Shacha sauce

Sauce shacha

What it is

Chaoshan men working seasons in Malaya and Java brought satay home, and cooks rebuilt it around dried shrimp and sun-cured brill until the sauce tasted of the sea rather than of ground nuts; sha-cha is only the Mandarin reading of the Teochew sa-te. Bull Head, the brand on most jars, has been potting it in Taiwan since 1958.

In the kitchen

The solids sink and the oil floats, so scrape the jar to the bottom before you spoon — the flavour is in the sediment. A tablespoon melted into the wok before the beef seasons the whole dish; stirred in at the end it only tastes oily.

Goes with

Beef Dried shrimp Garlic Shallot Chili pepper Chinese broccoli Squid Peanut

Same species

Brill Turbot

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us