Help w/ yellow bean paste...

[jpinmaryland]

I have had this w/ fish in a restaurant and it was awesome. But I tried to do a stir fry w/ pork and really didnt get much taste out of it. Is yellow bean paste used more in a baked or steamed type of dish? I thought pork would do all right with it since that is a kind of mild flavor. For those who dont know, yellow bean paste is sort of salty/slighty sweet bean paste. I like it, just not sure how to use it...thx.

[htc]

My mom uses it for meat or fish. Maybe you didn't add enough?

[jpinmaryland]

it's possible; that is one thing I thought about. I was doing a stir fry and I had about 2 TB of the paste and added it into the pork/vegetables along with some water and wine. I was afraid to add very much soy sauce for fear that I would throw off the taste, instead I got very little taste or at least not as much as I am used to w/ chinese cooking...

Hey, htc. When your mom does it, does she use it for like stewing or braising or something like that??

[ironchef]

When making Chinese dishes, the base for your sauce should be some kind of stock beit chicken, fish, etc. Part of the reason why it was bland was because you used water.

[jennyema]

Make it into a stir fry sauce with some soy sauce, a bit of chix stock, and maybe some other seasoning like hoisin or oyster sauce and some minced ginger, garlic and scallion.

Alone it's pretty mild.

[jpinmaryland]

thanks for all these tips! Didnt think of any of that.

Iron chef: Is that avatar..? Is that...? Fossil man?

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by jpinmaryland

thanks for all these tips! Didnt think of any of that.

Iron chef: Is that avatar..? Is that...? Fossil man?

It is him.

[BreezyCooking]

Ironchef is right - it's always better to use stock for stirfries rather than water. If I don't have cubes of homemade on hand, I at least always have a carton of Swanson's chicken broth in the fridge. My base sauce/liquid for nearly all stirfries consists of 3 Tblspns stock, 2 Tblspns dry sherry, & 1 Tblspn soy sauce. Then I add whatever specific ingredients for that particular sauce - hoisin, oyster, chili-garlic paste, etc., etc.

As far as yellow bean paste goes, it's one of the very mildest types, so you probably could either use more, or switch over to a red bean paste, which is a bit stronger.

[jennyema]

JP, it just occured to me to ask ... what does your yellow bean paste look like? Could it be that you have yellow miso, rather than Chinese bean sauce?

[BreezyCooking]

Aacck - my mistake too. I automatically assumed we were talking about miso paste.

[jennyema]

OK, that explains a lot.

White (yellow) iso paste isn't for stir frying. It's for making soup, sauces, dressings, etc. It's quite light. When you combine it with Mirin and sugar you can make a great glaze for salmon.

You can also buy other, darker miso pastes.

Chinese fermented bean paste is a different condiment. see here

[jpinmaryland]

I dont think it's miso paste..It's called Ground Bean Sauce, made by Koon Chun sauce factory. Ingredients: water, soya beans, salt, wheat flour, sugar sesame oil and spices. It's a brownish in color sort of like the color of molasses. Taste somewhat salty with a sweeter after taste e.g. hoisen.

What's the difference with miso paste? ANd, is yellow bean paste the same as white bean paste?

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by jpinmaryland

I dont think it's miso paste..It's called Ground Bean Sauce, made by Koon Chun sauce factory. Ingredients: water, soya beans, salt, wheat flour, sugar sesame oil and spices. It's a brownish in color sort of like the color of molasses. Taste somewhat salty with a sweeter after taste e.g. hoisen.

What's the difference with miso paste? ANd, is yellow bean paste the same as white bean paste?

What you're using probably isn't miso. But it does sound like it's made from soybeans. From the ingredients you've listed that comprise the bean sauce, you need the addition of other flavors like ginger, hoisin, soy sauce, chicken stock, sherry, etc. etc. for the food to have more flavor.

[jpinmaryland]

If I need to add all or some of that other stuff, what is the pt. of the bean paste?

[ironchef]

It's a base, a foundation. It's about building the different levels of flavor and giving each dish more depth. It's about balancing flavors. It's about developing a flavor that when people taste the dish, they don't just say "It tastes like hoisin".

[htc]

jpinmaryland, this is the stuff my Mom uses but it's not for stir fry (or at least that's not how my family uses it). You use it to flavor meat or fish. BTW, I really like that brand of sauces. They carry a thick soy sauce that I use a lot for Vietnamese cooking. Good choice of brand!

Hope that helps.

[BreezyCooking]

The only Chinese bean paste I've ever used has been black bean paste, which is made from salted preserved black beans. Miso paste is a fermented product made from soybeans, as well as other grains on occasion. Here's a link to a company that produces Miso using barley, rice, chickpeas, & even corn!! Interesting.

http://www.great-eastern-sun.com/misomaster.html

[Gretchen]

Yellow bean paste and miso are pretty close to the same thing. Is it possible that the dish the OP had was yellow curry paste instead. I googled for recipes for bean paste and it seems to be mostly with tofu or deep fried by itself. I, of course, didn't go too far so there may be lots of other stuff.
I LOVE dishes with curry pastes.

Edited to say I hadn't read the second page of replies.

[jennyema]

JP

What you have is Chinese yellow bean sauce. Like Ironchef says, it is used as a base for sauces. Alone it will not be thrilling. Experiment and add ingredients to it till you have something that pleases you.

Here's a recipe that uses it (along with other u\yummy stuff) with noodles.

[jpinmaryland]

good stuff to sift through here. Thanks..