Kimchi chili sauce

Kimchi chili sauce

　　Kimchi chili sauce is also a common home-cooked dish among the people of Shaoshan. A love for sour and spicy flavors is a hallmark of Shaoshan cuisine. Every household has a jar for pickling vegetables, where the pickling brine is made by cooling boiled water and fermenting it with salt, sugar, and rice wine, resulting in a richly aromatic flavor. Vegetables such as radishes and cucumbers are cut into strips, or fruits like peaches and plums, along with garlic cloves, shallots, green beans, ginger, and red chilies, are washed and dried until semi-dry before being soaked in the jar and sealed. The longer they are left to soak, the more deliciously sweet and sour they become.

　　　　The people of Shaoshan can also create many tasty variations using ordinary chilies. For example, salted chilies are made by soaking green chilies in boiling water, drying them, adding salt, and either chopping them whole or mixing them with perilla. Another example is chili paste, which is made by washing fresh red chilies, drying their surface moisture, chopping them, and then mixing them with salt, monosodium glutamate, along with dried radish, ginger or garlic cloves, and fermented black beans to create a delicious side dish.