Are you trying to muscle in on the 4 Ingredients ladies? :-)
My go to ingredients are toasted sesame oil* and Shaoxing rice wine. Both these ingredients have made guests ask, "How did you make it taste so Asian?":
- be careful with this oil! It's a (strong) flavouring agent, not a medium to cook in! ie. only about a few teaspoons (maximum) should be added in towards the end of say, your stir-fry (could be a casserole, soup etc). Think of it as the dirt-poor man's truffle oil.
- I can't remember my favourite brand of wine but it's the brown/amber bottle with the red (vermillion) paper label. Again, towards the end of the cooking process, a few generous splashes, then let the alcohol evaporate. I haven't eaten shark's fin soup for years (for ethical reasons), but if you have, Shaoxing is that 'undefinable' taste/scent that lifts it up.
And then, of course, there's pork lard** and butter :-) - I take the former because it's so damned tasty (plus I like to infuse my blood with it for anti-religious reasons)
- butter just goes well with anything non-Oriental.
* toasted sesame seeds are quite tasty to sprinkle on top of food too. But beware, some of them are from China. That's why I prefer to buy Australian-grown and toast them myself, easy peasy.
** I've heard goose fat is yummy too, but I've only ever seen it one place - Victor Churchill's Butcher in Woollahra (Sydney). I'm pretty sure the providores around would stock it too.
