Ingredients in Black Bean Garlic Sauce
Black bean garlic sauce is widely used in Chinese and cuisine and can be used to flavor many different dishes. You can use it to make a simple stir fry a bit more exciting, such as a flavoring for chicken or fish, or as an addition to almost any Chinese-inspired dish.
Soy Sauce
Surprisingly, the first ingredient in black bean garlic sauce is neither black beans nor garlic, but rather soy sauce. This salty sauce, commonly used in Chinese and Japanese foods, was first brewed in China around 2,500 years ago. It is produced by fermenting soybeans with a grain, usually wheat. Today you can find it in most American supermarkets.
Fermented Black Beans
You may wonder how black beans, a staple in Mexican foods, ended up in this classic Chinese sauce. In fact, Chinese black beans (also known as dou chi) are not actually black beans, but rather fermented soybeans that end up taking on a black color.
Garlic
You know garlic as the stinky relative of the onion whose many uses range from flavoring mashed potatoes and garlic bread to warding off vampires. You may not know that garlic probably originated in Central Asia and that several heads of dried garlic were found in Tutankhamen's tomb.
Soybean Oil
If you look at that generic bottle of vegetable oil in your cupboard, you will likely find that the ingredients list reveals soybean oil. Unlike many other oils, such as olive oil and grapeseed oil, soybean oil does not have a strong or distinctive taste, which makes it suitable for many cooking projects.
Rice Wine
Rice wine comes in several varieties. In Japan, it usually comes as either sake, a dry wine used for both drinking and cooking, or mirin, which is sweeter and used almost exclusively in cooking. In China, cooks use Shaoxing wine, which is similar to Japanese sake.
Modified Corn Starch
Modified corn starch is corn starch that has been treated to affect either the texture, the dissolution speed or our ability to digest it. It is commonly used as a thickening agent for soups, sauces and other similar dishes.
Other Ingredients
Water, salt and sugar are also standard ingredients in Chinese black bean garlic sauce.
Tags: black beans, bean garlic, garlic sauce, Bean Garlic, bean garlic sauce, Black Bean
