XO Sauce Winnie

I have always eyed the bottled of XO sauce on the shelf which is so tiny and costed an arm and a leg. My dear friend, Winnie, gave me this recipe and i tried it and liked it so much that i had to post and share with everyone. Thank you, Winnie



Ingredients:
Dried scallops
Dried shrimp
Smithfield country ham (or any dried cured ham)
Fresh red chili (I used red jalapenos)
Red chili powder (I use sweet paprika for color)
Shallots
Sake (Japanese rice wine)
Kosher salt
Canola oil for cooking (some people use olive oil, i used soyabean cooking oil)


Method:

1. Rinse dried scallops and shrimp. Coarsely dice shrimp and break up scallops.

2. Cover scallops and shrimp with sake. Microwave one minute to cook and soften the mixture . (do not boil). Let the sea foods cool off and leave in refrigerator for up to 1 week before making the sauce.

3. Finely chop the country ham in the food proccessor, set aside.

4. Drain liquid from the scallops and shrimp if there’s any left, they should absorbed all the sake by now. Using a food proccessor, chop the scallops and shrimp into smaller pieces .

5. Slightly cut up fresh chili and shallots. Put the vegetables and salt into a food processor and pulse few times to chop up the vegetables.

6. Heat a wok with lots of oil, Fry the ham, dried shrimp and scallops until crispy.  Then stir fry the chili mixture until fragrant and shallots are thoroughly cooked.

7. Add seafood and ham mixture and red chilli pepper powder or paprika into the wok, add more oil if needed, and stir fry at medium low until the sauce bubbles. Add kosher salt for taste. Keep cooking for a minute or two. Remove from heat and let the sauce cool off.

Optional: Add soy sauce and oyster sauce to the mixture if you wish, but the xo sauce will be a brown color instead of red.


Winnie's Note:

I did not give any measurement for the ingredients because I never measured when I cook; I just “eye ball” them. This is like making hot chili sauce, how much of each ingredient one puts into the sauce is personal preference.

Serves