Hoisin sauce
| Hoisin sauce | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Jiaozi with hoisin sauce | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 海鮮醬 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 海鲜酱 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | seafood sauce | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese | tương đen | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | black sauce | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hoisin sauce is a thick, pungent sauce commonly used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fries, or as dipping sauce. It is darkly colored in appearance and sweet and salty in taste. Although regional variants exist, hoisin sauce usually includes soy beans, red chillies and garlic. Vinegar, Chinese five spice and sugar are also commonly added. The word hoisin is from the Chinese word for seafood (海鮮, Cantonese: hoi2 sin1 Mandarin: hǎixiān), but the sauce does not contain any seafood ingredients.
Ingredients
Peking-style hoisin sauce ingredients include starches such as sweet potato, wheat or rice, and water, sugar, soybeans, sesame seeds, white distilled vinegar, salt, garlic, red chili peppers, and sometimes preservatives or coloring agents. Traditionally, hoisin sauce is made using toasted mashed soy beans. Despite the literal meaning, hoisin sauce does not contain seafood, nor is it typically used with it. This sauce does not contain plums, even though it is frequently misidentified as plum sauce in the United Kingdom. It also contains no raisins, even though it is occasionally misidentified as raisin sauce.
Regional
Chinese cuisine
A number of Chinese cuisine dishes such as spring rolls, mu shu pork, popiah, Peking duck and barbecued pork use the sauce. It is especially common in Cantonese cuisine flavoring.[1]
Vietnamese cuisine
In Vietnamese, hoisin sauce is called "tương đen". It is a popular condiment for phở, a Vietnamese noodle soup. However, as a condiment, it is primarily used in Southern style phở. Hoisin sauce is not served alongside Northern style phở. The sauce can be directly added into a bowl of phở at the table, or can be used as a side dip for the meat of phở dishes. In phở, hoisin is typically accompanied by Sriracha sauce or "tương đỏ". The hoisin sauce is also used to make dipping sauce for Vietnamese spring rolls and other dishes similar to spring/summer rolls. In cooking, it can be used for glazing broiled chicken.
See also
- Duck sauce
- List of dips
- List of sauces
- Plum sauce
- Siu haau sauce, primary Chinese BBQ sauce
- Soy sauce
- Sweet and sour sauce
References
- ↑ Xinhuanet.com. "Xinhuanet.com." 唐宮海鮮舫 . Retrieved on 2009-08-02.