Wonder Sauce
By Tim ChinPublished on July 11, 2016
Yield
Serves 8 (Makes about 1 cup)
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Kombu, dried shiitakes, and bonito flakes can be found at well-stocked grocery stores and Japanese markets or online. This sauce can be refrigerated for up to one month.
Instructions
- Bring cold water, kombu, shiitake mushrooms, and porcini mushrooms to gentle simmer in large saucepan over low heat, about 10 minutes. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Off heat, stir in bonito flakes, cover, and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Return liquid to saucepan.
- Stir corn syrup, sake, soy sauce, and vinegar into saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer vigorously until reduced to 1 cup, about 35 minutes.
- Whisk cold water and cornstarch together in small bowl, then whisk into sauce. Bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened and glossy, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer sauce to bowl and let cool to room temperature. Transfer sauce to airtight container or squeeze bottle and refrigerate until ready to use.
Yield
Serves 8 (Makes about 1 cup)Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
by Tim Chin
Our inspiration was tare—a Japanese term for an all-purpose dipping sauce used for yakitori, noodles, sushi, even hot pot dishes. But ask anyone how to make it, and you’ll never get a straight answer. It’s essentially thickened soy sauce and sugar with anything else to make it delicious. In the world of tare, there are no rules but one: It better be damn tasty. During development, we tasted all things umami to get a sense for what we wanted. In the end, we decided on a traditional foundation, starting with dashi—a quick stock of kombu, a dried kelp, and katsuobushi, fermented, dried, and smoked skipjack. Dashi is the cornerstone of Japanese cooking—the chicken broth of Japan—and it’s loaded with savory compounds like the amino acid glutamate and the nucleotide inosinate, so it’s perfect for this sauce.
Before You Begin
Kombu, dried shiitakes, and bonito flakes can be found at well-stocked grocery stores and Japanese markets or online. This sauce can be refrigerated for up to one month.
Instructions
- Bring cold water, kombu, shiitake mushrooms, and porcini mushrooms to gentle simmer in large saucepan over low heat, about 10 minutes. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Off heat, stir in bonito flakes, cover, and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Return liquid to saucepan.
- Stir corn syrup, sake, soy sauce, and vinegar into saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer vigorously until reduced to 1 cup, about 35 minutes.
- Whisk cold water and cornstarch together in small bowl, then whisk into sauce. Bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened and glossy, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer sauce to bowl and let cool to room temperature. Transfer sauce to airtight container or squeeze bottle and refrigerate until ready to use.
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