Sometimes, it is just that easy.

Hey there, food fans! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. For the record, I'll be updating every Sunday from now on, hopefully more. It's been a busy time since last we met.

When life gets busy, I tend to eat out of the fridge a lot. I usually devote a night early in the week to cooking a whole mess of food, or at least preparing a set of ingredients (beans, meat, some kind of cooked veggie, sour patch kids, etc.) and combining/quick cooking them as the week goes on. This week was no exception. When I looked into the fridge last night, though, I was... unsatisfied. I was casual of my chicken. Bored of my beans. Silent about my sour patch kids. And while I'm always happy with an over easy egg, nothing I'd prepared really seemed to pique my craving. It was too late to defrost something, and too cold (and I was too lazy) to go up to the store. No, I didn't need different meats or veggies, but a different flavor. A quick fix, but a good fix. Something that improved EVERYTHING... except the sour patch kids.

It was a job for ginger scallion sauce.

A sauce so tasty, it could bring taste buds back from the dead (not really). So delicious, it could stop disasters (please don't believe that). A GIFT FROM THE VAULTS OF XERXES (well, I suppose it's possible... no).

In all seriousness, ginger scallion sauce is a simple concoction that, depending on your knife skill, takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few plus a few minutes to make, requires no heat or "cooking", and uses ingredients that you already have around (or should have around). The most exotic ingredient it uses is sherry vinegar (rice wine vinegar works in a pinch, but the sherry vin makes a big difference), and I found that at my local Giant. So yeah, not hard and quick to make.

Oh, and by no means did I make up this recipe. I first found it in the cookbook Momofuku from Chef David Chang, and he makes no secret that he *ahem* adapted the recipe from a Chinatown noodle shop, which they might have gotten from another, and so on and so on.

With all that said, know that GS sauce really does improve most anything savory you put it on- chicken, beef, pork, light fish, fatty fish, any other meats, tofu, noodles, rice, eggs, veggies-cooked or raw... The possibilities are endless. Keep this around, and you'll always have some tasty at the ready.  Hey, and it's a fantastic way to work on your knife skills.

Here's what you need for our HEALTHY and TECHNIQUE-based recipe:

2 bunches scallions
1/2 c ginger (I always just use a good sized knob of ginger. refer to the pictures for what to look for, and use that as your minimum amount. Don't stress if it's a little over or under, its easy to modify this recipe).
1/4 c neutral oil (grapeseed is best here, but canola works fine too. Don't use olive oil here, it's flavor will mess with the sauce's overall flavor and feel).
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
3/4 tsp sherry vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar OR 1 smallish spoonful of hoisin sauce

Start out by slicing your scallions. the thinner the better. Remember- knife skills. Take your time, and please keep your digits out of the way of the blade. After they're all sliced, put them in a bowl

Next, peel your ginger. Now I know you could do this with a knife, or a vegetable peeler. I want you to peel it with a spoon. Why? Because you're a badass, that's why. Badasses like you don't need knives to peel ginger, they just need a spoon. Just scrape the edge of the spoon along the side of the ginger, and the skin will scrape right off. There you go. Easy work, and less waste than if you used a peeler or knife. You badass, you.

Now, taking your ginger, first cut off any errant bumps or branches it may have. You want something close to a cylinder to work with (depending on how branch-y your ginger is, you may have lots of little cylinders to work with). once you have your mutant cylinder, slice it lengthwise once. Then you set that cut side down on the cutting board. See how now it doesn't wobble and put your knuckles into harm's way? Good. Slice it lengthwise into nice thin slices. When you get to about the last 1/4 of the ginger, flip your new cut side down onto the board and slice it into matchstick-width pieces (or maybe a little wider. If they're REALLY wide, add them to the next step).

Now layer your wide thin slices on top of one another (say 5-6 pieces layered) and slice them lengthwise again. You'll have these nice little matchsticks. Repeat with your remaining thin wide pieces until all are roughly the same matchstick size. This, for future reference, is called a julienne, meaning thin long pieces. You've probably seen julienne carrots in some salads, and julienne potatoes, aka shoestring potatoes. (PS- using a large grater to create strips of something is not making a julienne. It's just grated whatever). In any case, whenever cutting something is described as matchstick, it's a julienne.

Now take your matchsticks, line them up, and cut them into tiny pieces. If you make them really fine, they are a brunoise. So now you know two really fancy sounding terms to impress your friends. Anyways, take your cut brunoise and put it into the bowl with your scallions.

Guess what? You're practically done.

Add your soy sauce, oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar/hoisin. mix. Let sit for 1 minute or so. put on most anything. eat. Smile. Laugh at your friends again for not knowing what a julienne means. Enjoy. Yes, it looks more like a salsa than a smooth sauce. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Don't let the length of this recipe fool you. Most of this is just talking about techniques for cutting stuff. Once you get that down, making this will take no time at all. This keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, covered.

Until next time, Keep your friends close and your sauces closer.

PS- I tried to include as many pictures as I could to illustrate some of the cutting processes. Note that my thumb may get close to my fingers, but it never crosses over into the danger zone. I'm also trying to keep my knife in place using just my left hand while taking pictures with my right, and still trying to show proper form. For safety's sake, keep your thumb farther away from the blade than I show in the pictures. In the meantime, I'll invest in a tripod.