Hoisin sauce facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hoisin sauce |
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| Hoisin sauce | |||||||||||||||||||||
Deep-fried Jiaozi with hoisin sauce
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 海鮮醬 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 海鲜酱 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | seafood sauce | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese | tương đen | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | black sauce | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hoisin sauce is a thick, fragrant sauce commonly used in Cantonese cuisine as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fry, or as dipping sauce. It is dark-colored in appearance and sweet and salty in taste. Although regional variants exist, hoisin sauce usually includes soybeans, fennel, red chili peppers, and garlic. Vinegar, five-spice powder, and sugar are also commonly added.
Contents
Name
The word hoisin is derived from the Chinese words for "seafood" (simplified Chinese: 海鲜; traditional Chinese: 海鮮; pinyin: hǎixiān; Cantonese Yale: hói sīn), although the sauce does not contain any seafood ingredients and is not commonly consumed with seafood. The reason for the name is "seafood flavour", a common adjective in Chinese cuisine, especially Sichuanese ("fish fragrant").
Ingredients
The key ingredient of hoisin sauce is fermented soybean paste.
Some hoisin sauce ingredients include starches such as sweet potato, wheat and rice, and water, sugar, soybeans, sesame seeds, white distilled vinegar, salt, garlic, red chili peppers, and sometimes preservatives or coloring agents. Traditionally, hoisin sauce is made using toasted mashed soybeans.
Uses in regional cuisines
Cantonese cuisine
Hoisin sauce is used in Cantonese cuisine as a marinade sauce for meat or as a dipping sauce.
Hoisin sauce can be used as a marinade sauce for meat such as char siu.
Hoisin sauce can be used as a dipping sauce for steamed or panfried rice noodle roll (chángfĕn 肠粉).
American cuisine
Hoisin sauce can be used as a dipping sauce for Peking duck and lettuce wraps.
Hoisin sauce can be used as a dipping sauce for moo shu pork.
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Hoisin sauce on a Peking duck wrap
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Plain cheungfan with hoisin sauce and sesame seed sauce
Vietnamese cuisine
In Vietnamese, hoisin sauce is called tương đen. It is a popular condiment for phở, a Vietnamese noodle soup, in southern Vietnam. The sauce can be directly added into a bowl of phở at the table, or it can be used as a dip for the meat of phở dishes. In phở, hoisin is typically accompanied by Sriracha sauce or tương đỏ. The hoisin sauce is also used to make a dipping sauce for Vietnamese gỏi cuốn (often translated as 'spring roll') and other similar dishes. In cooking, it can be used for glazing broiled chicken.
See also
In Spanish: Salsa hoisin para niños
