XO sauce, the conpoy and ham chilli relish

Ingredientsserves 4

Equipment

• A heavy wok or a wide heavy pot. A thin wok held on low for forty minutes will catch and burn on the bottom, so if yours is thin, use the pot.
• A blender or small food processor for the shallots and garlic. Without one, chop them very fine by hand; it takes ten minutes more.
• A thermometer, to hold the oil at 90°C. Without one, watch the bubbles: small and slow the whole time, never a rolling boil.
• Two 250 ml glass jars, scalded with boiling water and dried completely

How the time splits

1. 12 hrThe conpoy soaks overnight, in the fridgehands off
2. 35 minConpoy, ham and dried shrimp steam togetherhands off
3. 30 minShred the conpoy, dice the ham, blend the shallot and garlichands on
4. 1 hrAt the wok on low, stirring now and thenhands on
5. 2 hrLeft uncovered until completely coldhands off
6. 12 hrJarred and in the fridge, overnight before it tastes righthands off

Method

1. The night before, rinse the conpoy, add water just to cover, and leave it covered in the fridge overnight.
2. Drain the conpoy and steam it on a plate with the ham and the dried shrimp over high heat for thirty to forty minutes. Once cool, pull the conpoy apart into fine threads with your fingers; slice the ham thin and dice it small; grind half the shrimp to a powder and leave the other half whole. Blend the shallots and garlic to a paste, and grind the dried chillies.
3. Heat the wok with a tablespoon of oil and fry the ham on medium until it smells good, then add the whole shrimp for a minute. Turn the heat down, add the conpoy threads, splash in the wine and toss them gently for six to eight minutes. The conpoy should stay in threads; fry it hard and it breaks into crumbs and goes grey.
4. Add the shallot and garlic paste and fry it on low for four or five minutes, adding a little oil if the edges look dry. This is where a jar goes wrong: the moment the shallot and garlic turn dark brown the whole batch is bitter, and nothing brings it back. That is why they go in after the seafood, and why the heat stays low.
5. Add the ground shrimp, the chilli, the light soy and both sugars, then pour in the rest of the oil and hold it at about 90°C — small, steady bubbles, never a boil — for forty minutes. Every few minutes, stir it and scrape the bottom.
6. It is done when the bubbles have turned small and slow and everything is an even deep brown. That means the water has cooked out, and water left in the sauce is what spoils a jar of XO. Take it off the heat.
7. Leave it uncovered until it is completely cold, about two hours. Spoon it with a dry spoon into scalded, dried jars, press it down, and make sure the oil stands a finger's width above the solids; top up with a little cold oil if it does not. Into the fridge straight away, and leave it overnight before you open it so the flavours settle together.
8. Keep it in the fridge, use a clean dry spoon every time, and finish it within a week. If that is more than you will eat, put some in small jars in the freezer and use them within three months.

Take care

• Mollusc (the conpoy) and crustacean (the dried shrimp), pork (the ham), soy and wheat (the light soy), and peanut if you fry in peanut oil. Garlic and shallot sealed under oil is the one setting where botulism can grow, so this jar lives in the fridge and is finished within a week; it does not sit on the bench. It must be completely cold before it is jarred, and only a dry spoon goes in.

The story

The usual account is that it came out of the Peninsula hotel's kitchen in the 1980s, made from the finest dried seafood and ham in the larder, and borrowed the top grade of cognac for its name. Within ten years it was on every restaurant table and in every café fried rice in Hong Kong. It is the first jar on this wall because a jar of your own XO in the fridge is the thing that makes a kitchen in Australia feel like a Hong Kong one. Pages the site already has want it: slices of 蘿蔔糕 fried and then tossed with a spoonful; a spoonful through 乾炒牛河 before it goes on the plate; a dab beside 白灼蝦 or over 上湯娃娃菜.

Same kind

Garlic and fermented black bean pasteHome-preserved mustard greensHouse chilli oil, the noodle-shop jar

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.