How to Hoisin like a Rockstar

So we are stuck at home waiting out an afternoon rain shower in order to go out and harvest the massive amount of collard greens sitting in the garden.  In the meantime, we feel the need to finish making these beautiful spare ribs that have been smoking and creating a hunger in the neighborhood since the wee hours of the morning.

Tsunami needs to make his ginger teryaki glaze to finish them off on the grill, which was also his marinade for the ribs that are currently in the smoker. We've used this awesome ginger-infused sauce in our Hibachi recipes numerous times even in the last couple of weeks. It's that good... So much so that what would seem like an impossible feat, we are actually out of his stand-by sauce that he literally made a gallon of just a week or so ago. Seems we are also out of hoisin sauce, which is not surprising given that it's a main ingredient in our go-to-Teriyaki-Bachi sauce. 

I will definitely post that recipe as well but, as usual, I got inspired. Partially, I wanted to see if I could avoid going into Honoka'a just for hoisin. It's not that far, but jeez, what's in hoisin anyway, Alexa? 

Turns out hoisin is comprised of many good yummy things I knew I already had on hand. I didn't have any peanut butter so my recipe calls for cashew butter, although many recipes I saw used peanut butter. Again, remember my mission: make a hoisin substitute without going to the store. lol! And it was just freaking delicious. So much so I don't know that I'll ever use peanut butter when I make this but you can decide that for yourself.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce.
• 2 tablespoons smooth cashew butter (just a handful of cashews pulsed in my bullet)
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar.
• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar.
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced.
• 2 teaspoons sesame seed oil.
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (more or less to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper.

So, as I mentioned, I didn't have peanut butter or cashew butter, for that matter. But I did have roasted and lightly salted cashews. Given that I've made cashew butter before many times, I just decided that I'd make the cashew butter by adding a handful of cashews and everything else in the recipe to a Ninja bullet processor. It worked like a charm and was delicious!

And I was quite proud of myself when I handed it to Tsunami to complete the mission. He sorta rolls his eyes suspiciously like, wtf is this? But then I just do a sweet stare down, smiling expectantly. It took about 15 seconds longer than it should have but eventually,  he obeys the voodoo I just put on him and tastes it. Oh yea... that's what I thought, Freakshow. Lick it up.

He doesn't say a word but takes the package from my hands and skedaddles off to the kitchen to finish the go-to-Teriyaki-Bachi sauce that will become my next post. If I don't get sidetracked. Fingers crossed. 

In the time it took to Google and whip out the Ninja, the rain has somehow turned into a bit of an extended downpour. It's only been a few minutes but now, I'm really inspired to get the greens going. Ah, screw it. I put on my Wellies and head out to the garden to harvest about 5 lbs of collard greens. In the misty, warm rain. How sucky. lol! Hardly. Totally fun in a big kid way and well worth the pretend sacrifice I am making in the effort to go out right now. I could wait. But I don't. Collard greens are a perfect foil for our very-Teriyaki ribfest we have in the works and it just couldn't wait a minute more.

But check it... now we know how to hoisin and hopefully, so do you! Even if you don't go through quite as much hoisin as we do, it's still kinda cool to know that it's pretty easy to make and it's more than likely that you have most of these ingredients on hand as well.

Next stop on this Hoisin train: Go-To-Teriyaki-Bachi Sauce