Chinese Meat Sauce

FUJIAN PORK & MUSHROOM

* Dried shiitake mushroom 4
* Oil for frying, preferably peanut, ~1/3 cup
* Ground pork, 300g
* Shallots , 60g
* Sugar, 1 tbsp
* Slab sugar -or- dark brown sugar, 50g
* Yellow bean sauce, aka Taucho, 6 tbsp
* Soy sauce, 2 tbsp
* Sweet chili sauce , 2 tbsp
* Dark soy sauce, ¼ tsp
* Chicken bouillon powder, 2 tsp
* Five spice powder, 1 tsp
* Salt, ¼ tsp
* Reserved mushroom soaking liquid, ~1/2 cup

1. Thoroughly rinse the shiitakes, then soak overnight in cool water. Next day, squeeze the mushrooms, slice out the stems, and dice.
2. Mince the shallots. To make your mise easier, you can also combine all the ingredients after the sugar into one bowl and add them all in together.
3. Longyau with that 1/3 cup of oil. Over a medium flame, add the pork and fry until it changes color. Add the shiitakes and the shallot. Fry for ~15-20 minutes, or until the pork has started to brown, and render out a bit of oil. Add in the sugars, melt into the meat sauce. Once melted, add the remaining ingredients, and cook for ~5 minutes or so to sort of ‘combine’ the flavors.
4. MALA BEEF SAUCE
5. Making the Sichuan peppercorn powder and chili powder (optional):
6. For the Sichuan peppercorn powder and chili powder below, you can either use a store bought powder or make it yourself. Of the two, I would more strongly recommend toasting/grinding the peppercorns, but it’s totally up to you.
7. For the peppercorns, toast one tablespoons worth over a medium-low flame for ~3 minutes, or until they begin to glisten and leave little oil splotches on your wok. Then grind in a mortar or spice grinder.
8. For the chili powder, we’re using a mix of ~7.5g of spicy chilis (Xiaomila ‘millet’ chilis, but you could use Tien Tsin or Thai birds eye) and ~15g of a red, fragrant chili (Sichuan Erjingtiao ‘two vixen’ chili, but you could use Guajillo or Kashmiri). Slice up the chilis into your wok, discarding the stems, then toast over a medium-low flame. After ~10 minutes or so, the chilis should be brittle enough that you could break them apart with your fingers. Transfer to a spider or a colander, jiggle out most of the seeds. Grind into a powder.

Ingredients:

* Soybeans, 120g

* Ingredients to cook the soybean: salt, ½ tbsp; dried bay leaves, 2; star anise , 1; chili pepper, 1; Sichuan peppercorns ~7
* Oil for frying, ~2/3 cup
* Spices to infuse the oil: cinnamon , ~1/2 stick; star anise 2; fennel seed , ½ tsp; tsaoko a.k.a. Chinese black cardamon 1
* Pixian doubanjiang a.k.a. chili bean paste 2.5 tbsp
* Aromatics: garlic, 8 cloves, minced; ginger, ~2 inches, minced; onion, ½ medium, minced; scallion, 150g, white and green parts separated and both sliced (greens are used later in the recipe)
* Ground beef, 500g
* Douchi, fermented black soybeans, 1.5 tbsp. aka Yangjiang preserved beans
* Chili powder from above -or- a mix of 2 tbsp cayenne pepper and 2 tbsp of a not spicy chili powder like gochugaru or Kashmiri (feel free to use less cayenne/more mild chili if you want it less spicy)
* Soybean cooking liquid, 1.5 cups
* Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine, 1.5 tbsp
* Soy sauce , 4 tbsp
* Sugar, ½ tbsp
* Chicken bouillon powder 1 tsp
* Final seasoning: salt, ¼ tsp; white pepper powder , 1 tsp; MSG , 1 tsp; dark Chinese vinegar ½ tbsp; Sichuan peppercorn powder, from above -or- 1 tbsp

1. Wash the soybeans, then soak with hot, boiled water overnight – covered. The next day, drain, then add to a pot together with water and the ‘ingredients to cook the soybean’. Bring up to a boil, then down to a simmer.
2. The length of time will depend on the age of the soybean. In China, 1 hour would be enough to cook. In Thailand, we got older soybeans and after some poking around it seems to be the same case in the west. In this case, the soybeans NEED TO BE COOKED FOR 3-4 HOURS, not one. Apologies. For a way to speed things up, check out the pinned note below.
3. Once soft, strain and reserve the soybean cooking liquid.
4. For frying, I’m running out of space, so follow the video starting from 8:24.