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

Douchi black bean sauce – Cantonese style (豉汁)

Recipe #1 Braised cracklin and lotus root 猪油渣焖莲藕

Let’s begin with the most basic combo – only using garlic and douchi, plus a simple seasoning to make the sauce. This dish is very much simple home style cooking, it’s something I’d see on a workday's lunch table when we would be hanging out at a friend’s place back in school and the mum asked us to stay for lunch.

My dad taught me how to make this dish and he called it "poor people food" as people were finding ways to use up scraps. Interestingly, some would refer the craklin in it as "loose pork belly/散扣". I like that name because it shows the essence of the dish, using lard making left-over to mimic pork belly when fresh pork was a rare treat.

Ingredients:

• Lotus root, about 400g or one medium size section, peeled and cut into roughly 1 inch chunks
• Craklin, (猪油渣), preferably non-seasoned or lightly seasoned, 50g
• Water for braising, 2 cups, 500ml
• Scallion, 1 small sprig, roughly minced.
• Cilantro, 1 small sprig, roughly minced.

For the sauce:

• Douchi fermented black beans (豆豉), loosely scoop out 1 tbsp, about 8g
• Garlic, 4 big cloves, smashed and peel
• Light soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp
• Oyster sauce (蚝油) 1/2 tbsp
• Dark soy sauce, (老抽), 1/2 tsp
• Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing Wine, (料酒), 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Salt, 1/8 tsp

Final Seasoning:

• Sesame oil, 1 tsp
• MSG, 1/8 tsp, optional
• Salt to taste, start with a small sprinkle or 1/8 tsp

Process:

For the sauce:

Toss the garlic, douchi, salt, and sugar into the mortar, pound into a paste.

Add in the light and dark soy sauce plus the oyster sauce, pound a bit more to mix well, reserve.

To make the dish:

Cut the lotus root into about 1-inch pieces.

Next, long yau. Get a braising pot piping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, here’s about 1 tbsp, give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface.

Heat on low, add in the sauce. Fry it for about half a minute or until fragrant. Swirl in a tsp Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine and quick mix. Be careful not to burn the sauce otherwise burnt douchi will result in a bitterness.

Add in the lotus root, mix well, add in 2 cups of water, cover, bring it to a boil. Turn the heat to medium low after it comes to a boil. Cover and let it braise for 20 minutes.

20 minutes later, turn the heat to low, add in the craklin, mix well, let it braise together with the lotus roots for another 10 minutes.

10 minutes later, if there's still obvious liquid remianed, then turn the heat to high to reduce the sauce for about 1 minutes, or until it thickens and evenly coats on the lotus root with basically no thin liquid pooling in the pot. The starch from the lotus root would create a naturual slurry and thickens the sauce nicely. 

Add in the MSG if using. Give it a taste at this point, add a bit more salt if needed, mix well and heat off.

Swirl in about 1 tsp toasted sesame oil and sprinkle on some minced scallion and cilantro to finish it off.

Notes:

Traditionally this is a dish to use up the leftover craklin from lard making while pork belly is another common choice. Some other root vegetables are also used to make this dish.

If using pork belly:
Get 100g pork belly, thinly slice into half centimeter pieces.
After longyau and before adding the sauce, add in the pork belly, fry on medium low to render out some lard for about 4-5 minutes or untill it’s slightly shrunk and turned golden brown.
Turn the heat to low and start frying the douchi sauce, follow the recipe for the rest of the steps, braise for 30 minutes straight.

If using other root vegetable:
Lotus root is a classic here, but you can use other root vegetable like pumpkin, jicama, or kudzu. Cooking time may vary, check at the 30 minute mark to see if you can poke through with a chopstick.
Jicama is crunchy and you can eat it raw, braising time can be reduced if preferred.
Kudzu is very starchy and firm. It generally needs a longer cooking than lotus root. Use 3 cups water for braising, check every 5 minute after the 30 minute mark until you can poke through with a chopstick.

If you want to make it vegetarian:
Swap the oyster sauce for either vegetarian oyster sauce or up the soy sauce amount to 1 1/2 tbsp and sugar to 1 1/8 tsp.
Skip the craklin or pork belly, braise the lotus root directly, finish with a bit more toastsed sesame oil for a richer taste and a nicer sheen. 
Stale old youtiao deep fried dough stick may be a good sub for craklin if you happen to have some lying around, just tear some into small pieces and braise them together in the last 5 minutes.