Eight-Treasure Spicy Sauce

Eight-Treasure Spicy Sauce

　　　“Eight-Treasure Spicy Sauce” is a famous specialty dish from Shanghai, improved from the traditional “Stir-Fried Spicy Sauce.” The original “Stir-Fried Spicy Sauce” was a common home-style dish, once sold at food stalls. With its deep color and rich flavor, it paired perfectly with rice. In the 1940s, chefs at Tonghe Restaurant on Jiujiang Road, inspired by the cooking method of the local Shanghai dish “Happy Family,” added a “lid” of shrimp on top of the stir-fried spicy sauce and enriched the ingredients used in the base. They used eight main ingredients—shrimp, chicken, duck gizzard, pork leg meat, pork tripe, dried shrimp, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots—to create this dish, hence the name “Eight-Treasure Spicy Sauce.” The dish has a spicy, savory, and slightly sweet taste that is deeply flavorful, and it quickly became very popular with diners. Later, many restaurants in Shanghai began to imitate it, and the “Eight-Treasure Spicy Sauce” spread widely.

　　Basic Features  A famous Shanghai dish, this dish features bright and shiny colors, with a fresh, spicy, and aromatic taste.

　　Basic Ingredients  50g each of pre-coated shrimp, peanuts, diced pork leg, sliced duck gizzard, and diced bamboo shoots,

　Ingredients: 50g each of pre-coated shrimp, peanuts, diced pork leg, sliced duck gizzard, and diced bamboo shoots; 75g each of diced cooked chicken and clear meat broth; 25g each of diced cooked tripe, broad bean paste, and sugar; 150g of cooked lard; 10g of soaked dried shrimp; 40g of wet starch.

　　Cooking Method: Mix the sliced duck gizzard, diced chicken, diced pork, diced tripe, diced bamboo shoots, soaked dried shrimp, and peanuts in a bowl. Heat the cooked lard to 40% heat, slide in the shrimp and remove once cooked. Stir-fry red chili peppers in the pan to extract the red oil, then add the mixed chicken and other ingredients. Add MSG, soy sauce, sugar, broad bean paste, and clear meat broth, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 3 minutes before turning up to high heat. Thicken with wet starch, drizzle in cooked lard, and transfer to a serving plate. Boil the cooked shrimp and remaining clear meat broth, thicken with wet starch, add cooked lard, and pour over the chicken for serving.

　　Features: A famous Shanghai dish, this dish features bright and shiny colors, with a fresh, spicy, and aromatic taste.