Eight-Treasure Stir-Fry Sauce

Prepare the ingredients. Wash everything thoroughly and set aside. The basic ingredients are: doubanjiang, shrimp, peanuts, dried tofu, diced meat, and diced bamboo shoots. Others can be added or reduced according to personal preference or the season.

Winter bamboo shoots, water bamboo, carrots, eggplants, shiitake mushrooms, Beijing scallions, dried tofu, and tenderloin, all cut into small dice, the finer the better. Shrimp should be slightly chopped. If the cooked cashews or cooked peanuts are large, they can be slightly crushed. First, coat the diced meat and shrimp with starch (see TIPS).

Cut arrowhead, carrot, eggplant, and dried tofu into cubes and cook them in broth (or water) for 5 minutes. Blanch diced winter bamboo shoots in hot water to remove the rough taste.

Add cooking oil to a large wok, then stir-fry diced shiitake mushrooms, diced meat, and shrimp until cooked.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked vegetable cubes into the wok, add cashews (or peanuts) and the mixture of shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, and diced meat, and stir to combine evenly (there's no need to deliberately drain the moisture from the vegetable cubes too much).

Add dark soy sauce for coloring, then put three to four tablespoons of doubanjiang into the pan and stir evenly. (You can also heat another pan, mix the doubanjiang with dark soy sauce, fry it until fragrant, and then pour the ingredients in to stir-fry. This step can be adjusted according to personal preference and the intensity of the sauce flavor.)

Turn the heat to high and stir-fry for 5 minutes. The sauce will gradually reduce. Switch to medium heat and continue to stir-fry for another 5 minutes. The ingredients will basically be well-flavored. Taste it, and if it's too bland, add more soy sauce, salt, or doubanjiang. (This sauce can be adjusted to be a little saltier, making it suitable to eat with rice)

After the moisture has basically evaporated, turn up the heat, add the minced scallions from Beijing, and stir-fry quickly and evenly. Finally, you can add two small teaspoons of sugar to enhance the flavor, and then it’s ready to serve. Once cooled, store it in the refrigerator and take as needed; it can be kept for about a week.