On Jul 9, 2:54*pm, "Nancy Young" > wrote:
>
> I have a question about two of the ingredients. *I started to
> gather what I need this morning at the asian market.
>
> Rice wine was labeled rice cooking wine. *Now, I'd never use
> cooking wine when a recipe calls for wine. *Is it different for
> rice wine? *

Yes, sometimes it says cooking wine, sometimes not. As long as it's
rice wine it's okay, especially if it says Shao Xing rice wine.
Western cooking wine is something like sherry with salt added, which
is yucky. I don't believe that Shao Xing has salt added even it it
says "cooking" on the label.
>
> Then I looked for chili bean paste. *This is what I bought:
> Hot Broad Bean Paste ... ingredients, chili, bean, salt, vinegar,
> sesame oil. *Did I buy the wrong thing?

You bought the right thing. It can be used with a variety of things.
For example, do you ever boil green beans and then finish them off by
sauteeing them in butter with garlic? Instead, finish them with a
tablespoon or two of bean paste with a tiny bit of oil. Exotic and
yummy.

The wrong thing, for the red sauce recipe, would have been what they
label chile garlic sauce, or garlic chile sauce, aka sriracha. That
doesn't have the bean component. Personally, and disloyally, I think
Thai versions are better.

Also wrong for this recipe would have been the black bean garlic sauce
that LouDecruss mentions. That's a whole different animal that uses
fermented black beans. Good for spareribs, among other things. I
prefer to buy the fermented/preserved beans dry and chop them with
fresh garlic. Once you do that a few ways the premixed sauce doesn't
compare well. -aem