Szechuan Sauce

You can make it into a marinade, or dipping sauce. You can use it for roughly a dozen recipes on the site. It’s very worthwhile making a batch, and it’ll keep for years.

You’ll need:

• 100ml tamari or soy sauce

• 100ml Chinese black vinegar or any alt vinegar

• 100g white sugar or any alt sugar

• 200g water

• 1 stick of cinnamon 

• 1 tsp fennel seeds

• 40g ginger thinly sliced

• 1 whole star anise

• 20g Szechuan peppercorns or 4 cloves

Place all the ingredients in a pan, bring to a boil, and simmer on low heat for around 1 hour.

Strain all the solids out and throw them away.

If you want to use the sauce as a dipping sauce, similar to hoisin, you can continue to boil until thicker.