XO Sauce is used in Cantonese cooking. I’ve ordered plenty of dishes using this ingredient, like Dumplings or Noodles with XO Sauce, but never cooked with it until recently.
So what is XO Sauce? According to Wikipedia:
XO Sauce developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly-chopped dried seafoods, including dried scallops (conpoy), fish and shrimp, which are cooked with chili peppers, onions and garlic.
The name XO sauce comes from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular Western liquor in Hong Kong and considered by many to be a chic product there. The name is a misnomer since the condiment contains no cognac, and it is not really a sauce in the traditional, smooth sense, but more chunky, like a relish. The term XO is often used in Hong Kong to denote high quality, prestige and luxury.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XO_sauce
In my pantry or refrigerator, I’ve got the essential sauces that I use frequently – oyster, chili oil, hoisin, black bean – but I’ve only added XO to it this year. What was I thinking? Maybe I didn’t want to cough up $10 for a tiny jar. Why so much? Now I realized it’s because of the ingredients. Duh.
Well, here’s a recipe for the first dish I cooked with XO Sauce – Ground Pork with Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli). If you try it, let me know what you think?
Ground Pork with Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)
Ingredients
- 1 pound of ground pork
- 1 pound of gai lan (Chinese broccoli), ends trimmed and stalks cut in half
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 scallion, chopped
- 1 tbsp XO sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 Thai Chili Peppers, whole or chopped, to taste (Alternatively you can use a tbsp of chili oil)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
Directions
- Heat oil in a wok over high heat.
- Add garlic and scallions and sauté for 1 minute. Be careful not to burn the garlic as it will taste bitter.
- Add ground pork and cook until browned, about 5 minutes
- Add XO sauce, chicken broth, soy sauce, chili peppers, and gai lan. Stir.
- Cook for about 5 minutes until greens are cooked, tossing often. If more liquid is needed, add a few splashes of water to steam the vegetables.
- Serve hot over rice.
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