I first read about Yuzu Kosho in the pages of Food and Wine magazine. It was described as a spicy, salty and super citrusy paste. It is. When you taste it, it is puckeringly sour and salty and very, very hot. What was I supposed to do with this? I had bought another version called Tobanyjan, red instead of green but similar, which seems equally unpalatable. The ingredients listed are: Red chili pepper, broad beans, salt and sake. I decided to mix them together with a little sugar to try and temper the fiery overtones and spread them on some butterflied prawns.
When cooked until pink and opaque, the taste was surprisingly fruity and citrusy, the salt having mellowed slightly from being cooked, but the exceedingly hot flavour was still present. Only myself, Neil, Marcus and Frank tried one, the two other girls politely refusing after watching our grimaces and tearful eyes. Use with caution.
2 updates.
1. I told my Japanese students that I had a food related question and watched their eyes light up in anticipation of sounding useful and competent. (It's tough to feel good when you struggle to communicate in a different language to your own).
I told them of my adventure with the sauce and they listened, wide-eyed in horror. Yuzu Kosho, they said, is to be used with extreme restraint. Mostly, in Japan, they use it as an optional seasoning with soup, only if an added heat dimension is required. The tiniest of amounts is usually used, so spreading the whole thing on a prawn is laughably torturous. I suggested the possibility of mixing a little with sour cream or Japanese mayonnaise and they agreed this would be a good idea and is sometimes done in Japan.
2. At a Japanese Izakaya bar last night, Neil and I ordered a variety of different sharing plates. A dish of pork cheek came with the merest scrape of what I immediately recognised as this sauce on the edge of the plate. I tried a little with the pork and tasted the same salty, spicy hit as before. Even the smallest dab of this sauce overpowers everything it touches and so, I will try the idea of mixing it with blander, more forgiving ingredients to temper it down but try to retain some of it's flavour. I will update again when I've given it a (very cautious) go.
2 updates.
1. I told my Japanese students that I had a food related question and watched their eyes light up in anticipation of sounding useful and competent. (It's tough to feel good when you struggle to communicate in a different language to your own).
I told them of my adventure with the sauce and they listened, wide-eyed in horror. Yuzu Kosho, they said, is to be used with extreme restraint. Mostly, in Japan, they use it as an optional seasoning with soup, only if an added heat dimension is required. The tiniest of amounts is usually used, so spreading the whole thing on a prawn is laughably torturous. I suggested the possibility of mixing a little with sour cream or Japanese mayonnaise and they agreed this would be a good idea and is sometimes done in Japan.
2. At a Japanese Izakaya bar last night, Neil and I ordered a variety of different sharing plates. A dish of pork cheek came with the merest scrape of what I immediately recognised as this sauce on the edge of the plate. I tried a little with the pork and tasted the same salty, spicy hit as before. Even the smallest dab of this sauce overpowers everything it touches and so, I will try the idea of mixing it with blander, more forgiving ingredients to temper it down but try to retain some of it's flavour. I will update again when I've given it a (very cautious) go.
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