甜面酱 tianmianjiang: can you tell me how to make it?

[bluepoppy]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here could help me out please...

My boyfriend here in England is from Beijing and I wanted to cook a dish for him, Jingjiang rousi 京酱肉丝, because he is really homesick. But I can't find this ingredient, tianmianjiang (sweet flour paste?) here at all... Could anyone help me out and tell me how to make it if you know, or even what is in it ?

Tho they probably sell it in London, I'm not there right now...and any help would be really appreciated.

please help ...qiuqiu nimen!

bluepoppy

[marcopolo79]

甜麵醬is also called 京醬, as in dish you are trying to make. It's also the sauce that is served with Peking Duck, go into a Chinese grocer's and wither ask for it by name (Jing 1 Jiang4) or ask for Peking Duck Sauce (make sure it is not the honey colored duck sauce).

In the U.S. a couple of Chinese packaged food companies also sell it under the name "Plum sauce" so try that one as well.

[marcopolo79]

give up.

I really wouldn't advise trying to make it, I just tried searching for a recipe, and came across this bbs board:

甲:甜面酱是用面粉做出来的，超市有的卖的，挺便宜的，一袋只要 1块多

Person 1: The sauce is made from flour, supermarkets sell it cheap, one bag is only a dollar

乙:甜面酱可不是面粉做出来的，而是黄酱做出来的。我个人做法如下：

黄酱放水搅稀。锅内放油，待油热后放入搅好的黄酱，炒1，2分钟，【放入糖，一定要舍得放。再放一点盐，有的黄酱并不是很咸。】加入热开水，这时锅内已经不是酱了，而是汤。然后开极小火，开锅熬酱，3到4个小时，直到水被熬少又变成酱时就可以了

Person 2:It's made from yellow sauce, not flour. Here's my method: Stir in the yellow sauce into the water. Put oil in the pot, after the oil is hot stir in the yellow sauce, stir fry 1 - 2 minutes (put a little sugar, you definitely need to agree to a bit of sugar, add some more salt, some yellow sauce isn't salty). Add boiling water, at this point it's not a sauce yet, but a soup. Let it simmer for 3 - 4 hours, until there's little water and the mixture's become a sauce.

甲:哦?是吗,可能南北差异吧,我们这里的甜面酱的主要原料就是面粉.

Person 1: What the? Oh yeah, maybe it's a north-south difference, around these parts the primary ingredient is flour.

丙:我想问问黄酱是什么？如何做？

Person 3: What's yellow sauce? How do I make it?

If these Chinese people can't agree on how to make it, or even what the primary ingredient is, with all do respect, you don't stand a chance. Everyone apparently buys the product ready made.

[bluepoppy]

Wow, thank you for your help MarcoPolo79,

I'm going to look into it. I know I must look stupid but I didn't know that 甜面酱 could have somewhere along the way become 'plum sauce'! Plum sauce may be available here in deepest darkest rural England

Just read my original post and I just want to add that I'm not ONLY making that dish, as it seems...that really would be something to make the poor bloke feel homesick! Any suggestions on your favourite Beijing dishes that he might enjoy are definitely welcome!

Though this meal is going to be a new thing for me, I never have cooked Beijing-style food before

多谢，多谢 ,

bluepoppy

[bluepoppy]

Oh I just read your post...bear with me, I'm on dial-up here! And slow dial-up at that. Yes, I agree it seems too difficult now too make something which everyone else buys pre-made.

Well, that makes sense anyway...there are a lot of Chinese products that are hard to find in England or at least out of the city e.g. jiucai, xiangcai, decent tea...

Thanks for trying though,

blue poppy

edit: it cut off the '事竟成‘！as in 有志者事竟成 .That must be a sign. I give up. (just kidding)

[liuzhou]

Try Wing Yip.They have stores in Birmingham, Manchester, Croydon and Cricklewood and also do mail order.

Click here.

[hzrt8w]

You can also make your Jingjiang rousi 京酱肉丝 dish with Hoisin sauce and Ground Bean sauce (or Brown Bean sauce). I usually mix them about half and half.

You have to be careful with the "Plum sauce" because to me it's really a mis-label. There are "plum sauce" (Cantonese) that are really plum sauce -- made from plums -- served as a condiment for Cantonese roasted ducks. There are "plum sauce" that is more like Hoisin sauce -- brown and pasty -- which is what you want making this dish.

A picture of Lee Kum Kee's Ground Bean sauce:

http://usa.lkk.com/USSite/ProductDetailInfo.aspx?ProductID=23

A picture of Lee Kum Kee's Hoisin sauce:

http://usa.lkk.com/USSite/ProductDetailInfo.aspx?ProductID=25

[bluepoppy]

Thanks everyone.

I'm going to try the suggestion of mixing the two sauces, since one of them has sweet potato flour in, which I now know is one of the ingredients. Emailed Wing Yip, who offered me 'sweet noodle sauce'...strange cos I thing it's 'mian' as in flour, not 'mian' as in noodles. But I think I can get hold of those two sauces somewhere anyway.

I hope my lao gong will like it anyway...

Makes me wonder if there is a situation where a girl in China emails an English forum, wanting to make fish and chips for her English boyfriend...

‘how can you find the right kind of fat'.

' you won't be able to...'

'try ordering it from Tesco online '

'try mixing lard and vegetable oil'