RCP Hoi Sin sauce

So I’ve been using a bit of Hoi sin with the steamed buns experiments and it occurred to me tha I might be able to make my own. So after a small amount of gurgling I found this on the bbcgoodfood website. And it is simple and good. Bonus if the nearest Asian grocery is 60 km away.

Hoi Sin Sauce
Ingredients

4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 teaspoons sesame seed oil

Blitz!


I omitted the garlic as I’m not sure about how well that will keep.

An untraditional recipe, but it looks really tasty. I get the impression that hoisin sauce is like ketchup or HP sauce--not something normally made at home. But if the alternative is going without ....

I'll have to try this recipe the next time I do some Chinese grilling.

-Paul W.

Paul do you have a traditional recipe? I’ll gurgle some more and see what else se I can find.
The scientist in me can’t resist trying anything at least once, I’ve made some curious things over th years.

[Jenise]

I'm surprised by the amount of peanut butter, I haven't tasted that in traditional hoisin. Would think it would turn out more like a satay sauce--no?

[Jenise]

Barbara, I just did some googling too. Found about a dozen recipes on different sites identical to yours, but a few with some different elements. For instance, one that called for peanut butter OR molasses. Mentally, the molasses element strikes a chord with the flavor profile AND color I associate with hoisin--I was thinking the soy should maybe be mushroom soy to get that instead. Another allowed for a black bean paste as an alternative.

Barbara,

Traditional hoisin sauce has a base of fermented soy bean paste, to which is added a sweetener, ground toasted sesame seeds, and a bit of garlic and chile pepper. It's one of those things that would be very challenging to make at home from scratch. It'd be like making your own Worcestershire sauce or HP sauce. Your recipe is clearly substituting peanut butter for the fermented soy bean paste. If I were to attempt to create hoisin sauce at home, I'd try starting with Chinese ground bean sauce (as used in Beijing meat sauce noodles) as a base. But the problem for you is that if you could find ground bean sauce, you'd also be able to find hoisin sauce.

The recipe you have looks as though it will yield a tasty sauce, but as Jenise said probably more along the lines of a satay than traditional hoisin.

If it's any help, woolworths.com.au sells a few brands of hoisin sauce online, including Lee Kum Kee. I haven't tried LKK's hoisin, but I use several of their other sauce products.

-Paul W.

Hi guys, thanks for your comments.
I think the peanut butter in some part subs for the sesame seed flavour and the bean paste texture. The amount of soy and dark brown sugar puts it beyond a satay sauce, much more caramel hints, and really a very similar flavour profile to the dregs of my last jar and a different one I bought when I hit the big smoke 2days ago.
Once I embark on this sort of project it becomes about recreating a product successfully. Whatever it takes bit O/C perhaps
Hence I have actually made Worcestershire sauce, ketchup,,seeded mustards, even kroepok from scratch, Bit of fun and Keeps me off the streets