My father's aged soy pepper sauce recipe

Growing up, I never really had too much at-home exposure to spicy foods. With a Hong Kong-born father and a Taiwanese mother, seasonings were light and flavors subtle, unlike the strong flavors showcased in Szechuan cooking associated with Chinese food in America today.

My father learned this recipe from his mother, and it isn't going to give you the runny nose, sweaty brow, and tongue numbing sort of heat burn that mala does. However, it's a very simple and tasty recipe that goes great with dumplings, noodles, and just about anything else you would add soy sauce to, striking a balance between the natural pepper flavor and the sweetness of soy sauce.

You'll need:
-A bunch of zhitianjiao (指天椒, "facing heaven peppers")
-A bottle of not as salty, somewhat sweet soy sauce

The English name for these peppers is "facing heaven peppers", referring to the way they grow with their tips pointing towards the sky. For whatever the reason, these were the peppers that my father used in this recipe since his adolescent years. If you can find some, I would definitely recommend them; they are much milder than your typical blazing hot Szechuan pepper, so won't be overpowering. However, feel free to use your scotch bonnets or jalapeños instead, but you will probably need much fewer peppers.

You'll also need a soy sauce that has a sweeter flavor, rather than salty. I went with this particular soy sauce brand, which has a sweet mushroom flavor but is still a tad bit saltier than the soy sauce you would get from the sushi boxes at your local supermarket.

Next, you want to roast the peppers over a fire for a bit. The rationale behind this is that the fire would depart some sort of toasted flavor to the sauce.

Chopsticks: the Chinese version of the tongs (and the fork, spoon, knife...)

Then, cut up the peppers into small pieces and drop them directly into the bottle of soy sauce. You should probably pour out some of the soy sauce beforehand into a separate container to have some space for the peppers.

And you're done! Shake up the bottle a bit, and let it sit in your fridge for a while. It tastes better the longer you let it age, so my father normally left it for about a year (the bottle on the left was bottled on 2/24/2013). I would suggest not touching it for about three months, just to let the spice from the peppers soak into the soy sauce. Enjoy!