This all-purpose Chinese meat sauce (家常肉酱) is a meaty relish of mushroom, shallot, fermented black bean, and chili that can make an exciting, satisfying meal out of any bowl of noodles, congee, or rice.  When you don’t have anything else in the fridge, you’ll be glad to have this Chinese meat sauce on hand for a quick, tasty meal!  Packing in the Flavor Some people love having something salty on the table to spice up a dining experience, whether it’s a small dish of chili oil, or something as simple as soy sauce.This relish will do so much more than that!  I’m choosing to call it an “all-purpose Chinese meat sauce,” but there’s a lot more in it than just meat! In fact, this recipe is a great example of how the Chinese stretch a piece of meat to make it go a long way.  You’ll get about 3 cups of sauce out of this recipe, with only 12 ounces of meat.By adding lots of oil, spices, strong flavors like ginger, garlic, and chili, as well as umami from fermented black beans and mushrooms, you only need a few spoonfuls to spread across an entire bowl of noodles or rice.   (By the way, you can use any ground meat in this recipe.

Pork is the most traditional, but you could also use ground beef or ground dark meat chicken.)  The concept is similar to a breakfast of pao fan, or rice porridge, in which you eat plain cooked rice in hot water with small amounts of salty, spicy, and other strongly flavored condiments.  In fact, you should think of this sauc

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