XO sauce - luxurious dried scallop condiment - recipe
XO sauce is served as a condiment at high-end Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Despite its name, it has nothing to do with XO cognac - it's called that because the name evokes a sense of luxury, reflected in the expensive ingredients, especially the dried scallops.
I first published this recipe in 2012, but over the years, I've adapted it to make it easier. The hardest part of the recipe is shredding the conpoy (dried scallops) before cooking them with the other ingredients. If you use the easiest method of softening the scallops - soaking them in water to cover, it dilutes the flavour of the intense seafood. I used to steam them, then pound them in the mortar while they're hot because they get hard again if allowed to cool. Doing it this way is a lot of work. Now, I put the dried scallops with some water in a pressure cooker and cook them for about 15 minutes to soften them. Then, while the scallops are hot, I use the plastic dough blade (not the sharp metal blade) of a food processor to shred them. It's essential that you avoid using the processor's sharp blade, or else the scallops will be chopped into tiny pieces, rather than shredded. If you don't have a pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot!) or a food processor, I've given the technique for that, too.
You can buy the scallops at Chinese dried seafood vendors. They're priced according to size, with the largest ones being the most expensive. Ignore the tiny ones, which are tough; buy the scallops that are about 2cm (⅞in) in diameter. You can save a little money by buying the imperfect ones - the scallops that are slightly broken (not perfect discs), because you're going to shred them anyway.
While the scallops should be large, the dried shrimp should be very small. If possible, buy the tiny dried shrimp that are known as sakura ebi (because they're pink, like cherry blossoms), which are sold at Japanese grocery shops.
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