Chinese Barbecue Sauce

Of course, if you’re going to make dipping sauces you have to consider barbecue sauce. I wanted a homemade ketchup-barbecue sort of sauce, with a strong Chinese foundation in hoisin sauce and other flavors. This one came out pretty much as I hoped, with the color and consistency of traditional barbecue sauce and some interesting flavors in it.

Ingredients
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp molasses
1/2 tsp chinese mustard
1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp liquid smoke

Directions
Mash up the hoisin and tomato paste together. Add some soy sauce and vinegar and molasses, then the other spices to taste. Control the consistency by adding more vinegar (maybe a bit more soy or molasses as desired) to get to the desired thickness.
Verdict
It’s pretty much barbecue sauce. I think it may still be lacking a little punch somehow, but I’m not sure what it wants. Possibly more spice (red peppers?), or some garlic or lime would round out the flavors some more.