Oyster sauce

A thick brown sauce made by reducing oyster juices with sugar, salt and starch: savoury, faintly sweet, with a whisper of the sea. It dresses blanched lettuce, binds the sauce on choy sum with beef and goes into the marinade for steamed ribs. It began in Guangdong, and it is the second bottle every Hong Kong kitchen owns.

Cautions: read first

• Contains oyster (a mollusc), wheat and soy, all mandatory-declaration allergens in Australia; a mushroom-based vegetarian oyster sauce stands in for anyone allergic to molluscs.
• High in sodium; watch it if your blood pressure is up or you are cutting salt.

Preparation

Add it last and give it one turn in the wok.

Origin

Guangdong. In the Coles and Woolworths Asian aisle, Lee Kum Kee for example; Asian grocers carry larger bottles.

Availability in Australia

Easy to find

Pairs well with