In Search of Claypot Rice Soy Sauce Recipe

When I lived in Hong Kong, my friends and I would make a weekly visit to Temple Street for Clay pot rice. I usually ordered the chinese sausage with chicken and shitake mushrooms over rice. Once it was ready, the waiter would open up the lid and you could add this special sweet soy sauce to it. Every restaurant that served this clay pot rice had this "clay pot rice soy sauce". I thought it was something you could buy in the supermarket or basically a mixture of the dark soy sauce with light soy sauce. However, when I'd go to buy a bbq pork rice at the deli, the HK deli would also add a similar tasting sauce.

Since then I've always wanted to find out what's in that sauce and was reminded recently how some restaurants do not know what that sauce is. Two weeks ago, I went to the Clay Pot Restaurant in San Francisco. We asked for "clay pot rice soy sauce" and they gave us a low sodium kikkoman soy sauce bottle. The waiter had no idea what we were talking about. So it reminded me that I should go look for the recipe and try to make it.

Unfortunately I can't find this one

Maybe it's called something else for the US market. In the meantime, here's a recipe I've found from the blog Steamy Kitchen.

Ingredients:

FOR THE SWEET SOY SAUCE
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Chinese cooking rice wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Directions:

1. Make the Sweet Soy Sauce:
Heat a small sauce pot over medium heat with cooking oil. When hot, add in the shallot and the ginger and fry until browned but not burnt, approximately 3-5 minutes. The shallots should be shriveled, darker brown (just not black). Remove the shallots and ginger (as much as you can). The remaining oil will now be flavorful. Don't throw away the crispy shallots! Use this as a topping for salad, fried rice, vegetables, etc. The ginger can be discarded.

To the oil, add in the sugar, soy sauce and rice wine. Bring to a simmer and then turn the heat to low. Let simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and pour in the sesame oil. Let cool completely before storing in a jar. Lasts up to 4 months in refrigerator.