Some more dried shrimps will be perfect!
1 Like
Serious Eats just posted this:
2 Likes
For dried scallops, the cheaper ones are not necessary cheaper because they have milder and shallower flavor. Mid size scallops will do. Dried shrimps is less of an issue there. In fact, the tiny dried shrimps can be optimal, as they won’t need to be cut up.
I personally won’t use a food processor to shred. The article tried to minimize the shredding by pulsing the food processor on and off, but this is not even necessary.
Dried scallops, dried shrimps, cured ham (preferably Jiahua ham), and hot peppers are the four more criteria ingredients.
From today’s NY Times:
1 Like
Recently tried two XO sauces.
Graham Mom XO sauce, from Mrs Yuen’s shop on Wing Kut Street in Central, Hong Kong. All manners of sauces, spices, etc.
I felt this XO sauce is too similar to a chili sauce. If one’s looking for a chili sauce but with some savoriness from dried seafood, this will be it. But I feel XO sauce, while can be spicy, should resemble less of a chili sauce but has more of its own identity. No Jinhua ham. That’s why I was able to bring it back.
Good Plenty brand XO sauce with mushroom, bought from either Marina, or 99 Ranch. From Taiwan. The sauce itself is pretty balanced and pleasant. I quite like it. The addition of mushroom was a little weird though as it introduced a little of an odd texture to the mix. But overall, among the common store bought versions without preservatives, I quite like this one.
1 Like
Bumping this up, looking for inspiration to eat it up!
I seem to find it, “save” it, lose it, find it, rinse and repeat. I’d love to experiment with the older of two bottles of Lee Kum Kee. I know it’s nothing special to most, but they don’t always stock it around here.
Serious Eats seems to be saying I should use that ish on everything! Not really; I just wanted to write that.
I first encountered it as one of the accompaniments at dim sum, so eating it alongside or over anything (like chilli crisp or any other sauce) is certainly an option.
My dad loved it because it reminded him of an indian dried fish pickle, so he happily ate it alongside any simple meal that was a bit bland (dal and rice, just rice, and so on).
And finally, one of the better Chinese restaurants here has a dish of jumbo prawns in xo sauce — aromatics, plump shrimp, and a healthy dose of xo sauce to season.
Now that I’m thinking about it, it would be good to season noodles / pasta too — scallion ginger sauce results in tasty scallion ginger noodles, no doubt xo sauce would be plenty of flavor in the same vein. Ditto fried rice.
1 Like
Jealous of those xlb - enjoy!
