Looking for a sauce so flavorful that’s diversity binds together millions? Hoisin sauce can find the tastiest way wherever it goes!

Hoisin sauce main ingredient is black fermented soybeans. That leaves us little chance to accidentally stumble over in an average shop outside Asia. Not saying that our favorite shops don’t sell it but probably not on the isles, we frequent most.

We can find similar stuff on the shelf of the Japanese food too as Miso which -with a bit of luck -is also contains fermented soybeans. Or we can make our own by getting our hands on some black soybeans and fermenting our own.

There is no sacrifice great enough when it comes to taste the flavor of faraway lands at the table of our own kitchen. Of course, some would disagree and as happens often with recipes -especially with taste buds trained on bland fast food- are substituted or left out completely to cater for the expectation of the new environment.

It probably doesn’t help much in adopting new flavors that “traditional” occidental restaurants sell different food for customers of different races either but as long as the customer is always right something else must not be.

So, this gives us the right and freedom to create Hoisin sauce that has very little to do with the original one, yet as long as we don’t expect anyone over dinner who ever loved the real deal, we’ll be fine. Maybe even some of those will be polite enough to like it.

Ingredients

Beginner

1 clove Garlic (finely crushed)
4 prunes (finely chopped)
2 tablespoon Peanut butter
¼ cup Soy sauce
2 teaspoon Rice vinegar
½ teaspoon Sesame seed oil
½ teaspoon Chinese five spices powder if available
Hot sauce to taste
Cornstarch to thicken if needed
Sweetener to taste if needed

Advanced

4 Prunes
1 tablespoon Rice vinegar
½ teaspoon Chinese five spices powder
2 tablespoons Soy sauce
½ teaspoon Sesame seed oil
3 tablespoons Black bean sauce (Miso – Japanese or Douchi – Chinese)
Hot sauce to taste

Overkill

Black bean sauce

2 tablespoons Oil
2 green Onions/Scallion (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons Garlic (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons Ginger (finely chopped)
3 tablespoons Fermented black beans
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
2 tablespoon Rice vine
½ teaspoon Rice vinegar
Hot sauce to taste

Hoisin sauce

4 Prunes
1 tablespoon Rice vinegar
½ teaspoon Chinese five spices powder
2 tablespoons Soy sauce
½ teaspoon Sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon Rice vinegar
3 tablespoons Black bean sauce
Hot sauce to taste

How to make Hoisin sauce

Beginner

Add finely chopped garlic, prunes and peanut butter cream into a mixing bowl.
Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame seed oil, chinese five spices mix and optional hot sauce to the bowl.
Mix everything together. Add sweetener if desired and a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken the sauce if necessary.

Advanced

Put the ingredients into a food processor. An immersion blender might do as well but the prunes tend to be hard to process with it.
Process the mixture until smooth.
Scrape it out of the food processor. Use it immediately or keep it in the fridge in an airtight container.

Overkill

Black beans sauce

In a frying pan saute the chopped onion for about a minute.
Add garlic, ginger and saute until the garlic gets fragrant.
Add the black fermented beans, soy sauce, rice vine, rice vinegar and hot sauce. Mix it well bring it to a boil then take it off heat and let it cool off.

Hoisin sauce

Put everything into a food processor. An immersion blender might do as well but the prunes tend to be hard to process with it.
Process the mixture until smooth then scrape it out of the food processor. Use it immediately or keep it in the fridge in an airtight container.