XO Mushroom sauce

XO Mushroom sauce

Got lots of mushrooms? Then turn them into mushroom XO sauce. Typical ingredients of Chinese XO sauce include dried scallop and shrimp with lots of chili but I found a recipe that uses mushrooms. I did use chili and some dried shrimp as well as star anise.
Ingredients
500 gm shiitake mushrooms (or used mixed, whatever you can get your hands on)
2-3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
3 tsp tamari
2 Tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed and mashed
4 tsp Sriracha (hot chili sauce)
2 tsp rice vinegar
Splash of Shaoxing wine
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp shredded ginger
1 Star anise crushed
Optional 1/2 cup dried shrimp

Method
Preheat the oven to 230° C and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Soak dried shrimp in just enough hot water to cover; reserve the water to add later.
Chop mushroom stems and caps finely. Place in bowl and toss with the sesame oil. Spread the mushrooms out on the baking sheets and roast for 15-30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until dried and lightly browned. Cook it longer if necessary; they need to be dry.
Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and stir in all of the remaining ingredients.
Jar and seal straight away or let stand for 30 minutes if you are  serving immediately.

Chook’s note: I used both big dark field mushrooms and a few shiitake. If you don’t have fermented black beans simply use a couple of Tbsp of black bean sauce.  I like the depth that the shrimps impart. Add a little fresh chopped chili if you like it super hot but these are really a matter of personal taste. As an alternative and if you like your sauce hot, use a little crushed szechuan pepper in place of star anise .
It is simply delicious on triple cream brie, in toasted sangers, on vegetables.