Coffee XO Sauce

dried shrimp

ancho chilies

garlic

espresso with sugar (colada)

fish sauce

shoyu

oyster sauce

raw cocoa

bacon

thyme

sesame oil

chili oil

olive oil

black pepper

black shrimp paste (blacan)

Clearly, a last minute XO sauce (hence the already made colada). This is an idea that's been in my notebook for quite some time and finally decided to make it happen with whatever was around. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but I do love how open something like an XO sauce is to a myriad of flavor combinations.

The basis for XO is generally: dried seafood, garlic, oil, smoked meat and chilies. Think about how many ways that can go.

I cooked the mixture until almost dry and rehydrated it with more espresso and the water used to originally hydrate the dried shrimp and chilies. The espresso and cocoa rounded it out nicely, lending bitter-ish tones for a more complete thought.