Servings: 200 ml
Ingredients
Citrus Juice
- 100 ml citrus juice fresh, yuzu or 50% lime, 50% lemon
Steeping and Straining
- 100 ml Japanese soy sauce, dark (koikuchi) or light (usukuchi)
- 10 g katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- 1 piece kombu about 1.5 cm
Procédé
Citrus Juice
- Cut the citrus fruit in half.100 ml citrus juice
- Squeeze the citrus fruit to extract the juice.
Mirin and Sake
- Pour the mirin and sake into a small saucepan.20 ml mirin, 10 ml sake
- Warm over low heat to cook off the alcohol (this is called nikiri).
- Let cool.
Steeping and Straining
- Put the citrus juice, the cooled mirin and sake, the soy sauce, the katsuobushi and the kombu in a clean glass jar or bottle.100 ml Japanese soy sauce,, 10 g katsuobushi, 1 piece kombu
- Mix well.
- Seal the container.
- Let sit overnight in the fridge.
- Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve or a tea strainer.
- Remove the katsuobushi and kombu.
Notes
The base of this sauce is simple: 1 part soy sauce to 1 part citrus juice. From there, you adjust it to taste with a little dashi, mirin or rice vinegar. Freshly made, the sauce has a very sharp citrus flavor; a little resting time rounds it out.
Fresh yuzu is rare and expensive in Europe. The best substitute is bottled 100% yuzu juice, sold at Asian grocery stores or online; use it in the same amount (100 ml). Without yuzu, two blends work well for 100 ml of juice: 50 ml lemon and 50 ml lime; or 50 ml lemon, 30 ml lime and 20 ml grapefruit, which adds yuzu's slight bitterness. Lime juice quickly turns bitter once squeezed: squeeze the citrus just before making the sauce.
Nikiri means heating the mirin and sake to drive off the alcohol: without this step, the sauce keeps a harsh alcoholic taste.
Use a glass or ceramic container, scalded with boiling water before use: the sauce is acidic and takes on a metallic taste in a metal container.
Once strained, the sauce keeps in the refrigerator in a clean glass bottle. This version, made with fresh juice and no vinegar, keeps for about a month. It can also be frozen in an ice cube tray.
Did you make this recipe?Tag @marcwiner on Instagram!