Yuzu: everything about the Japanese citrus fruit
Whether it’s fish marinated in yuzu, yuzu ice cream or a yuzu cocktail, you’re seeing it on menus more and more often. All well and good, but what exactly is it, and can you cook with it at home too?
Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit whose flavour falls somewhere between lime, lemon and mandarin. In terms of looks, too: young yuzu is green, then it turns orange, and a ripe fruit is yellow. The flavour is incredibly aromatic and much less sharp than, for example, that of a lemon. It also has a hint of sweetness, so it’s no wonder that many chefs have embraced its juice wholeheartedly.
The juice, that is, because the fruit itself is extremely difficult to find in the Netherlands. I’ve never seen one in a shop, at any rate, and you can buy them online, but they’re anything but cheap. A single yuzu costs €7.95. If you buy a whole box (11 pieces), you get a discount and pay €69 in total. For the same amount, you can get around fifty lemons at the supermarket, so I’ve never personally felt the need to buy them.
Juice
The juice, on the other hand, is readily available at Asian supermarkets. It isn’t cheap either, though: a 70 ml bottle will quickly set you back ten euros. Fortunately, you don’t need to use much because the juice is incredibly flavourful and aromatic. There are also cheaper alternatives in which the juice is mixed with other flavourings. Yuzu is also used in the Japanese sauce ponzu, for example, and yuzu dressings are available for a few euros.
What is it used for?
Managed to get your hands on a bottle of pure yuzu juice? Great. What can you do with it? In principle, yuzu is delicious with anything that could use a little acidity. Use it instead of lemon or lime juice in salad dressing or marinades for meat or fish. Yuzu’s freshness pairs particularly well with raw fish, such as in this tuna sashimi with avocado. Or make this roasted yuzu chicken with Japanese slaw.
And how about a yuzu meringue pie? Yuzu curd, cheesecake, macarons—the possibilities for sweet dishes are truly endless. Perhaps our biggest favourite of all is yuzu in drinks. There are countless yuzu cocktails, but we simply can’t stop drinking Yuzucello. The fresher, less potent answer to limoncello. Seriously, get a bottle of this and it’ll be gone in no time.
Yuzu kosho
Many American chefs have discovered yuzu kosho in recent years. It’s a sauce made from fermented chillies and yuzu peel. It isn’t available in the Netherlands, but if you happen to be in Japan or the United States, be sure to bring back a jar.
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