[BOOK] Flavor Profile #8: Huangjiang soy bean paste

Huangjiang soy bean paste, a classic fermented soy bean product from northern China (黄酱)

Introduction

In our last ingredient of the “fermented soy bean” chapter, we want to introduce one of the classic “yellow bean paste” from north China, Huangjiang (黄酱), literally meaning “yellow sauce”.

In the confusing wall of bean paste at Asian supermarkets, I’ve seen all sorts of “soy bean” products lumping together, be it Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Thai. To avoid confusion, we’d like to keep calling it by its Mandarin/Pinyin name, i.e. “huangjiang/黄酱” soy bean paste. 

*Do note that sometimes there's something called "doubanjiang/豆瓣酱" that's made with soy bean and color's brown. This is basically the same thing with a different name.
Not to confuse that with the Sichuan chili broadbean paste, which is also called "douban/豆瓣" or "doubanjiang/豆瓣酱" but made with broadbean.
In a word, look at the ingredient list when confused about "豆瓣酱" if you happened to be able to read some Chinese.

There’re two major types of salty fermented soy bean paste in north China, one is the “Huangjiang” soy bean paste that we’ll be discussing here, the other one is “Ganhuangjiang” (干黄酱), meaning “dry yellow sauce”, which is the main ingredient in Beijing style Zha Jiang noodles (see picture shown below).

The main difference between the two lies in how it’s made. “Huangjiang” soy bean paste is made with fermented whole cooked soy beans with salt, giving that “saucy” final consistency. While “Ganhuangjiang” dry soy bean paste is made by grinding cooked soy beans into a paste, then it's pressed and went into the two-stage fermentation, which has a firm and quite dry final appearance.

Huangjiang soy bean paste follows the same basic fermentation process as other soy bean products, which is soak→cook→first stage incubation (with Aspergillus oryzae)→second stage long term fermentation. Given the similarity in production method, Huangjiang is quite similar to Japanese miso and Cantonese minsi/mianchi, which are all fermented soy bean sauce. Sometimes we’d use them interchangeably if we’re out of one of the ingredients. Although good huangjiang has a very deep savory flavor of ester, a.k.a. “jiangxiang (酱香)”, which is the essence of certain norther style stews.

Huangjiang is widely used in northern China and people sometimes would use it directly in place of soy sauce. In a lovely book talking about rural cooking around Beijing area (“闾巷话蔬食”), the author wrote down many simple dishes that’re just seasoned with “huangjiang + aromatics”, e.g. a vegetarian dumpling filling of wood ear mushroom, scramble egg, purged napa cabbage, huangjiang, welsh onion, ginger. Because huangjiang is often very salty, sometimes you don’t even need salt as shown in this dumpling filling.

Recipe #1 Qingdao style pork ribs soup with huangjiang soy bean paste, serve with vegetable and white rice 青岛排骨米饭

Qingdao is this beautiful city by the ocean on the rugged coastline of south Shandong province and this soup is one of the quintessential Qingdao dishes.

In essence it’s a pork rib soup served with vegetables/tofu and rice. Pork rib soup eateries dotted the city of Qingdao, you go in, order a set of ribs, the kitchen would then take some soup, a couple pieces of ribs, and your side ingredient of choice, quickly cook it up into one pot/bowl, then bring it out to you together with a bowl of rice. It’s a satisfying simple meal that comes at a very decent price.

The most famous chain in Qingdao is 万和春 (Wanhechun), which was founded in 1941 and believed to be one of the earliest establishments that sells this pork rib meal. Traditionally, napa cabbage was the only side ingredient added to the soup when serving. Over the years, more add-ins are available to choose from, such as potato, tofu, kelp, pickled napa, and tomato.

Pork rib and rice is something that Qingdaoers would both enjoy at eateries and at home. One major difference between the two cooking methods is seasoning and spices. Restaurants/eateries tend to use dozens of spices while home cooks keep things simple and only add in the basic ones. Another thing professional kitchens do is putting something heavy (like a piece of metal or rock) over the ribs when cooking in order to press the ribs and into a firmer texture.

In this recipe, I want to show you a simple home style version that you can easily whip up as a soothing and well-balanced weeknight meal.

Ingredients:

• Pork ribs (排骨), 500g
• Optional add-ins: Napa cabbage, tofu, kelp, pickled mustard greens, potato, about 100g per serving (see notes)
• Water, 1.5L for braising

For aromatics and spices:

• Star anise (八角), 1 piece
• Cinnamon stick (桂皮), 1/4 stick
• Fennel seeds (小茴香), 1/2 tsp
• Huajiao, Sichuan peppercorn (花椒), 1/4 tsp
• Clove (丁香), 2 pieces
• Ginger (姜), 1 inch knob, peeled
• Scallion, (葱), 1 sprig

For the seasoning:

• Huangjiang soy bean paste, (黄酱), 2 tbsp
• Soy sauce, (生抽), 1 tbsp
• Liaojiu, aka, Shaoxing wine (料酒), 1 tbsp
• Salt and MSG, 1/8 tsp each or to taste

Process:

Put the ribs in cool water and bring up to a boil, let it blanch for 2 minutes, skim off the foam. Then take out the ribs, give it a rinse, set aside.

To your stew pot, add in the ribs and 1.5L water, bring it to a boil.

Put the spices in a tea strainer or spice bag if you want to keep things neat, gently wrap the scallion into a loose knot, peel the ginger, then put all the spices and aromatics in with the ribs.

Once it comes up to a boil, add in the huangjiang soy bean sauce, soy sauce, and liaojiu, aka Shaoxing wine. Gently stir in the huangjiang and make sure it’s dissolved into the liquid instead of sitting at the bottom.

Cover, heat on low, keep it at a gentle simmer for at least 1 hour.

1 hour later, the ribs should soft enough but holds its shape, now take out the spice bag and the aromatics. And this is ready to take out the serving portion and the rest can be kept in the fridge.

To serve (1 serving):
Grab about 1/3 of the ribs into a smaller pot or sauce pan, scoop about a cup of that braising liquid, toss in the add-in of your choice. Bring it to a boil, cover and cook the ribs together with added vegetables or tofu on medium heat, personally I like to cook them at least for 5 minutes so that it can absorb more flavor.

After that time, give it a taste, you’d likely need to add in a touch more salt after adding in some vegetable. I’d usually add 1/8 tsp each salt and MSG here to bring everything together.

Serve with a bowl of white rice. Enjoy!

Note:

Serving size: 500g pork rib can be 3-4 servings (as a one-person meal) depends on the size of the ribs. Take out what you need and keep the rest of the braise in the fridge.

Add-in’s prep:

Add-ins are only added before serving, usually 100g-150gish would work fine.

Napa cabbage, you can cook it directly with the ribs when serving.

Tofu, it’d be better to soak it in hot boiled water with 1/2 tsp salt for 10 minutes to get rid of the grassiness.

Potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks, soak for half an hour to get rid of excess starch so that the soup doesn’t cloud up, boil it with the ribs till a chopstick can poke through, about 15-20 minutes.

Pickled mustard green, give it a rinse, squeeze out the water, cut into 1-inch sections, cook with the ribs for 5 minutes.

Reconstituted Kelp, cut into 2-inch pieces, cook with the ribs for 5-10 minutes depends on how soft you want it to be.

Rice cake, my new favorite add-in, I use frozen ones and cook it directly with the napa and the ribs, then I'll eat it straight without rice (like picture shown below).

Recipe #2 Braised tofu with huangjiagn soy bean paste 黄酱炖豆腐

Besides adding in a dish/stew/soup directly like Japanese miso, huangjiang soy bean paste is often fried before incorporated with the rest of the ingredients. In this classic home style stew, the bean paste is fried with aromatic and star anise, which gives the tofu a somewhat “meat liked” flavor.

Ingredients:

• Soft tofu, 1 block or about 350g-400g

For the aromatics and spice:

• Star anise, 1 piece
• Huajiao, Sichuan peppercorn, 1 tsp, soaked in 3 tbsp hot boiled water
• Scallion, one sprig, separate white and green, white cut into sections, green minced
• Ginger, 1 inch knob, sliced

For the seasoning:

• Huangjiang soy bean paste, 1 1/2 tbsp
• Dark soy sauce, 1/4 tsp
• Sugar, 1/4 tsp
• MSG, 1/8 tsp
• Salt to taste

Process:

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes, soak in 2 cups hot boil water with 1/2 tsp salt for 10 minutes to get rid of the grassy taste. Then strain and set aside.

When tofu’s soaking, in a separate bowl, soak the huajiao Sichuan peppercorn with 3 tbsp hot boil water for 10 minutes. Then strain out the huajiao kernels and keep the liquid.

To cook, first long yau. Get your wok pipping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, here about 2 tbsp, give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface.

Heat on medium low, add in the ginger and scallion, slowly fry it till fragrant, then add in the star anise, fry for another minute or so.

Next, add in the huangjiang soy bean paste, slowly fry it till fragrant and the color slight darkens, about a minute.

Add in the tofu, gently stir to mix with the sauce. Then add in the Sichuan peppercorn soaking liquid, dark soy sauce, and 2 cups water, quick mix.

Bring it all to a boil, cover, turn the heat to low, let it simmer for 20 minutes. Stir halfway so that the tofu gets the sauce evenly.

20 minutes later, the tofu should be swollen up nicely, turn the heat on high, let the sauce reduce and thickens. When there’s no longer a pool of the sauce left, add in the sugar and MSG, quick mix. Then give it a taste and add salt if needed.

Finally, heat off, scoop it into a serving bowl, sprinkle on the green part of the scallion, and done.

Note:

If you can get your hands on some good quality huangjiang soy bean paste, which basically only contains "salt + soy bean" on the ingredient list, it can be relatively “purely salty” (in a good way). In this case, sometimes salt can be omitted if the salt level is good to your taste.

The brand I recently discovered that makes decent huangjiang soy bean paste is called “Xinhe (欣和)” from Shandong province, i.e. the yellow box shown above in the ingredient display. Another classic brand is “Liubiju (六必居)” from Beijing.

Red miso can also be used in these recipes as huangjiang soy bean paste since they’re quite similar. Cantonese minsi soy bean paste is on the sweeter side. In my personal experience, red miso is something in between the Cantonese minsi and Huangjiang soy bean paste when in comes to taste.