All posts filed under: Sauces and Spreads

Japanese Black Sesame Sauce (Goma-ae)

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There are very few sauces which are black-colored. Squid ink is one of the few well known ones. Japanese black sesame sauce (goma-ae) should be another; its shiny black color is mysterious and dramatic. Since the sauce is nutty and slightly sweet, it complements many types of blanched or cooked vegetables such as: fava beans, green peas, spinach (shown above), broccoli, broiled and peeled eggplant, edamame, and string beans. This sauce is made from just a few ingredients: raw (untoasted) black sesame seeds, soy sauce, sugar, and dashi. The first step is to toast and then grind the sesame seeds. The recipe starts with raw sesame seeds because once they are toasted, the oil can quickly become rancid. Raw sesame seeds stay fresh for much longer, so sesame seeds should be bought raw and toasted as needed. Japanese cooking almost always uses unhulled sesame seeds; thus tahini can’t be substituted for the sesame seed paste made by this recipe since it is made from hulled sesame seeds. The hulls give the sesame paste a coarser texture, a richer flavor, and a darker …

Kumquat Marmalade

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The first time I had kumquat marmalade along with a some sort of pastry such as a muffin or scone, I loved how the sour citrus contrasted with the sweet baked good and the refreshing sourness was so much that I wanted to make some. This recipe makes a fairly sour marmalade; it is perfect contrasted against something sweet, something mild such as quark, or even as a refreshment to nibble in between bites of a strongly flavored cheese plate (e.g. Stilton cheese). A small spoonful of this is also nice on top of an open faced jambon-brie sandwich (ham and brie, preferably black forest on top of a slice of bread which has been pan fried in butter). This recipe only makes 1 jam jar of marmalade. You don’t need to sterilize the jam jars if you plan on eating it in just a few days. Sterilize the jar if you want to store it for longer. I didn’t think of it this time, but next time I make this it would be nice to include a tiny …

Quark (Soft White Farmer’s Cheese)

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Quark is a type of soft white farmer’s cheese; it tastes sort of like thick yogurt, at least when it is made with buttermilk.  It is apparently very popular in Germany.  It is a good way to use up leftover buttermilk. You can use any kind of milk in this. Whole milk makes whole milk quark; skim milk makes skim milk quark. Source: Modified from “Quark” from “Homemade Summer” by Yvette Van Boven Some ideas for using quark are here and here.  We have mostly been using the plain quark as a spread for sliced bread, either on its own, with kumquat marmalade, or with nam prik pao.

Ponzu Sauce

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Mark Bittman says that “an all-purpose sauce from Japan, ponzu is the rough equivalent of vinaigrette.”; ponzu is a citrus flavored soy sauce which can be used as a dip, marinade, or salad dressing when mixed with a little oil. The ingredients for ponzu sauce are, clockwise from top: soy sauce (shoyu), bonito flakes, bottled yuzu juice, kelp (konbu), ruby red grapefruit, mirin. The first time I made this I was able to obtain a single fresh yuzu, which are in season in the winter. Since it is now spring, and yuzus are out of season, now I have some bottled yuzu juice to make ponzu sauce next time. Yuzu are yellow but unlike lemons they are round and unevenly dimpled (see picture below). They are in season usually around November and December. They will keep one to two weeks fresh (longer in the refrigerator), and can be frozen for long term storage, so if you find some for a good price, buy several and freeze them. Defrost in the refrigerator before juicing. Source: Modified from “Yuzu-Flavored …

Chicken Stock

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My mother often made stock at home, so I tried out making stock soon after I started cooking. Michael Ruhlman’s is by far the simplest and easiest stock recipe that I’ve found, and it has given me the best results so far. I used a combination of Michael Ruhlman’s chicken stock recipe on his blog, and the chicken stock recipe in “Ruhlman’s Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook’s Manifesto” and some other tips from recipes that I’ve read over the years. The difference between the two recipes is that in the book, he suggests chicken has cooked in water for several hours and then adding the vegetables and aromatics and then cooking for 1 hour more. On the blog, he cooks everything together. When you break down a chicken, you can save the spare parts (e.g. backbone), in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make stock. You can also save the carcass from a roasted chicken to make a dark roast chicken stock, . Cooking the stock in the oven was a revelation …