[Book] Flavor Profile #12 Cantonese Plum Sauce

Cantonese Plum Sauce 酸梅酱, 梅子酱 or 苏梅酱

Introduction

Plum, is one of the oldest seasoning ingredients in Chinese cooking. It was (and still is) used as a source for natural sourness, with pits of plums found in vessel at the archeological site of Yinxu (Ruins of Yin, dating around 1350–1046 BCE).

Being such an old ingredient, plum often appears in art and literature. (Jump to the 5th paragraph if you’re not interested in this topic.)

In Chinese language, the saying of “盐梅” (Yan Mei, salt and plum) is a classic reference describing the essential talents for state building, originated from the often cited bit “若作和羹 尔惟盐梅” (salt and plum are necessary when making soups, a metaphor for the abovementioned state building talents) from “The Book of Documents” when talking about the history of using plum in cooking, suggesting it dates back to Shang Dynasty or earlier. However, the date and origin of that version of the “The Book of Documents” is contested and it’s believed to be only written around 4th century, and not the claimed two century BC.

In the much-beloved novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a famous scene involving plum is “青梅煮酒论英雄”, where our two main characters Cao Cao and Liu Bei have a discourse about who’re the great men at the time over some warmed up (supposedly rice) wine alongside some green plums. Rice wine and plum is such a classic combination that till this day, people still like to mix green plums and rock sugar together with rice wine around May and June when the fruit is in season, making a sweet and fruity wine to enjoy in the months to come.

Green plum is a common motif in Chinese literature and art, one of my favorite couplets is “燕子来时，细雨满天风满院；栏杆倚处，青梅如豆柳如烟” from “卅六鸳鸯馆” (the Pavilion of Thirty Six Mandarin Ducks) at the Zhuozhengyuan Garden in Suzhou, talking about when the swallows are back (in spring), the rain is gently drizzling down and the breeze is soft; while gazing outside the window, one can see the adorable green plums are small liked beans and the sprouting willow is liked a green mist.

(A vibe feels like this)

Different ways of consuming plum:

Enough of me nerding about plum in literature, let’s get back to how it’s eaten. So besides eating it fresh alongside with rice wine in the earlier days like Han dynasty, or using it as a flavoring agent in wine later in history, plum is more commonly preserved with salt, sugar, and/or herbs, spices, and it can be dried, candied, or even smoked. You can see them eaten and used throughout China. In the west, the Japanese way of consuming preserved (dried) plum may be more familiar to people, e.g., one of the classic versions of Japanese rice with tea “茶漬け” (Chazuke) is eaten with preserved plum, i.e. “梅茶漬け” (Ume Chazuke).

The Chinese way of using plum as a seasoning agent that’s more commonly seen in the west is probably the Cantonese plum sauce (酸梅醬/梅子酱/蘇梅醬), which is made with preserved plum+seasonings and would be the flavor profile for our recipes here.

Plum sauce is often associate with “duck sauce” in the west. But the two are not exactly the same. While duck sauce often contains preserved plum, it’s also often made with some other sour fruits like apricot and pineapple (according to Wikipedia). And the Cantonese plum sauce should only be made with preserved plum plus some sugar and other seasonings like vinegar and salt. I’d consider “duck sauce” a cheaper mass-produced cousin of Cantonese plum sauce, just like those “wasabi” that comes in little packet with takeout sushi.

So, one of the classic ways of eating Cantonese plum sauce is served alongside as a dip for Cantonese roast goose (and/or roast duck, although is more common with goose). Disagreeing with the popular believe that “duck sauce” came from the sweet sauce for Peking duck, we guess that when the early Cantonese immigrants landed in north America, sourcing goose would be difficult, and roast goose became roast duck, and the sweet and sour plum dipping sauce that comes with it becomes “duck sauce”.

I’ve seen some recipes on the English internet trying to make the “Chinese plum sauce” using the regular purple fruit plums and some other coloring trying to mimic the color. However, that orange red-ish hue doesn’t come from the regular purple plums, but in fact a color from the preserved green plums, of which the preservation begins when it’s yellowish (ripe), and they’ll turn into a light brown after being dehydrated and/or aged.

Then the Cantonese plum sauce is made with this kind of preserved plum. It’s usually cooked with rock sugar, and the light brown color of preserved plums got diluted and turned into that spectrum between yellow and orange. Some brands would adjust the color with chilies or food coloring, such as the maroon hue from Lee Kum Kee, or the one that we’re using here.

Cantonese plum sauce is often used with meat dishes too cut the richness. In addition to using as a dip, it’s often used in steamed or braised meat dishes with pork, chicken, duck, goose, and fish being the most common ones. It can also be used as base for liangban sauces (dressing for Chinese style salad), and furthermore, it can even be used in drinks to bring a refreshing sweet and sour fruitiness, or nowadays bakers would like to incorporate it into cakes and desserts to create seasonal Chinese themed baked goods. It’s a truly versatile ingredient, and here we want to show you two classic ways of using it with meat dishes.

Recipe#1 Braised ribs with plum sauce

This is a classic Cantonese home cooking dish that for sure attracts kids and can be done in no time. It got great xiafanability (over-rice-ability), and if you want to be lazier with it, you can steam it (see note on how-to).

This can be viewed as a variation on the Chinese classic sweet and sour ribs that uses fruit to provide the sourness, kind of like sweet and sour pork with hawthorn jam.

Ingredients

• Pork spare ribs, (排骨), cut into 1 1/2 inch sections, 500g
• Scallion (葱), 1 sprig, separate the white and green, cut the white into 1-inch sections and tie the green into a knot
• Garlic (蒜头), 2 cloves, sliced

For seasoning

• Liaojiu, aka, Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp
• Plum sauce (酸梅酱), 3 tbsp
• Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp
• Dark soy sauce (老抽), 1/2 tsp, for color only, optional
• Rock sugar (冰糖), or white sugar, 5g or 1 tsp
• Salt (盐), 1/4 tsp
• White rice vinegar (白醋), 1 tsp
• Hot water, 1 cup

For slurry

• Corn starch (生粉), 1/2 tsp
• Water, 2 tbsp

Process

To a pot of boiling water, blanch the ribs for two minutes, take it out, rinse it clean, and drain well.

To your wok, first, long yau. Get your wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, here about two tbsp, give a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface.

Heat on medium, add in the ribs, arrange in one layer, let them fry till slightly shrunk and lightly golden brown, then add in the scallion and garlic, fry it till fragrant.

Next, swirl in your liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, quick mix, add in the hot water.

And now add in the rest of the seasoning: plum sauce, light and dark soy, rock sugar, vinegar, and salt.

Transfer to a braising container so that we don’t strip the seasoning. Also toss in the scallion green knot. Let it come to a boil, cover and then let it braise on medium for 20 minutes.

After that time, come back, uncover, take out the obvious floating aromatics, and let the sauce reduce.

When the sauce coats the ribs and has a sheen, drizzle in the slurry bit by bit to adjust the thickness of the sauce to your liking.

Heat off, optionally sprinkle on some toasted white sesame seeds or grated lemon zest.

Note:

The bottled sauce we buy directly is already seasoned, it’s milder than using the preserved plums straight up. But it’d still need some sugar and vinegar to create a more well-rounded flavor.

Some restaurants would also add in tamarind paste and lemon zest when making the sauce in house using preserved plums, it’s a more modern approach that adds a stronger sour note and amps up that fruity freshness. You can add in some lemon zest to the dish when cooking to mimic that approach.

The twenty-minute braising in the recipe is a quicker week-night meal sort of deal. If you want the ribs to be a bit closer to that slightly “jerky-ish” effect of certain sweet and sour ribs, you can double the water quantity and braise for 40-45 minutes.

For steaming, use the aromatics and seasoning as marination, and additionally add in 1.5 tbsp cornstarch and 3 tbsp of water, massage till all absorbed, then stir in one direction till it becomes sticky, coat the ribs with oil and marinate for 15-30 minutes. When steaming, evenly lay it on a plate, preferably one single layer, steam on high for 10 to 12 minutes depends on your rib’s size, or till a chopstick can poke through the ribs.

Recipe #2 Steamed fish with plum sauce

The slight sourness from plum sauce is a perfect match with fish and seafood. Steaming a fish with some sour plum is a classic Cantonese and Teochew home favorite. All you need is some white flaky fish, plum sauce, and maybe some chili to add a bit of a kick if you so prefer.

Ingredients

• White flaky fish, fillet or whole, about 500g
• Tomato, 1 big one, slice into 1 cm thick rings
• Ginger, 1/2 inch, smashed
• Scallion, 2 sprigs, one cut into sections, one tie into a knot

For the sauce

• Plum sauce, 3 tbsp
• Ginger, 1/2 inch knob, minced
• Garlic, 2 clove, minced
• Soy sauce, 2 tsp
• Rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1/2 tsp
• Water, 1 tbsp
• Peanut or neutral oil, 1 tsp

Optional:

• Thai bird’s eye, or any red spicy chili, 2, roughly chopped
• Perilla, 5 pieces, chiffonaded, use it to replace scallion for laying on top.

Process

Lay the tomato slices onto a deeper plate.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together.

Clean the fish if there’s any scale or blood sticking to it. Use the knife to scrape off the black/dark brown bits that’s sticking inside the fish.

Rinse clean. Rub a small pinch of salt around and inside the fish, about 1/4 tsp (not included in the ingredient list). Stuff the smashed ginger and scallion knot into the fish cavate.

Lay the fish onto the tomato slices (the slices create some room for steam to go underneath).

Evenly ladle the sauce onto the fish, sprinkle on the scallion/perilla.

Put over a wok/pot of rapidly boiling water, steam on high for ~7 minutes (more time if the fish is thicker or bigger).

After it’s done, take it out, dip the liquid collected in the plate into a small sauce pan, thicken it with a slurry (e.g. 1/4 tsp starch + 1/2 tbsp water, depends on the liquid amount), then spoon it back over the fish.

Note:

In Teochew cooking, they like to add Suancai preserved mustard green and Chinese celery to it when steaming fish. To do so, lay the suancai stems on a plate to hold up and flavor the fish when steaming, and sprinkle minced Chinese celery onto the fish after steaming. I’ve also seen people adding Puning Doujiang (Puning fermented bean sauce, the lightly yellow kind) to the mixed sauce, which can be another sauce of umami besides soy sauce.

The perilla that’s used in Guangdong is the purple one. The green one that’s common in Korean and Japanese supermarket has a milder taste but it’ll also work well in this case.

The tomato is not a traditional ingredient in this dish, but it works great with the refreshing sweet and sour flavor as well as providing a very steady “support” to hold up the fish so that steam can pass through, which helps the fish to cook evenly.

To make it prettier, you can discard the ginger knob and all the scallion, then sprinkle some fresh herbs on top after putting the thickened sauce back.

Cilantro would also work as a nice finishing herb.

Remember to use a deeper plate when steaming fish as there's quite some liquid.

For steaming time, the fish I got was exceptionally big (1kg) the day of taking pictures, so I actually steamed it for 10 minutes. (Because it's so big, it almost didn't fit into the wok and the skin broke because it was touching the lid... so the finishing look is kinda ugly, should've cover that part with fresh herb but I was freshly out, oh well...)