Vinegared Miso Sauce (酢味噌, Sumiso)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Rubber spatula
• •Suribachi (Japanese grinding bowl) and surikogi, or a small bowl with a whisk
• •Fine sieve, optional for coarse miso

Instructions

1. 1

   Mash the base

   Put the miso, sugar, and mirin in a small heavy saucepan. Mash them together with a spatula before the heat goes on, until the sugar no longer sits in dry patches. This gives the sugar a head start and keeps the miso from catching in one salty clump at the bottom of the pan.

2. 2

   Warm to gloss

   Set the pan over the lowest heat and stir constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. The paste should loosen, turn evenly glossy, and lose any gritty feel if you rub a little between your fingers. Do not let it boil. The heat is there to dissolve the sugar and soften the raw edge of the mirin, not to cook the miso.

   If the miso darkens or smells toasted, the heat is too high. Sumiso should stay pale and clean, because its job is to brighten the food it touches.
3. 3

   Add the vinegar

   Scrape the warm miso base into a bowl and let it cool for 5 minutes, until warm but no longer hot. Whisk in the rice vinegar a little at a time, tasting after the first 2 tablespoons. Adding vinegar off the heat keeps its clean edge, and adding it gradually gives you a smooth sauce instead of a loose, uneven paste.

   White miso brands vary. The finished sauce should pull equally sweet, sour, and salty; if the miso is very sweet, add the extra vinegar, and if it is sharp, add a pinch more sugar.
4. 4

   Bloom the karashi

   If using karashi powder, stir it with the warm water in a tiny bowl and let it stand for 3 minutes, then whisk half into the sumiso and taste before adding the rest. Mustard heat blooms as it rests. Added dry, it tastes dusty; added all at once, it can bully the spring things you meant to honor. Prepared karashi can be whisked in directly.

5. 5

   Rest and serve

   Let the sumiso rest for 10 minutes, then stir and taste again. Miso absorbs the vinegar as it sits, so the first taste is not the final balance. For nuta, keep it thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and fall slowly; for a dip, loosen it with cool dashi or water, 1 teaspoon at a time. Spoon lightly over chilled blanched vegetables, wakame, or boiled seafood just before serving, leaving some of the ingredient visible.

   If you loosen it with dashi, use real dashi. Since the sauce only needs a spoonful, cool water is a cleaner stand-in than a salty granule.

Chef Tips

• •Use a pale, sweet shiro miso if you can, Saikyō-style for the gentlest sauce. Red miso can be made into a vinegared sauce, but it is not this quiet sumiso; it turns darker, saltier, and more forceful.
• •Use komezu (rice vinegar), not distilled vinegar. A harsh vinegar makes you add sugar to cover it, and then the sauce becomes heavy. Nothing hidden.
• •Dry the ingredients you dress. Wakame, blanched negi, and boiled squid all carry water on the surface; a quick squeeze or towel keeps the sumiso glossy instead of puddled at the bottom.
• •Karashi sumiso belongs especially well with boiled seafood and hotaru ika. For young greens, start with less mustard. The clean bitterness of the vegetable should still speak.

Advance Preparation

• •Sumiso keeps 5 days refrigerated in a covered jar. Stir before using; it thickens as the miso takes up the vinegar.
• •For the brightest version, make the miso-sugar-mirin base up to 1 week ahead, then whisk in vinegar and karashi the day you serve it.
• •Dress nuta just before serving. The sauce holds well, but salted greens and wakame release water after they sit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 30g)