Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp fermented soybean paste
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp honey or molasses
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 pieces garlic clove, grated
• 0.5 tsp Chinese five spice
• 1 tsp sriracha or chilli paste
• 0.25 tsp black pepper

Steps

1. 1
   Whisk the fermented soybean paste with the soy sauce first until completely smooth. Adding everything at once leaves lumps of paste you cannot break up later.
2. 2
   Whisk in the honey, rice vinegar and chilli paste.
3. 3
   Add the grated garlic, five spice and black pepper.
4. 4
   Warm the mixture gently in a small pan for 2-3 minutes — just enough to marry the flavours and dissolve the honey, not enough to boil.
5. 5
   Take off the heat and stir in the sesame oil last so its aroma survives.
6. 6
   Cool completely; it thickens as it cools.
7. 7
   Keeps three weeks refrigerated. Use as a glaze in the last minutes of roasting, since the sugars scorch.