Jiadi's Hot Pot Sauces

Soy Sauce-based

Ingredients

  • Daepa or scallion
  • Garlic, 1 or 2 cloves
  • Olive oil, or vegetable oil
  • Soy sauce, lots of soy sauce
  • Water
  • Chin-kiang Vinegar
  • Salt
  • Sugar
  • MSG
  • Oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon
  • White pepper powder

Instructions

  • Slice the garlic and chop the scallion. Put them in a bowl
  • Add a pinch of salt and some oil to the garlic and scallion. Mix and let them rest for a few minutes. This will extract the aromatics from the garlic and scallion
  • Add oyster sauce, sugar, MSG, white pepper powder
  • Add vinegar and lots of soy sauce. Vinegar is about 1/10 the volume of the soy sauce to give it a sour and sharp taste. The majority of this dipping sauce is soy sauce. Mix them
  • Add water, about half volume of the soy sauce, to dilute the sauce. Give it a taste. Add more water if needed until the sauce is not too salty

Sesame Paste-based

Left - Sesame paste; Middle - Fermented bean curd; Right - Leek flower sauce

(Left - Sesame paste; Middle - Fermented bean curd; Right - Leek flower sauce)

Ingredients

  • Sesame paste
  • Fermented bean curd
  • Leek flower sauce
    • You can usually find the 3 items above on the same shelf. Other brands of fermented bean curd and leek flower sauce will work. For the sesame paste, I prefer the brand Wang Zhihe as other brands don’t taste as good
  • Water
  • Soy sauce, 2 teaspoon
  • Salt
  • Honey
  • MSG
  • Oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon
  • Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
  • White pepper powder
  • Szechuan peppercorn powder

Instructions

  • Put one bottle of sesame paste into a bowl
  • Add a teaspoon of leek flower sauce, two cubes of bean curd, and the rest of the ingredients, except water
  • Mix the sauce as much as possible. It’ll gradually get thicker and we’ll thin it with water next
  • Add 2 teaspoons of water and mix. Repeat until the sauce is thin and smooth. It’s recommended to add 2 teaspoons of water at a time, as too much water will break down