Asia is a food-centred culture, where food is deeply embedded as a pure joy of life making Asian dishes have specific dimension to them. And the sauce is the most integral part of Asian cuisine. As time goes by, sauces keep evolving in different flavours and textures around the world.

Sauces, with a dominant colour of red, denote power, struggle, and fierceness; and is quite relevant to the Asian community, and therefore to their cuisines as well. Although, today sauces have become quite a known ingredient worldwide, for the Asian cuisines, however, Sauce is a not just an ingredient but a primary food substance in making their dishes as one of the most-tried-out cuisines around the world.

Today, in a modern world sauces are within an arm’s reach, being available at any nearby grocery stores. While our idea of sauces in Asian cuisines are limited to Soy sauce, Red and Green Chilli sauces; for the Asians, Sauces have evolved in topographical variants and are preferred to be prepared, adopting the traditional method of pasting and extracting the natural juices out of the fresh products manually. Some of the home-prepared unique sauces that require mentions beyond the known lists include.

Sichuan Style Hot-Chilli Bean Paste Sauce

Bright-red in colour, with a tinge of black, this sauce adds up spice to a dish. Depending on the level of spiciness required, one has to add up the necessary number of hot peppers into the preparation. One can also use peppercorns, sugar, and garlic spices for extra flavours. However, the sauce’s hot or sweet flavour can be altered using either hot pepper or sweet pepper. Other ingredients mandatory for preparing this sauce include-

  •     A total of 20 peppers, each being ½ inches long
  • 1 pound of sweet pepper
  • 6 drops of corn oil
  • 2 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1/4th cup of brown bean sauce             

Hunan Style Hot Chilli Bean Paste Sauce

 

There is not much difference in comparison to the Sichuan Style apart from the amount of brown beans used in the sauce, which requires 2 tablespoons of brown bean sauce added to 2 tablespoons of black bean sauce.

The colour, because of this additional brown bean sauce is somewhat close to a darker red/brown, unlike the red Sichuan style bean paste sauce. The rest of the ingredients remain the same. However, it is to be kept in mind that these sauces never go well with the main dishes. Rather they come as a dipping sauce for side dishes or as a complementary to rice to trigger one’s appetite

Ginger and Scallion Sauce

 Mostly yellowish-golden in colour, and transparent in texture, this sauce is easily made and used to prepare meals within a short span of time. It is super healthy and whether it’s a chicken prep, or for raw roasted veggies, this sauce can spice up the dishes well. Some of the basic  ingredients used in making this sauce are-

  • 2 tablespoons of freshly minced gingers
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped scallions
  • 2 tablespoons of sesame or olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons of soy sauce(light)
  • 2 tablespoons of red-white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1/4th cup of fresh chicken broth

Black bean Chilli Sauce

 Although it sounds pretty similar to the Sichuan style Bean paste sauce, it is way more different in terms of ingredients and taste. Ingredients used here include:

  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (light)
  • 1 tablespoon of dry sherry   
  • 2 teaspoon full of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of Chicken broth   
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped scallion
  • 2 tablespoons of corn/peanut oil
  • 2 tablespoons of rinsed and well-drained salted black beans.
  • 1 teaspoon of Chilli pepper flakes
  • 1 clove of minced garlic.