Tuesday's Cupful: Black Bean Sauce

Spicing up a dish with a pungent allure
In some cases, a smelly character can be a real turn-on, or maybe not. Black bean sauce offers one of those love-it or hate-it flavors. Look for jars of black bean sauce in the International Foods Aisle of major grocery stores. This sauce is made from fermented black bean paste or douchi in Chinese. This is one of Chinese cuisine’s oldest food ingredients and it dates back to the Han Dynasty. Makers must steam, ferment, and salt soy beans. The entire process causes the beans to turn black. The end product has a pungent, spicy, and tasty sauce. Chinese chefs use this sauce in stir-frys and for flavoring fish. Popular brands include Lee Kum Kee, Kame, and Dynasty. A little goes a long way when it comes to black bean sauce since it possesses such a strong and salty flavor.