samples also contained a second chemical called 1,3-DCP (1,3-dichloropropane-2-ol) which experts advise should not be present at any levels in food. Both chemicals have the potential to cause cancer and the Agency recommended that the affected products be withdrawn from shelves and avoided.

The joint Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) said it had taken emergency action to amend its food standards code to set a limit for 3-MCPD in soy sauce of 0.02 milligrams per kilogram, in line with European Commission standards which come into force in the EU in April 2002.

Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) singled out brands and products imported from Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Brands named in the British warning include Golden Mountain, King Imperial, Pearl River Bridge, Jammy Chai, Lee Kum Kee, Golden Mark, Kimlan, Golden Swan, Sinsin, Tung Chun and Wanjasham soy sauce.

In July 2001, the FSA issued another statement clearing Lee Kum Kee's name after the company produced laboratory certificates from accredited, reputable laboratories. These certificates show that Lee Kum Kee products now comply with the proposed EU limit for 3-MCPD.

European variety

In 19th century French and English cooking, "oyster sauce" referred to a variant of sauce blanche flavored with oysters, using a base of milk and melted butter rather than purely reducing the oysters by cooking. The white sauce version was moistened with cream whereas in, brown oyster sauce, the cream was replaced with gravy. Common recipes using the sauce included "Steak and oyster sauce", documented as early as 1806, and "Cod and oyster sauce".

See also

Meat glaze

References

External links

How To Make Homemade Oyster Sauce

BBC Food Beef in oyster sauce recipes

Category:Sauces Category:Chinese condiments Category:Philippine cuisine

Ken Hom OBE (born May 3, 1949 in Tucson, Arizona, United States) with ancestry from Taishan, Guangdong is a notable Chinese American chef, author and British television-show presenter. In 2009 he was awarded by HM The Queen with an honorary OBE for ‘services to culinary arts’. The OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) recognizes his achievements and the impressive social and historical impact he has made on the way the UK has ‘adopted’ Chinese cuisine, which has now become one of the UK's favourites.

Early life

Hom was born in Tucson, Arizona, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, by his widowed mother, after his father died when Hom was eight months old. He first learned cooking at the age of eleven when he worked in his uncle's Chinese restaurant. He went out to California to study History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley.

During this time he taught Italian cooking lessons at weekends to supplement his college fees. This led him on to teach Chinese cookery classes. In 1977 he was invited to join San Francisco's new California Culinary Academy as an instructor.

TV career

In 1982, the BBC were looking for a Chinese presenter and chef to do a series on Chinese cookery following the success of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cookery series. Jaffrey had met Hom in New York and suggested BBC producers audition him.

The BBC then commissioned him to star in a new TV series on Chinese cooking named Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery. The series was a success. The companion book became one of the best-selling cookbooks ever published by BBC Books, selling more than 1.2 million copies. As of 2008, the book remains in print.

Business interests

Since 1986 Hom has had a base in Paris. In 1997 he settled permanently in south west France in a restored 13th century tower in Lot. Hom has also spent more time in his adopted homeland of Thailand since 2003.

Hom is an author of more than 20 cookbooks. Alongside his best known work on Chinese cuisine, his works also include topics on Cambodian, Malaysian, Thai, Singaporean, and Vietnamese cooking. He has worked as a consultant for hotels and restaurants and cooked personally for presidents, celebrities and royalty.

Hom also has his own range of cooking sauces, noodles and rice. These are available only in the UK.

Despite semi-retirement, he travels extensively worldwide and divides his time between France and Bangkok. In 2005, Hom was a contestant on a special Chef's edition of the BBC's The Weakest Link. He continues to make occasional radio and television appearances worldwide.

On 12 September 2007, Hom received an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, England in recognition of his "outstanding success within the international food world".

Hom was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and has been receiving Radiation therapy in Japan.

Television

Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery (1984)

Hot Chefs (1992)

Ken Hom’s Hot Wok (1996)

Ken Hom’s Travels with a Wok (1998)

Foolproof Chinese Cookery (2000)

Take on the Takeaway (2007)

Noodle Road (KBS) (2008)

References

External links

KenHom.com Try this link for Ken Homs website with a few delicious recipes. Also you can see an interview with Ken Hom.

Ken Hom's Library at Oxford Brookes University contains all the books that he used throughout his career, with an emphasis on Asian cookery, including Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese, as well as memorabilia to do with his television shows and consulting work, including menus, invitations, photographs and artifacts. There

Category:1949 births Category:American chefs Category:Living people Category:American people of Chinese descent Category:People from Tucson, Arizona Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Taishanese people