22 replies to this topic

[mudbug]

Brown Bean Paste : Yellow Bean Paste

What do you like to use it for, sauce, marinade, rub, primarily for pork and beef?
Any dishes that just wouldn't be the same without it?
Do you prefer brown to yellow or vise versa?
What brand do you rely on?

[jo-mel]

Brown Bean Paste : Yellow Bean Paste

What do you like to use it for, sauce, marinade, rub, primarily for pork and beef?
Any dishes that just wouldn't be the same without it?
Do you prefer brown to yellow or vise versa?
What brand do you rely on?

Brown Bean Sauce/Yellow Bean Sauce (or paste)are the same thing. Whatever name it is called, it is a paste made from yellow soy beans, fermented and seasonings added.

I had chicken with brown bean paste last night, and I like eggplant with brown bean sauce, also.

I'm loyal to brands. I started with Koon Chun and it is my preferred brand for this. Also, I use the regular bean sauce, rather than the 'ground' version.

[Dejah]

I used to buy brown bean sauce ( man see/ mean see?) in a large 48 oz cans. I can't remember the brand, but now, I have a jar of whole bean brown bean sauce by YEO'S in the fridge.

Haven't tried eggplant with this, but it sounds good!
I use it with pork ribs and plums in brine. Mix a couple spoonfuls into the ribs. Let it marinate then top with pieces of these salty plums. Steam for about 30 minutes and eat with lots of rice. Mouth is watering and we just got back from eating out!
I also use it to make BBQ duck. Mom uses it for siu jook.
Sister-in-law uses it with chicken for baos.

[Ben Hong]

Besides all the good suggestions, my favourite is a fish, preferably whole, preferably sole or flounder or any delicately fleshed fish steamed with "min see" and a few slivers of ginger and scallions.

[hzrt8w]

The brown bean sauce is fairly generic. From my experience the taste of brown bean sauce from many of the major manufacturers are about the same. Koon Chun, Yeo's, Lee Kum Kee... It is seldomly used alone. Most often it is used along with other ingredients such as garlic, hoisin sauce, five spice, etc. as a marinade or as an ingredient to make the "brown" sauce.

While the Cantonese use brown bean sauce in steamed fish, Northern Chinese (not sure where exactly, let's say it's North of Canton (GuangDong) ) use brown bean sauce to make "Sweet and Sour Fish". The fish is breaded and deep-fried first (or just shallow-fried without bread over slow fire in home cooking). The brown sauce is made by saute'ing some garlic, ginger, brown bean sauce, hoisin sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, and thickened with corn starch solution. Chopped green onions on top at the end as a garnish. Some versions of this, called "Ng Lau" [Cantonese], or Five Willows - five ingredients in thin shreds, add shredded daikon, carrots, celery, black mushrooms, or other vegetables (pre-cooked first) in the sauce and pour on top of the fish.

[Transparent]

Brown and Yellow Bean Paste? I've never heard of these before, much less used them in cooking. A quick Google Image Search gives me blobs of stuff.

As for fish, at home, we use LKK Black Bean Garlic Sauce.

[Tepee]

Bean paste in ayam pongteh(a nyonya chicken stew), I love it! Scroll down to the 5th recipe. You can add shiitake mushrooms if you like.

[mflo]

Ok, i am rattling from my brain as i go...

There are many types of bean paste available in chinese cooking.

The most common would be the type that is made from soy beans, which some will called "yellow bean paste/ brown bean paste/ fermented bean paste".
From the basic paste that is made from the soy bean, it can be further diversified into

1) sweet bean paste
2) salty bean paste
3) hot bean paste

not to be confused with the korean "gochujang" or the japanese "miso". although basic ingredients is the same, which is the soybean, the taste are greatly varified.

so, when you are cooking a recipe, look very carefully wether it is stating salt, sweet or hot. This is a personal experience... I didn't pay enough attention and added salty bean paste when it should be sweet. :)

Then we also have the black bean paste which is more pungent and are generally salty and are made from fermented black beans. From the basic black bean paste, you can also purchase some other type of black bean paste like, hot black bean paste and the more popular among asians, "hot black bean paste with garlic". I like to use that to cook my clams with some lemongrass, bird's eye chilli, sliced galangal, some oyster sauce, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and shallot. and some dried shrimp. fantastic with piping hot rice.

The Hokkien called the bean paste "Taucu" the Cantonese will called it "Tau See".
The black version is called "hark tau see"


hope this helps some! :)

[hzrt8w]

The Hokkien called the bean paste "Taucu" the Cantonese will called it "Tau See".
The black version is called "hark tau see"

Welcome, mflo. I look forward to reading your perspective of Chinese cooking.

One small note: In Cantonese, as in Mandarin, the pronounciation is "Dau" (with a D instead of a T - In Mandarin it is Dou) for beans. "Dau See" [Cantonese] - fermented black beans.

[Tepee]

A thousand apologies, hz, while I crush your small note like a tau see. Msian/Sporeans tend to spell it with a 'T' rather than a 'D'. After all, the sound is a cross between the 2. When we spell it with a 'T', we don't say the word through our teeth like an actual 'T' sound, but rather with the tongue behind the top teeth. Blunt sound. A 'D' sound would be placing the tongue too far back.

Another kinky example is the confused spelling for words which is a cross between B and P sounds, like 'white' in cantonese. It's not a clear-white 'B' or 'P' sound, is it?

This is getting to be too funny! Talking chinese in english! We're all turning into bananas, if we're not one already!

Edited by Tepee, 08 September 2005 - 07:28 PM.

[Dejah]

Let this "banana" wade into the beans here:

dau see is one way of pronouncing fermented black beans. Tau see may be a variation if you are outside of HK.

hark tau see would specifically indicate black fermented soy beans to a novice. Most cooks familiar with Cantonese would know that "dau see" ( ) is black fermented soya beans.

Brown beans = mean see, or mean see jern (paste), man see duen in Toisanese.

Tepee...I say bak dow with a "b"...

With all the tragic news around the world, we need beans to make us laugh a little!

[hzrt8w]

A thousand apologies, hz, while I crush your small note like a tau see. Msian/Sporeans tend to spell it with a 'T' rather than a 'D'. After all, the sound is a cross between the 2. When we spell it with a 'T', we don't say the word through our teeth like an actual 'T' sound, but rather with the tongue behind the top teeth. Blunt sound. A 'D' sound would be placing the tongue too far back.
.....

Hmmm.... Tepee... I need to suggest you to live in Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen for a few years to retrain your Cantonese pronounciations... the official, proper way. No, no, approximation doesn't count. I would imagine that the spoken "Cantonese" in Malaysia or Singapore have transformed somewhat over the centuries.

I can see that being a master of 5 Chinese dialects, it's easy to get confused. The orthodox Cantonese pronounciation for beans is a D.

And for "white", it's a B. Not a cross of B-P. Pure B.

I may be a banana in thinking... but my linguistic training is based on official Cantonese.

Edited by hzrt8w, 08 September 2005 - 09:19 PM.

[Tepee]

No fair! Two against One!

Methinks all of us need a nice trip to Tong San not only for language refresher classes but to satisfy other more innate needs.

BTW, hz, whom do you practise your 25-years-ago Cantonese with? Your toisanese other? 25 years is a long time....

Edited by Tepee, 08 September 2005 - 10:31 PM.

[HKDave]

Moving the discussion from linguistics back to food... I use it in dishes like old fashioned beef and turnip, as a thickener for the stewed sauce.

Is this bean paste we're talking about essentially the same as the Amoy-brand sauce labelled 'Chu Hou'? The first ingedient in that is fermented soybeans.

[hzrt8w]

Is this bean paste we're talking about essentially the same as the Amoy-brand sauce labelled 'Chu Hou'?  The first ingedient in that is fermented soybeans.

Chu Hou sauce is different from brown bean paste. I think that Chu Hou has other ingridients blend in besides fermented soybeans. You will find Chu Hou used in Cantonese BBQ and beef stew often.

[mudbug]

The linguistics tangent was an enjoyable, interesting, and educational read. That's what I love about this particular forum. We're all here for the same fundamental reasons but contribute based on our own life perceptions and experiences.

Perhaps a better question to ask would be:

What are the most common uses for Brown or Yellow Bean Paste?

[Ben Hong]

Min see (bean sauce) is not chu hou sauce, Chu hou sauce is more akin to hoi sin sauce, not as sweet though.

Min see deng is one of those indispensible staples in th Chinese larder that is never missed until you need it. For me, it is an essential component in the marinades for Chinese styl bbq meats. Min see with steamed fish is a great rice accompaniment. Green beans chowed with pork, min see, a dash of sugar and a bit of 5-spice is to die for. I also use it in twice-cooked pork.

Be adventurous.

BTW: the real Toysanese among us with pronounce "white" with a "w" ie: "waak" similar to the "waak" as in "waak wah" or draw picture.

[trillium]

We use both Yeo's and the Thai version, which I think tastes more flowery. We stir-fry ong choy (except we call it kang kung, the Malay word) with it, chillies, garlic and fish sauce, make bah kut teh, mix it with black beans and put it on shrimp to be steamed, use it when we make char siu, etc. etc. Like Ben says, it's a pantry staple.

regards,
trillium

[BettyK]

The linguistics tangent was an enjoyable, interesting, and educational read. That's what I love about this particular forum. We're all here for the same fundamental reasons but contribute based on our own life perceptions and experiences.

Perhaps a better question to ask would be:

What are the most common uses for Brown or Yellow Bean Paste?

http://www.wingyipst...uct-229807.html
Scroll down for recipes.

[sheetz]

I may be a banana in thinking... but my linguistic training is based on official Cantonese. 

Unfortunately, there's no "official" Cantonese, and many Cantonese speakers themselves don't even consider it to be "real" Chinese. Whenever a non-Chinese person says they want to learn Cantonese, even a Cantonese person will invariably tell them to learn Mandarin instead. In the past I've searched for study materials to help improve my Cantonese but good ones are almost nonexistent.

Cantonese as it is spoken in Guangzhou is not the same as what's spoken in HK. Which one do you consider more "official?"

[jo-mel]

Guess what the labels of Koon Chun's Hoisin, Chee Hou, and Chap Kam all have in common? All the ingredients are exactly the same and in the same order: Sugar / vinegar / soya bean / water / salt / wheat flour / garlic / sesame seed / chili / spices / and artifical color fd & c red # 40. Koon Chun's "Flavoring Sauce" has the same label ingredients.

Yet they all taste a little different from each other. I guess it is different amounts of one of the flavorings?

[bloosquirrel]

wow I just used kikkoman's black bean sauce with garlic in place of brown bean paste (i can't get that anywhere nearby) - ignorance isn't always bliss

 

it was wayyy too sweet but I cut it with natural peanut butter, tastes ok now

[bloosquirrel]

wow I just used kikkoman's black bean sauce with garlic in place of brown bean paste (i can't get that anywhere nearby) - ignorance isn't always bliss

 

it was wayyy too sweet but I cut it with natural peanut butter (and threw in some classic stir fry sauce from house of tsang )

 

it was great on noodles - put some shredded cabbage on top for crunch.