Northern sesame and peanut sauce

Ingredientsserves 1

Method

1. Two-eight sauce is eight parts sesame paste to two of peanut butter: two tablespoons of sesame paste and half a tablespoon of peanut butter, stirred together in a bowl.
2. Add two to three tablespoons of cooled boiled water or warm water in three goes, stirring each one in completely before the next, until it is smooth and flows.
3. Mash the fermented bean curd and add it with a teaspoon of its brine, about a seventh of the sesame paste; then half a teaspoon of chive flower paste, a little less than the bean curd, and finally a teaspoon of light soy.
4. Stir and taste, and top with chilli oil and coriander. The chive flower paste and the bean curd are both salty, so start with less.
5. This is the lamb sauce: cook a slice of lamb in the pot and dip it deep in the sesame. It is good with shaved beef, baby wombok, tofu and glass noodles too.
6. There is peanut in it, so tell everyone before the pot goes on, and keep this bowl and its spoon apart from the other sauces. Use a clean, dry spoon in each jar and put them back in the fridge with their lids on; whatever is left in the saucer is thrown away.

Take care

• Contains peanut, sesame, soy and wheat (gluten). Not for anyone allergic to peanut or sesame; keep this bowl and its spoon apart from the other sauces. Sesame paste is on the list of foods to avoid in pregnancy.
• Fermented bean curd and chive flower paste are very salty. A sauce does not make undercooked food safe; the lamb still has to be cooked through.

The story

Two-eight sauce is the northern dip for instant-boiled lamb. Hong Kong people know it from the northern restaurants and the Sichuan hotpot houses, and now mix a bowl at home when there is lamb in the pot. The name is the recipe: usually taken as eight parts sesame paste to two of peanut butter, though some reverse it.

Same kind

Garlic soyChilli soySha cha and soy

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.