Black Bean Garlic Sauce Recipe Wanted!

vegan4lyfe2012

I would love to make Black Bean Garlic Sauce, but so far all the recipes I've found use FERMENTED black beans. I can't seem to locate any at my natural foods store. Does anyone have a recipe they use that is with regular cooked black beans instead of fermented? Help!

matyoung125

black beans are black beans and often used in Mexican cooking.

Chinese fermented black beans are soy beans turned black by the fermentation process. Sometimes they are referred to as black beans but they are different from above. Try an Asian super market or online.

vegan4lyfe2012

Thank you - I had no idea! There is an Asian store just 15 minutes from me - fingers crossed!

Annieway987

You can probably find Black Bean Garlic Sauce in a jar in your Asian store. It's harder to find the fermented beans, but I have found them in Asian markets. They come in a plastic bag, not refrigerated. I can get the sauce in a jar in the supermarket sometimes in California or NY (where I used to live). I make stirfry with this sauce very frequently. I don't even really follow a recipe any more, but I'll try to describe what I do:
2-3 zucchini sliced (other quick cooking veggies like sugar snap peas, broccoli cut small, cauliflower cut small) use any assortment of veggies that cook fairly fast. Carrots will work if sliced thin. Asparagus is wonderful - just slice it diagonally.
1 onion cut in course pieces
2 Tablespoon oil
2 cloves garlic - smashed, minced
1 large chicken breast sliced (or a pound of shrimp, thinly sliced beef, thinly sliced pork etc.)
2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 and 1/2 cup chicken broth (or equivalent bullion)
a few grinds black pepper
2 Tablespoons of Black Bean Garlic Sauce
1/2 cup cold water
1 Tablespoon corn starch

Slice up the meat (leave shrimp whole). Marinate with 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, garlic and pepper while you are prepping the veggies
Cut up the veggies.
Put half a Tablespoon of oil in your wok. When it gets hot add the veggies and stir fry until they start to wilt then add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook until veggies are less than done - they should be just starting to get crisp-tender. They will cook a little more later.
Remove veggie mixture from wok and keep warm.
Wipe out the wok with a paper towel.
Add 1 tablespoon oil. When it gets hot add the meat mixture and stir fry. Cook until it is almost done. Add black bean sauce and stir it around a little.
Add the veggies back in along with the juices.
Bring it up to a boil and stir in a mixture of the cornstarch and water. Just add enough to make the sauce a little thicker. Don't cook it much at this point - you just want to heat the sauce up enough to cook the cornstarch and thicken it.

All done! Serve over rice if you like.

I didn't run the calorie counts on this because I put in a lot of variables. You can eliminate the oil and use a non-stick spray - I've done this. If you take the oil out, the calories are going to be very reasonable. If you have to watch your salt, this recipe is not for you. It is quite salty. You can leave out some of the soy sauce and reduce the black bean sauce if you want less salt, but you'll lose some flavor.

It's trickier to use the actual fermented black beans that come in a plastic bag. You have to soak and rinse them a couple of times before using to get some of the salt out. Then coarsely mash them up with something. Add them at teh point where the sauce is added above.

This sauce is also really good with steamed fish. Let me know if you want that recipe.