I love using fermented black beans, but if I want to make something quickly and add a lot of flavour, black bean sauce is convenient to use. While you can buy ready-made black bean sauce in Asian supermarkets, or even "regular" supermarkets nowadays, homemade black bean sauce just tastes better and doesn't have extra junk like preservatives or artificial colour.
Ingredients
- 1 cup fermented black beans
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 0.25 onion, diced
- 2 chilis, sliced
- 0.5 cup cooking oil
- 0.25 cup shaoxing wine
- 0.25 cup soy sauce
- 5 tsp sugar
Method
- Rinse, then soak black beans for 15 minutes.
- Drain black beans and chop them coarsely.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium heat.
- Add onions, chili, garlic, ginger.
- Heat for a few minutes until everything becomes fragrant. Turn the heat down if you notice the garlic or ginger start to burn.
- Add black beans and continue to simmer everything for about 10 minutes.
- Add shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar.
- Simmer for another 5 minutes until everything is "melted" together.
Transfer the sauce to a jar with an airtight lid, which will last in the fridge for a month. Now you have a sauce ready to use any time for stir fry, steaming fish, noodles or pretty much anything else. It's even just good on its own with rice! Shhhh...don't tell my mom I eat like that.
