ABALONE SAUCE: 鮑魚汁

The other day while looking for broad rice stick noodles I discover what is for me an entirely new and brilliant product: 鮑魚汁 ('baau yiu jap'). Abalone sauce.
Think oyster sauce (蠔油 'ho yau'). But made with abalone instead.
If you are Cantonese, the concept probably thrills you.
And you may have tasted it already.


陳滿記鮑魚汁
ABALONE SAUCE

Ingredients: Soy Sauce (Water, Soybean, Wheat Flour, Salt), Sugar, Abalone Extracts, Dried Scallop, Modified Starch (Corn Starch), MSG, Potassium Sorbate (E202).


It tastes milder than oyster sauce, but just as pleasant. A dab on the back of the left hand reminded me op bouillon cubes, and Knorr. I have no doubt it will go well with everything for which one would normally use oyster sauce: boiled lettuce, mustard stalks, Chinese broccoli, dau miu, asparagus, string beans, seethed eel, eggplant, chicken feet, stewed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, or fried eggs sunny side up.


I added it to my bitter melon dish that evening. Sliced bitter melon, sauteed with little bits of fatty pork, chilies and chili paste, chopped tomato, and slivered ginger. The result was delicious.
Served over the broad rice stick noodles which I had finally managed to find, it was an epic meal.

I sat in front of my computer with a smile upon my face, looking a bit silly, for several minutes afterwards.


Oyster sauce was invented by accident; a foodseller neglected the broth for too long, when he finally checked up on it, it had become a dark viscous gloop which, it turned out, was wonderful with vegetables.
Abalone sauce is the same idea, done deliberately.
Simmered, strained, thickened with starch.
Use it to glaze the dish.





Note: dau miu (豆苗 snow pea sprouts), mentioned above, are familiarly served braised with garlic: 蒜茸炒豆苗 ('suen yung chaau dau miu'). They can also be sauteed plain (清炒豆苗 'ching chaau dau miu') ), or with chili sauce and a little shrimp paste (辣炒豆苗 'laat chaau dau miu'), dumped in clear broth (上湯豆苗 'seung tong dau miu'), stir-fried with satay sauce and beef, (沙茶牛肉豆苗 'saa chaa ngau yiuk dau miu'), or added to chicken giblet soup (豆苗雞肝湯 'dau miu gai gon tong'). They are fantastic, and take almost no time to cook; treat them with kindness and serve them hot and fragrant.

One of the best ways is cooked with bivalves; either sauteed with garlic and clams (蚌炒豆苗 'pong chaau daui miu') or dumped on top of mussels in the sauce pan 貽貝蒸豆苗 'yi pui jing dau miu').
If you're Fujianese, you'll scramble them with eggs.
And include either of the bivalves above.




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