What is Ponzu?

If you like cooking Asian food at home, then you should have a bottle of ponzu in your cupboard. It is an essential condiment and marinade with a wonderful, zingy flavor that pairs well with vegetables, seafood, and meats. Sadly, it's very little-known outside of Japan and it deserves more widespread knowledge.

Ponzu is a citrus-based sauce used in Japanese cuisine as a marinade or an addition to soy sauce. It is made with rice wine, rice vinegar, bonito fish flakes, and seaweed. After the liquid is cooled and strained, it is infused with a Japanese citrus fruit called yuzu. Other Japanese citrus fruits such as sudachi, daidai, and kabosu are also used.

It has a very distinctive taste that covers the flavor spectrum; it can be salty, bitter, sweet, and sour all at once. Ponzu combined with soy sauce makes a wonderful dipping sauce called "ponzu shoyu" that is really terrific with some lightly seared ahi. It's also used as a dipping sauce for one-pot dishes such as nabe and shabu shabu. One can also dip pieces of sashimi in ponzu sauce. A splash of ponzu in some rice can really liven it up. If you're tired of Worcestershire sauce, try a little ponzu with your grilled steak or dribbled on a raw oyster.

Some recipes to try:
Chicken Satay with Ponzu Marinade
Ponzu-Marinated Salmon
Shrimp with Ponzu Sauce

(Image: Amazon)

Comments (7)

Thanks for bringing Ponzu to life! There are several variations on it, but if you have a hard time finding it in the store, you can make your easy version at home. Check it out! http://www.zomppa.com/2009/09/18/zomppin-with-z-ponzu-squid-and-the-bestest-corn/

@Belinda: oooh, homemade ponzu! I'll have to try that.

Ponzu makes a GREAT salad dressing. It's the crack-cocaine salad dressing for me.

Approximate ratios:
1 PONZU : 2 Canola Oil (or other light oil)

Add a touch of sugar, some roasted cashew pieces, maybe a touch of mustard and a touch of balsamic. Shake.

Great on a green salad with tomato and avocado.

I buy the KIKKOMAN ponzu.

Yuzu always struck me as being a cross between grapefruit, lemon and orange flavors (hence the combination of flavors). I would imagine a similar sauce to ponzu could be made without yuzu if you cooked up a similar concoction using other citrus flavors as a substitute if one cannot find yuzu.

As an aside, the yuzu KitKats were great. If you get a chance (they may come back around seasonally), definitely try one!

http://japanesesnackreviews.blogspot.com/2008/11/yuzu-kitkat-mini.html

Kikkoman's ponzu is actually a soy sauce and citrus mix, which I don't think uses any actual ponzu. But it is definitely great stuff! It is really nice on a hard boiled egg.

Real ponzu seems to be impossible to find in Philadelphia--believe me, I've looked. The enormous pan-Asian groceries don't seem to carry much in the way of Japanese products, besides the ubiquitous Pocky. I've only ever found the non-yuzu-containing Kikkoman stuff here.