XO Sauce

 XO Sauce

Taken recipe from: https://youtu.be/_bpuhTtAPpU 

SERVING : Approximately 2kg sauce 

INGREDIENTS 

• 375g dried scallops 
• 250g Jin Hua Chinese ham
• 125g dried shrimps
• 5 tablespoons dried chili flakes (I included 1 to 2 tablespoons to 1/3 of the sauce in the end)
• 2 1/2 bulb of garlic 
• 625g onion/shallot (approximately 4 1/2 onions)
• 15 tablespoons cooking wine
• 13 tablespoons oyster sauce 
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 tablespoon black pepper powder 
• 1000 - 1250g cooking oil 

STEPS

1. Wash and rinse scallops, dried shrimps and Chinese ham. 
2. Soak the dried scallops and shrimps for 1 hour / until soften. 
3. Cut Chinese ham to smaller pieces. 
4. Steam dried scallops and Chinese ham for 15 minutes. 
5. Mince dried shrimps, Chinese ham, dried scallops, onion and garlic with food processor, one by one, put aside.
6. Heat up a wok of oil till 50% hot. Medium fire. Pour in dried scallops first. Fry for 5 to 10 minutes, add in Chinese ham and dried shrimps. Continue frying till golden brown. 
7. Take out the 3 fried ingredients earlier and put in a pan on another stove. 
8. Add in the seasonings except chili and black pepper, to the pan and cook it with low fire. 
9. While the initial frying wok still has hot oil, add in the garlic and onion. Fry till golden brown fragrant. 
10. Add all the ingredients together. Now it's time to add the chili flakes and black pepper. I divided 1/3 for spicy and 2/3 non spicy. 
11. Remove from heat. Let cool completely. Store in containers. Make sure there's a layer of oil on top of the sauce to act as preservative and protecting layer. 
12. I leave it on counter top for 1 night and store in fridge the next day. 

Chinese version from original maker: 

原料：

• 干贝150g
• 金华火腿100g
• 海米50g
• 辣椒面2大勺（用干辣椒10个磨碎）
• 蒜头一整头
• 洋葱2个约250g
• 料酒6大勺
• 蚝油5大勺
• 生抽2大勺
• 糖一大勺
• 黑胡椒1-2大勺
• 植物油500ml

做法： 1. 干贝和海米分别洗净用清水加一勺料酒浸泡一个小时以上 2. 洋葱切成细丁，蒜头剁成蒜蓉待用 3. 将干贝和海米沥干水，干贝和火腿一起上锅蒸15分钟 4. 将海米切成碎末待用 5. 蒸过的干贝稍凉至不烫手后，拆成细丝。干贝和火腿蒸出的汤汁都留用 6. 蒸过的火腿切成薄片，再切碎，切到和海米碎差不多大小即可 7. 在锅里放入500ml油，烧至5成热，转中小火，将干贝丝倒进去 8. 保持中小火，5成热油温，炸约5分钟至干贝丝变成浅金黄色 9. 下海米碎和火腿碎，继续炸3-5分钟，至这三样食材都脱水，变成金黄色。捞出到另一口锅里待用 10. 保持油锅中小火加热，倒入洋葱碎，继续炸5分钟左右，至洋葱变黄 11. 另一个炉灶开小火，往捞出的干贝、海米和火腿中倒入4大勺料酒、2大勺生抽、5大勺蚝油、一大勺糖，和之前蒸干贝和火腿出的汤汁，拌匀后小火熬煮 12. 待洋葱炸至浅金黄色后，下蒜末，继续炸约7、8分钟，至洋葱碎和蒜末都焦黄即可关火 13. 将在一旁熬煮的干贝、海米和火腿倒回油锅中 14. 立刻加入辣椒碎和黑胡椒，拌匀即可 15. 待酱料稍凉后，转移至消毒过的瓶子中，至离瓶口一公分处停止，擦干净瓶口即可密封 16. 罐装好的XO酱在室温下放置3、5天再开瓶使用，开瓶后需要冷藏保存 Tips: 1. 在准备食材时，要尽量将各个食材切得大小一致，这样炸的时候才能熟成一致 2. 如果没有把握可以掌握好油温和食材下锅的时间顺序，可以将每一样食材都分别炸制，全程中小火，防止炸糊 3. 洋葱可以换成红葱头（Shallot）香味更强 4. 喜辣的可多放辣椒，按个人口味调整 5. 成品如果油量不够，可以再烧一点油，烧热后倒进去，保证所有食材被油浸没，这样可以延长保存时间 6. 做好的XO酱放置几天，等食材互相融合后味道更好 7. 开瓶后冷藏，每次取用时用干净的器具，可以保存至少1-2个月

Soak the dried shrimps.. I used a mixture of shallot and onion. 

Minced ingredients 

Chinese ham that I bought from Shopee 

Steam the dried scallops and Chinese ham

All the ingredients are ready. Best to use food processor for everything. 

It's so much easier. Especially when making big quantity like this.

After frying the dried scallops, now add in dried shrimps.

And followed by Chinese ham

Continue frying till bubbles are formed.

Continue frying until the whole kuali has bubbles like this.

It means the water has all "come" out.

This is important to ensure the sauce can be free of water and preserves longer.

Remove from the kuali when they have turned golden brown like this.

Using a sieve is helpful.

Place in a pan on the stove next to the kuali. 

Put in all the seasoning except chili and black pepper. 

Add in the Chinese ham juice and scallop juice (if there is, mine didn't have). 

Small flame, stir up everything and cook for a while so that the flavours are infused in the 3 ingredients earlier.

In the hot kuali earlier, same oil, put in onion first. 

Fry for 5 minutes. Then, add in the garlic and continue frying.

Until they turn into golden brown fragrant garlic onion.

Add everything altogether.

Now it's time to add in chili and black pepper.

1/3 spicy and 2/3 non spicy (original) XO sauce 

Leave cool completely before storing. 

Test cook - XO fried rice.

Simply delicious, doesn't need additional flavours. 

Just top up a little salt if you want to when cooking. 

This is my yield after busying in the kitchen for a couple of hours.

Make sure there's a layer of oil on top to seal the sauce from any contamination.

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Original 1516 g
Spicy 785 g

Total 2301 g
2.3 kg

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