Making substitutions in recipes

There is a recipe I wanted to make that I sampled at work when I went to SODEXO's cooking demonstration. It calls for oyster sauce. I tried Whole Fooods and they were out. So I was going to The Bite Market down the street from where I work (this is where I get my Stash Meyers Lemon tea bags) and I asked the woman who manges the place if they had oyster sauce. She said they didn't carry it and suggested that I do a Google search to see what other item I could substitute for it. I just did that and found out that soy sauce is basicly the same thing. In my seach I found the following table that was helpful:

Here are some food substitution suggestions for ingredients commonly used in Chinese cooking.

Ingredient	Substitute
Agar-agar (An Asian gelatin substitute that doesn't require refrigeration)	Gelatin
Bamboo Shoots	White cabbage
Bok choy	celery or Swiss chard
Chili Sauce	1 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp. vinegar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, dash of ground cloves and allspice**
Chinese five-spice powder	Equal amounts cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fennel, and Szechuan Peppercorn. If Szechuan peppercorns aren't available, use freshly ground black peppercorns
Cilantro or Coriander (Chinese parsley)	Parsley (for decoration only, not taste) Can add dash lemon juice
Coconut Milk	whole milk in equal amounts, if possible with coconut extract. For coconut cream, substitute half and half or whipping cream (with coconut extract if possible).
Galangal (used in Thai Cooking)	Fresh ginger
Fresh Ginger	Candied ginger
Garlic Cloves	1/8 tsp. garlic powder
Hoisin Sauce	Equal amounts ketchup and molasses Also, sweet bean sauce
Hot Red Chili	Crushed red pepper
Lemon Grass (Used in Thai Cooking)	Zest of a lemon
Lotus Root flour	Cornstarch (Cornflour)
Mushrooms ( Straw, Clouds Ear)	Fresh mushrooms (the taste will be different)
Oyster Sauce	Soy sauce
Rice Wine Vinegar (also called Rice Vinegar)	Dry sherry, white wine vinegar, malt vinegar
Sesame Oil	1 Tbs. Sesame seeds fried in 1/2 cup vegetable oil
Soy Sauce	Japanese tamari or Worchester sauce.
Water Chestnut	Jicama (commonly found in the Southern United States)

**From the Kansas State University site - found at http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa042399.htm

While on that site I found some other interesting recipes.

I made a peanut dresing the other night, but here is one much different:

Peanut sauce is a great way to add flavor to appetizers, salads, noodles, fried tofu, and satays. This Chinese influenced recipe for peanut sauce doesn't have the sharp taste of Thai peanut sauce recipes made with curry paste, but is just as flavorful.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

•1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
•1/2 cup peanut butter
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, chopped
•2 mint leaves, chopped
•1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar
•2 tablespoons soy sauce
•3/4 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste, or 1/ 2 - 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste
Preparation:

Warm the chicken broth in a small saucepan and keep warm on low heat.
Process the peanut butter, garlic cloves, cilantro and mint leaves and sugar in a blender or food processor. Slowly add the warmed chicken broth and process again.
Remove from the blender and stir in the soy sauce, and the chili powder to taste.
Serve peanut sauce with satay and salads, or as an appetizer dip.
Peanut Sauce Recipe Copyright 2003 by Rhonda Parkinson. All rights reserved.

And yet another:

Peanut Sauce - an Easy Dipping Sauce Recipe

Using only five ingredients, this quick and easy peanut sauce recipe is a great choice for nights when you don't have time to chop fresh herbs or crush peanuts.

Ingredients:

•5 tablespoons peanut butter
•3 tablespoons warm water
•2 1/2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar
•1 1/2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
•3 teaspoons white granulated sugar

Preparation:

Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until ready to use. Note:For best results, refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to blend. Before serving, thin the sauce with a bit more warm water if needed. Use the peanut sauce within 3 - 4 days.

And in case your interested here is a vegan substitution for oyster sauce:

Vegan Substitute: Another option is to prepare a vegetarian substitute for oyster sauce. This will be more useful for vegans. All you have to do is to dissolve one mushroom broth cube in half a cup of boiling water. Add two tablespoons of brown bean sauce and one tablespoon of unprocessed sugar to the solution. Allow it to boil for sometime and then add cornstarch mixed with water (one teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in one teaspoon of cold water). Stir the boiling solution, till it thickens. Your oyster sauce substitute is ready.

And if you want to delve even further into oyster sauce, you can make your own. I think I'll skip this one.

Homemade Oyster Sauce: You can easily prepare oyster sauce at home, with the following ingredients. Drain oysters from half a pound of shucked oysters (with liquid) and keep aside the liquid. Mince the drained oysters and add one tablespoon of water and the reserved liquid to it. Take a saucepan and boil the mixture. Once it is boiled, simmer for around ten minutes. Then, remove the saucepan from heat, add salt and let it cool. Sieve the mixture and add two tablespoons of light soy sauce for every half cup of the mixture. The next step is to add half tablespoon of dark soy sauce. Now, boil the solution and simmer for about ten minutes. Your homemade oyster sauce is ready and can be used as substitute for regular one.

This information comes from - http://www.buzzle.com/articles/oyster-sauce-substitute.html