A glossy, viscous sweet-and-sour condiment made from cooked plums, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and a touch of chili, intended as a dipping sauce or marinade for fried foods, dumplings, breaded meats, and Cantonese dishes.
Ingredients
- 800 g ripe but firm red plums
- 160 g light cane sugar
- 120 ml Chinese or Japanese rice vinegar
- 80 ml water
- 2 cloves fresh garlic
- 20 g fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 piece mild or medium-hot dried red chili
- 1 piece whole star anise
Method
- Wash the plums, cut around the stones, and remove the stones. Keep the skins: they give the sauce its light amber-brown color and help it thicken naturally.
- Peel the garlic and ginger. Lightly crush the garlic with the flat of a knife and cut the ginger into thin slices so it infuses well during cooking.
- Put the plums in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the sugar, rice vinegar, water, garlic, ginger, chili, and star anise. Heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and the plums release their juices.
- Lower the heat and cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, stirring often with a spatula. The mixture is ready to blend when the skins loosen, the flesh mashes without resistance, and the juice becomes syrupy around the edges of the pan.
- Remove the star anise. Blend the hot mixture thoroughly until smooth. For a restaurant-style plum sauce texture, pass it through a fine sieve afterward, pressing with a ladle to remove thick skins, ginger fibers, and chili pieces.
- Return the strained sauce to the clean saucepan. Add the light soy sauce and salt, then cook again over low heat, stirring very regularly. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon; it is ready when a line drawn with a finger remains visible for a few seconds.
- Taste off the heat. The flavor should be distinctly sweet-and-sour, fruity, lightly salty, and discreetly spicy. If it seems too sharp, continue cooking gently to concentrate the plums' natural sugar; if it seems too thick, loosen it with a small splash of hot water.
- Pour the sauce while still hot into a very clean jar. Let it cool slightly, seal it, then cool completely. The texture firms as it cools: it should remain glossy, viscous, and easy to spoon, without becoming compact.
- Serve in a small dish with spring rolls, fried wontons, fried chicken meatballs, or breaded meats, or use it as a thin marinade for sweet-and-sour Cantonese preparations.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 256.5 kcal
- Protein
- 2.95 g
- Carbohydrate
- 55.76 g
- Fat
- 1.25 g
- Fibre
- 5.33 g
- Calcium
- 2.3 mg
- Iron
- 0.14 mg
- Magnesium
- 5.54 mg
