[BOOK] Flavor Profile #3: Douchi black bean sauce

Douchi black bean sauce – Cantonese style (豉汁)

Bonus Recipe: Fried rice with douchi canned fish and preserved lemon 咸柠檬豆豉鲮鱼炒饭

Word of warning, this is not necessarily "Cantonese douchi black bean sauce" in its most strict sense, but it's douchi, it's Cantonese, and it's tasty, so why not?

Our favorite dim sum restaurant in the neighborhood has a very legit Cantonese fare. In addition to dim sum and some old school Cantonese dishes, on their menu you can also find some innovation with classic Canto ingredients, of which a fried rice using Cantonese preserved lemon and salmon always catches my eye when I want some starch. 

Drawing inspiration from it, here’s a riff off their fried rice using Middle Eastern preserved lemon and canned fried dace with douchi (see notes for a bit more info).

This is a super quick one, so no process pictures, sorry~

Ingredients:

• Steamed rice, 300g
• Garlic, 2 big cloves, minced
• Canned fried dace, 1 fish, roughly chop
• Douchi from the canned fried dace, 1 tbsp
• Preserved lemon, minced into 1/2 cm bits, about 1 tbsp (used about 1/8 of a lemon)
• Scallion, a small stalk or about 15g, finely diced
• Liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1/2 tsp
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• MSG, a sprinkle or 1/8 tsp
• Optional: use 1 tbsp oil from the can to fry the rice

Process:

Long yau, get your wok pipping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, here about 1 tbsp. Heat on medium low, add in the garlic, fry it for about half a minute or until fragrant.

Add in the douchi and the fish, fry for about half a minute, add in the lemon bits, fry for another half minute. Then swirl in the liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine.

Add in the rice, quick mix, press the rice using the back of the spatula to break up the clumps.

Fry for a about 1 minute or until the rice grains are separated, season with sugar, salt, and MSG. Quick mix.

Toss in the diced scallion, mix, and out.

Notes:

A visual regarding the fried rice with canned fish and douchi.

Regarding the preserved lemon, the restaurant we like uses the Cantonese one, and I discussed it in the previous post: in the first three paragraphs of the post and the second point in the notes.