[BOOK] Flavor Profile #3: Douchi black bean sauce

Douchi black bean sauce – Cantonese style (豉汁)

Recipe #2 Steamed ribs with douchi and preserved lemon 咸柠檬豉汁蒸排骨

On top of the basic douchi sauce, other elements can also be added. You can finish it off by sprinkling in some deep-fried crispy garlic at the end for another layer of garlicky flavor, or you can add in some depth by adding in some citrusy component, the classic option is chenpi aged tangerine peel.

Douchi and citrus pair amazingly well together, be it fresh or aged. We’ve covered the douchi sauce with chenpi before, this time we’d make another classic, which uses Cantonese aged preserved lemon (咸柠檬). It’s more citrus-forward than chenpi, and you can even add in some fresh aroma, like lemon grass or basil in with this combo.

However, Cantonese preserved lemon isn’t something readily available even here at its origin and I seriously doubt you can get some. So, instead we’re using Kenji’s preserved lemon, it’s a quicker version and more lemony than the aged Cantonese version. Being an enthusiastic lemon lover, personally I like it even better with the Middle Eastern style preserved lemon since it's more refreshing and lemon-forward. 

Ingredients:

• Spare ribs, 300g, cut into 1-inch long pieces

For the sauce/marinate:

• Middle Eastern style Preserved lemon, 1/4 of a lemon
• Douchi fermented black beans (豆豉), 1 1/2 tbsp, about 12g
• Garlic, 3 big cloves, smashed, peel, and roughly minced
• Ginger, 1-inch piece, peel and roughly minced
• Light soy sauce (生抽), 1/2 tbsp
• Oyster sauce (蚝油), 1/2 tbsp
• Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing Wine, (料酒), 1 tbsp
• Sugar, 1/2 tbsp
• Salt, 1/8 tsp 
• Chicken bouillon powder (鸡精) or MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp
• Cornstarch 2 tsp + water 2 tbsp to make a slurry
• Oil for coating, 1/2 tbsp

For decoration:

• Scallion, 1 small sprig, only the green part, cut into 2-inch section, hold one end, use a fork to “comb” along the scallion and break it into thinner strips, soak it in water to let it curl up.
• A couple pieces of thinly sliced fresh lemon.  

Optional ingredients for extra flavor:

• Fennel seed, 1/4 tsp, pounded with the douchi sauce
• Fresh lemon grass, root only, 2-inch, finely minced and pounded with the sauce
• Fresh mint or basil, same amount as the scallion green, use at the end as decoration in place of scallion. 
• Some lemon zest for extra lemoness, about 1/2 tbsp, sprinkle in at the end together with the lemon slices. 

Process:

Cut out the flesh and membrance of the lemon as we'll only use the skin, then mince the preserved lemon into about 1/2 cm small bits.

Pound the douchi, garlic, ginger, (fennel seeds and/or lemon grass if using), sugar, and salt together, add soy sauce, oyster sauce, and liaojiu to the mixture, mix well.

To the ribs, add in the pounded douchi mixture and minced preserved lemon, mix well. Let it marinate for 30 minutes.

After marinating, add in the cornstarch slurry to the ribs, stir until it starts to get slightly sticky. Then coat with oil.

Evenly lay the ribs on a plate into one layer without ribs overlapping each other, place on your steaming set up over a pot/wok of boiling water, cover, and steam on high for 8 minutes.

8 minutes later, heat off, sprinkle on the curled scallion green, place a couple slices of fresh lemon to decorate, and serve.

Note:

Use St. Louis cut for the ribs. If you’re ambitious, you can do the extra dim sum ribs treatment for a crunchy while falling-off-the-bone texture.

If somehow you magically have access to Cantonese salty preserved lemon (咸柠檬), you can use that in place of the Middle Eastern one, same amount. Sometimes I would see Thai pickled lime here, which is kinda similar to the Cantonese one, you can use that if you have access to it, start with 1/4 a lemon for this recipe. 

You can completely cut out the salt in the marinate if you worry it'll be too salty with the preserved lemon. 

This sauce is very versatile, it’s also a perfect match for fish and seafood. Smothering it over flathead grey mullet or pomfret then steaming is a classic in coastal Guangdong area. At least double the sauce amount if you’re smothering it over fish, otherwise the sauce listed in this recipe is not gonna be enough to cover a whole fish.  

For a deeper douchi flavor, you can fry the pounded douchi paste with 1 tbsp oil on low heat till it’s fragrant, let it cool down a bit, then use it to marinate the ribs (or smother it over fish).

The "optional ingredients for extra flavor" are less conventional but you would see it here and there at restaurants.

Note that for the final book, I think we'll probably split off the preserved lemon + douchi into its own flavor profile, with the douchi + beef from the channel coming in as the second recipe within the douchi + garlic flavor profile.  The introduction to said flavor profile will begin with a background on Cantonese preserved lemons, followed by an explanation on how to make preserved lemons ala Kenji's recipe and use them in Chinese cooking