What is XO sauce
XO sauce is a very interesting creation, considering China’s culinary history goes back thousands of years. This sauce hails from the 1980s when it was created from chopped dried seafood to complement Cantonese cuisine. A staple in Hong Kong and the southern mainland regions like Guangdong, the ‘XO’ is a nod to the ‘extra old’ denotation used for cognac. However, there is no cognac used in the making of XO sauce. It usually contains various dried goods such as shrimp, shrimp roe, scallop, ham, and fish, along with aromatics such as garlic and onion.
Making XO sauce at home
Because of the bounty of dried seafood contained in it, XO sauce is considered a luxury item. It’s pretty expensive, but if you make it yourself out of high-quality ingredients, you can save money and enjoy that same premium flavor. When you make XO sauce, it requires a fair amount of time and patience. First, you’ll have to pre-soak all those dried ingredients. Then, you’ll have to spend quite a lot of time slow-roasting everything to get it to the perfect texture. Traditionally, every ingredient is cooked separately to achieve the correct doneness, then mixed together. After many experiments though, we found out that it’s possible to group ingredients together to shorten the process. PS: I DO NOT recommend adding everything together in one go, which I’ve seen in many online recipes. It’s very hard to control the doneness this way and it always ends up with some undercooked or overcooked ingredients.
Ingredients
And since you will need some more unusual ingredients that aren’t found in the typical American supermarket, you’ll have to run to your local Chinatown to get the key ingredients like dried scallops, dried shrimp, and cured ham.
Prepare ahead
You will need to soak the dried scallops and shrimp ahead of time, for a minimum of 4 hours or up to overnight. For the scallops, once you’re done soaking them, you should remove and discard the tough piece from each (the adductor muscle). You can feel it with your hand. It’s not necessary, but your XO sauce will have tough bits mixed in, once cooked, if you skip this step.
Chop the ingredients
Chopping the ingredients is one of the most time-consuming parts of this recipe. I prefer to use a food processor to chop the scallops and shrimp. It shreds the scallops way quicker and the shrimp are almostly minced when it’s done. On the other hand, mincing the aromatics and the ham with a knife will provide a much better consistency without turning the ingredients into powder.
Read to cook
Once you’ve gathered all the ingredients, you’re ready to cook!
Cooking process
You can find XO sauce recipes online that may seem easier, I know. While mine isn’t the easiest, I promise it’s worth it. The cooking steps I walk you through ensure that you’ll get a quality result with everything cooked to absolute perfection.
How to use XO sauce
Your patience will be rewarded with this incredibly rich, seafood-flavored sauce that touches on both savory and sweet appeals. Add it onto anything you like, from congee to rice to noodles. Stir it into fried rice, or add it to veggies or grilled fish for a completely mesmerizing taste that will change your weeknight routine into something much more exotic. Want to learn more about Chinese Cooking? Sign up my newsletter to receive the 5-Day Chinese Cooking Crash Course and recipe update! If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
More homemade sauce recipes
Chinese Chili Garlic ShrimpChinese BBQ Sauce (叉烧酱)Slow Roast Goose With Black Currant SauceHow to Make Chili Oil (辣椒油)Homemade Vegetarian Oyster Sauce (Vegan Stir Fry Sauce)
Lilja Walter is a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
