XOXO Sauce for Valentine's Day

This bold, umami-rich sauce reimagines XO sauce without seafood, blending smoky tea, pancetta, and seaweed for a deeply complex flavor.

I am tragically allergic to shrimp and scallops, both of which are essential ingredients in standard Cantonese XO sauce, which also incorporates aromatics, chilies, oil, and Jinhua ham in myriad ways. My husband and I have both spent more time cooking in restaurants than eating in them, which means two things:

1. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at a restaurant (nor do we celebrate it on February 14).
2. We cook our fanciest meals at home.

For this Valentine’s Day meal, I wondered if I could replicate the flavors of XO—one of the mother sauces of my motherland, Hong Kong—using ingredients that wouldn’t kill me. I’ve substituted crustaceans in other dishes with various types of seaweed and enhanced umami in sauces with a combination of soy and mushroom powder, so I started with these three building blocks. Instead of Jinhua ham, I use pancetta (since it’s more readily available to me stateside) and build in more smokiness with lapsang souchong tea leaves.

In honor of the holiday, let’s call it XOXO sauce. Before my Chinese relatives come after me (they still refuse to accept the existence of my allergies), I’m still simmering my aromatics in Shaoxing wine, mimicking the Cognac-like designation for which the original sauce is named. I also take a few cues from Mister Jiu’s recipe, like using bee pollen, and borrow elements from many other recipes while omitting the standard shrimp and scallops.

The most time-consuming part is prep. Make sure all solid ingredients are minced to about the same size. I used a food processor for the garlic and onions and to pulverize the tea leaves. Remember that the quality of ingredients will affect the quality of your sauce. Since canola oil is my base, I’m using the good, lightly processed stuff that I can get locally from Susquehanna Mills, but feel free to use a different neutral, high-quality oil.

Don’t take your eyes off the wok or pot—you should be constantly moving the sauce with a spatula. Jar up your bounty once it has cooled and refrigerate it in an airtight container. Like most other sauces, it’ll taste better once the flavors have melded together after two to three days. Use it to top congee, steamed fish, or sautéed vegetables.