These 3 Japanese Sauces You’ll Be Using a Lot This Year (+ Recipes)
You’ll be eating these three Japanese sauces with your burger, noodles and grilled fish in the coming months—hell, you’ll probably even dip your grilled cheese sandwich in them and lick the bowl clean because they’re THAT delicious!
Ponzu (and ponzu dressing)
A citrus sauce, but fairly dark in color. Ponzu is made by boiling and straining mirin, rice vinegar, flakes of dried tuna and seaweed (to fish out the tuna). Then freshly squeezed yuzu, lemon or another mysterious Japanese citrus fruit is added. That makes the sauce sour and salty, which is of course perfect as a dip for roasted tuna or shabu-shabu.
But watch out, because it can get even better: buy a bottle of ponzu at the Asian supermarket, mix it 1 to 1 with sesame oil and you have a god-damn delicious dressing for an Asian salad with blanched sugar snap peas, carrot and fennel. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and you’re all set.
Kewpie mayonnaise
Yes, it’s mayonnaise, and no, it’s not ordinary mayonnaise. For starters, Kewpie mayonnaise spells mayonnaise with a double n. More importantly, it’s a little thinner than regular mayo, it’s made with rice vinegar and tastes slightly more sour, spicier and… simply better. It’s probably because of the flavor enhancer MSG that’s definitely in it, but who cares. Great with fish, garlic shrimp and anything with avocado. The adorable squeeze bottle with the Japanese baby doll on the packaging is also worth mentioning.
You may consider it sacrilege, or perhaps you enjoy a little cross-cultural combining: mix the mayo with a bit of sriracha or sambal and you have an exciting spicy sauce for your home-grilled hamburger.
Wasabi dressing
At Albert Heijn, we came across a mayo-wasabi blend in a bottle. You can of course make it yourself: take some mayonnaise, take some wasabi and stir them together. It’s so simple, you can’t even call it a recipe. But this ready-made version is so spicy and creamy, and also a little sweet—why bother making a mess at home? Fry that salmon, put the sweet potato fries in the air fryer or deep fryer, add some excuse-for-broccoli and then, bam, put a generous dollop of this stuff on your plate.
Image: Ter Marsch & Co
