This is another one of those recipes that came to pass as a result of not finding the brand I liked in the supermarkets. After the usual research and trial and error testing of recipes, I came up with one that one I was happy with. A lot of the brands here in the Netherlands have very sweet versions of black bean sauce, so I wanted one with a good balance. The sauce works well in chicken, beef or pork stir fry dishes.

70g dried fermented black beans
50ml shaoxing rice wine
30ml water
10g cornflour mixed with 20ml water
10ml soy sauce
5g palm sugar
1 clove garlic finely chopped
10g  ginger finely chopped
2 spring onions finely chopped

First soak the black beans in water for about an hour to remove the excess salt 
Discard the water and place the beans in a bowl
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until the sugar has dissolved
You can either blend the mixture in a food processor to give a smooth paste or just pulse a few times to give a rough textured sauce if you so wish