Hoisin Sauce Recipe

Hoisin sauce is surely one of the best known condiments to come out of Chinese cuisine. Commonly enjoyed in the UK as part of the customary garnish for crispy aromatic duck, it’s more widely used as a dipping sauce for meats, as a marinade, and as a flavouring ingredient in stir fries. Thick, dark, sweet and savoury, it packs a huge punch of flavour.

This recipe is from Condiments by Caroline Dafgård Widnersson, published this year by Murdoch Books. Reviewer Nicky loved this recipe, not least because it was a simple task to switch the soy sauce for gluten free one, to ensure the finished sauce was suitable for a coeliac (gluten-free) diet.

Check out NIcky’s detail-rich review of Condiments by Caroline Dafgard Widnersson, here. Note, you’ll see in her feedback that the volume this recipe makes comes up a little short of the 500 ml promised; in fact it makes around 375 ml of the finished sauce.

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Hoisin Sauce

Makes about 5 dl (500 ml)

Author Caroline Dafgard Widnersson

Ingredients

• ½ dl (50 ml) unrefined brown sugar
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 tbsp fermented black beans
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 3 tbsp treacle
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 pinch five spice
• 1 pinch tahini
• 3-4 splashes sriracha

Notes

Switch regular soy sauce to gluten free soy sauce to make this recipe gluten free.

Instructions

• Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 5-6 minutes. The sauce should thicken slightly, and will keep thickening once it’s been blended and has cooled.
• Remove saucepan from heat and let cool slightly. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth.
• Pass the sauce through a sieve to make entirely smooth. You can use a spoon and press its backside against the sieve to extract as much sauce as possible.
• Pour the sauce into a well-cleaned bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid and store somewhere cool.
• The hoisin sauce keeps for at least 3 months, often longer. If you feel that the sauce is too thin when it’s cooled you can boil it again. If needed, molasses can be swapped for 1 additional tbsp treacle.

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Kavey Eats received a review copy of Condiments by Caroline Dafgård Widnersson from publishers Murdoch Books (RRP £12.99). Photography by Matilda Lindeblad.