Hoisin Sauce

From OSR

Hoisin sauce is one of those ingredients that I don't like to buy, partly because I don't use it that often and the jar of it will sit in my fridge until it gets scary, but also because I am always suspicious of the ingredient list, which tends to be more chemical than food.

So I've learned to make my own. Here are the basic ingredients:

Ingredients

prunes

bean paste (dark barley miso or fermented black beans)

shoyu

vinegar

chopped garlic or garlic powder

brown sugar

tamicon (tamarind concentrate)

Directions

For the proportions, use mostly prunes, then everything else is to taste. Don't leave out the bean paste, it is essential. The tamicon (or tamarind) is optional.

Heat the vinegar and sugar together to dissolve the sugar, then combine it with the rest of the ingredients and puree.

Taste and adjust as needed:

To make it sweeter, add honey (adding sugar at this point will produce a grainy product).

To make it more tangy add tamicon.

To make it more savory add bean paste or shoyu.