A very nice sauce for anything wanting a little chili garlic heat and tomato flavor. Very good with fried shrimp or fried oysters or tuna burgers. Goes with anything where an splash of heat (you can always boost the heat) is a good thing.
Sweat the ginger, garlic and onions in the peanut oil
Add the chili paste, ketchup, sherry, sugar and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Cut to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.
Combine the cornstarch and sesame seed oil to form a slurry. Add the slurry to the simmering sauce. Cook for 5 minutes more for the starch to completely cook out.
Cool and place in a sealable container.
Often times cooks are told to thicken with cornstarch and it thickens instantly. Well, that's mostly true, but not all the way true. Corn starch does need some time, not much, 5 minutes or so, to fully cook out so the starch taste goes away. Cooking the starch out has the advantage of increasing the shine of the sauce.
Serve chilled.
You may wish to have some green against the nice red. Scallion tops at service would be a nice and apropos addition.