Black Bean Garlic Sauce
My mother was the champ at making quick, filling meals more-or-less from scratch multiple times a week through my entire childhood. Her weekly go to was stir fry with vegetables and chicken or turkey breast (it was the 1990’s and low-fat was the epitome of healthy). Stir fry was the perfect dinner for a single mother to make for herself and her kid because it was
a) a one pan meal consisting of proteins and vegetables and
b) it created enough leftovers that they were set for at least one more meal.
I can’t recall if she taught me how to make stir fry or if I learned through observation and osmosis, but somehow I acquired a semblance of a recipe from her that I used throughout college to feed myself
As I was getting more and more into fermentation, I realized that Chinese ferments aren’t as widely talked about as those from Europe, Japan, or Korea. The youtube docuseries from Sandor Katze and Mara King’s People’s Republic of Fermentation (I highly recommend you watch it!) brought this further into light for me. It was around this time I was making my first few batches of tempeh, so soy beans were on my mind. I was reading through the fermenting beans section of The Art of Fermentation when I came across Katze’s writing on Douchi, Chinese fermented black beans.
The process of making douchi is somewhat analogous to the first stages of making tamari, where cooked soybeans are inoculated using Aspergillus spores. In producing douchi, once the Aspergillus mold has reached the sporulation phase, the beans are washed to remove the spores and go through a second fermentation in a flavored brine before being dried and sold. (Katz, p327-328) With a bit more research, I realized that I’d been eating sauces with douchi my entire life without realizing it. I grew up with hoisin and black bean garlic sauces being a part of our regular dinner rotations. I’d never thought of either of these seasonings as items that I could make, but of course now I was going to try!
There are several brands of douchi you can buy online if you are pressed for time and/or project space.* I bought the Koon Chun brand from Amazon purely because it’s the same company that makes my favorite hoisin sauce. Once opened they freeze well for a year or so, so you don’t have to worry about using the entire bag at one go.
I knew that I wanted to mimic the jarred black bean sauce I grew up with while taking some liberties to build depth of flavor. After trying a few different recipes**, I realized that I wanted a batch sized recipe that highlighted the black beans, wasn’t too oily, and you could use on its own with no other sauces or aromatics if desired.
Homemade black bean sauce will not have quite the same up front punch of the jarred sauce, but will have more complexity. I bought a jar of the Lee Kum Kee brand just as a reference point and it’s intensely salty (soy sauce and fermented black beans are the first and second ingredient) followed by a raw, pungent dehydrated garlic flavor. Your sauce will still be salt and umami forward, but balanced out with mellow sweetness from the cooked fresh garlic, scallions, ginger and cooking wine. Many of the recipes I found while researching include hot sauce or red pepper, which is nice if you like a touch heat.
You can also use dochi in dishes without making them into a sauce. Rinse them or soak them in hot water for 10 minutes to reduce their saltiness and add them to stir fries and other dishes where you want a funky, salty pop of flavor.
Black Bean Garlic Sauce
Yield: about 1 cup
Time: 30-40 min
10 large cloves of garlic, crushed in a garlic press or very finely minced
3” piece of ginger, grated using a microplane or very finely minced
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
3 scallions, sliced thin
¼ cup neutral oil
½ cup fermented black beans (Douchi), rinsed in warm water and rough chopped
½ cup soy sauce (or tamari)
½ cup Chinese cooking wine or Amontillados dry sherry
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tsp cold water
Heat oil over low in a small pot. Once the oil is hot, add garlic, ginger, onion, pepper flakes and cook for about 3 min, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or spatula to limit sticking. You are not looking for any browning.
Add the fermented black beans. The mix will look a bit dry at first but the oil will release again as the sauce cooks. Cook for 4-5 min, stirring to limit sticking.
Add soy sauce, wine and sugar. Bring heat up a bit (not higher than low medium) to bring the liquid to a boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer uncovered until the liquid is reduced by half. This will take about 10 min. Stir occasionally with spatula or wooden spoon to prevent sticking.
Once the liquid has reduced, add cornstarch slurry and cook for a minute more.
The sauce can be cooled as is or if you’d like, you can blend it briefly to emulsify the sauce and smooth it a bit. Let the sauce cool and the flavors meld for at least 1 h or overnight if you can. Sauce can be used as you like for 2 weeks.
To use your black bean garlic sauce, consider:
Adding 2-3 tbsp to a stir fry along with fresh aromatics and seasonings.
Topping a simple steamed white fish with fresh julienned ginger and scallions.
Add it to a marinade for tofu, tempeh, or meat of your choice (I love it with chicken and beef).
*If you are interested in a recipe for douchi, I found one in Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments by Kristen K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey.
**I especially enjoyed the recipe by Omnivore Cookbook and it strongly influenced this recipe!