japanese snow crab (zhuhai kani) vinegar sauce

[CommissionerLin]

Hi,

Does anyone have a recipe for zhuhai kani vinegar sauce? This is the vinegar sauce that they serve with steamed or grilled zhuhai kani.

[Hiroyuki]

Are you sure that the sauce you mentioned is really Japanese? Snow crab is zuwai gani in Japanes.

[cats2]

Perhaps this "vinegar sauce" referred to, is sanbaizu? (Since it's sometimes served with crab?)

See this page, scroll down to the 11/23/07 entry.

[Hiroyuki]

Aha, sanbaizu! That makes sense.

Originally, sanbaizu (lit. 3-cup vinegar) is made by mixing vinegar, soy sauce, and mirin (heated to evaporate alcohol) together at a ratio of 1:1:1, but nowadays, this ratio is seldom used, and mirin is often replaced with sugar.

A common ratio of vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar is:

3:1:2.

You way want to add dashi (2) if the sauce is too acidic.

In contrast, nibaizu (lit. 2-cup vinegar) is made by mixing vinegar and soy sauce together at a ratio of 3:2. Nibaizu is often is used for wakame and cucumber sunomono (vinegared dishes) and salad.

[Hiroyuki]

You may want to try other vinegar-based sauces.

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/hints/awase/awase.asp

[Kuma]

Hiroyuki-San,

This sanbaizu made with Mirin sounds like something I'd enjoy - to evaporate the Mirin, how long would you suggest? I also expect you need to use a little more volume to bring the evaporated amount of mirin down to that which is required? (I will be making the first batch with 1/4 cup measures, just to see how it comes out.)

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki-San,

This sanbaizu made with Mirin sounds like something I'd enjoy - to evaporate the Mirin, how long would you suggest?  I also expect you need to use a little more volume to bring the evaporated amount of mirin down to that which is required? (I will be making the first batch with 1/4 cup measures, just to see how it comes out.)

←

I'm sure you will enjoy it. A 1:1:1 mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and vinegar is a good one, as well as a 1:1:1 mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and citrus juice, which is instant ponzu.

I just can't say exactly how long. Two or three minutes, I guess. For such applications of mirin, I usually use alcohol-free, fake mirin (mirin-fu chomiryo) to avoid the trouble of "nikiri" (evaporating alcohol content by boiling).

In theory, you need to compensate for the loss in volume due to nikiri, but in practice, no one really doesn't care about it.

[CommissionerLin]

Perhaps this "vinegar sauce" referred to, is sanbaizu?  (Since it's sometimes served with crab?)

See this page, scroll down to the 11/23/07 entry.

←

Bingo!!! Thats the one. Thanks Cats2!

Thanks Hiroyuki-san for providing the links to the actual recipes. Armed with the recipes, I made a sanbaizu and turned it into a tosazu and then into something else with a dash of bottled yuzu juice (kaori yuzu kaju). Trotted down to the local Japanese supermarket, no zuwai kani but there were 3 live King crabs (advertised as taraba kani from Alaska) that looked totally appealing. I picked one, averted my eyes as it was swiftly despatched, dismembered and saran wrapped in polystyrene trays.

The legs were grilled on a robotayaki, dunked in the tosazu-mutant sauce, wolfed down and pronounced as amazingly delicious. Should have taken photos but I forgot. Only remembered after the legs had been devoured. Here's a picture of the shell with somen stirred in with the crab tomalley and garnished with coriander. Should have bought all 3 crabs.