XO sauce
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XO sauce (Chinese: XO醬, Simplified Chinese: XO酱) is a modern spicy seafood sauce with origins in Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine. It is made of dried seafood, such as scallop, fish and shrimp, mixed with and chile, onion, garlic and oil. Once the prestigious concoction only confined to high-class seafood restaurants, it can now be found on store shelves, produced by Asian food companies like Lee Kum Kee and Amoy.
The name comes from fine XO (extra-old) brandy, which is a popular chic liquor in Hong Kong. The XO sauce has been marketed in the same manner as the French liquor, using packaging of similar colour schemes.
Typical ingredients of the sauce include:
- diced onion
- dried scallop (conpoy)
- fresh red chilie
- ground black pepper
- Jinhua or western ham
- large dried shrimp, shelled
- minced garlic
- oil
- salted cured fish
- tiny dried shrimp, unshelled