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In the American South, Hoppin' John is a popular New Year's meal. In honor of the Chinese New Year, I would like to make a Chinese variation on Hoppin' John.
In place of bacon, I thought I'd use BBQ Pork. However, I am unfamiliar with legumes (beans) used in Chinese cuisine other than soybeans. What are some other bean choices that would work for this?
Also, not sure about tomatoes being used in Chinese cooking. What would an alternative be for tomatoes?
Thanks.
I just found the recipe for it. The name of it is Bak Kwa (Sweet BBQ Pork Jerky). Here's the wikipedia entry (boy it's easy to find things when you know the name!). The recipe actually grind up the pork. They use about 70% meat and 30% fat. But according to the wikipedia entry there is also an expensive version where they slice of a solid piece of meat.
Sugar and salt was originally used and then the meat was smoked (this sounds really close to BBQing, which generally cooks the meat with smoke...yummy tender ribs).
These days, people make them in the oven at low heat. In the recipe, they put the minced mixture between two sheets of parchment paper, which probably keeps it moist and tender!
You're close. In actual fact, however, most of the commercial soy sauces and other Chinese sauces you buy are not fermented at all; they're acid-hydrolyzed.
Fermented soy sauce (or other soy-based sauces) are actually translucent and fairly light in colour. But fermentation takes months, so manufacturers hydrolyze instead. The process is completely chemical, and involves boiling the beans in a strong acid and then neutralizing with a strong base (normally, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide).
This process makes a much stronger, glutamate-heavy sauce than natural fermentation. It also produces a much darker colour. That's why so many of the sauces you see are dark.
Some of the sauces aren't actually hydrolyzed or fermented but will contain artificial colour, if you look at the ingredients. I guess the manufacturers figure that consumers are so used to the dark colour that they would be suspicious if it wasn't there.
Here is a picture of naturally brewed soy sauce:
Compare to the commercial hydrolyzed kind:
Some brands, like Kikkoman, claim to be naturally-brewed, but the colour suggests otherwise; either they do something to speed up the fermentation process or they're adding colouring.
Note: As requested, I've updated the original image to one I found of a bowl of what certainly appears to be the hydrolyzed kind, in order to give an "apples to apples" comparison. However, it's hard to find a picture of a bowl of soy sauce that tells you which brand it is, other than the Kikkoman, whose origin is questionable.
For the sake of completeness, there is also one other reason why soy sauce might be very dark (other than actual "dark soy sauce" which contains molasses), which is that the sauce might actually be from black soybeans. Those are not common, however, and unless a sauce specifically says that it is from black soybeans, it probably is not.
Best Answer
The Chinese use what is often referred to as black beans, but they're actually fermented soybeans.
Azuki/Adzuki beans are the beans used in red bean paste. Most often, they're sweetened and mashed. But I don't see any reason you can't use them in Hoppin' John. I'd temper the slight sweetness of the azukis with a bit of black bean paste to give a more savory flavor. (The barbeque'd pork is already going to be a bit sweet.)