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–+ servings

Tentsuyu (Authentic Tempura Dipping Sauce)

Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients 
 

Instructions 

  • Pour 100 ml dashi stock and 4 tsp mirin into a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it boils, turn the heat down and let it gently simmer for 1 minute.
    heating dashi in a sauce pan on the stove top
  • Add 4 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu). Let it come back to a boil, then turn the heat off after 10 to 15 seconds.
    simmering homemade tsuyu sauce in a sauce pan on the stove top
  • With the heat off, add 3 g bonito flakes (katsuobushi).
    steeping bonito flakes in hot homemade tentsuyu sauce in a sauce pan on the stove top
  • Once they start to sink, strain the sauce gently through a fine mesh strainer lined with kitchen paper. Do not press the flakes.
    bonito flakes in a kitchen paper lined fine mesh sieve after straining homemade tentsuyu tempura dipping sauce
  • To serve it the same day, leave it in the pan. To keep it, cool it until the pan is comfortable to touch and refrigerate it within 30 minutes. To speed that up, sit the pan in an ice bath.
    strained homemade tentsuyu tempura dipping sauce in a steel bowl
  • Just before serving, peel the daikon radish 2 to 3 mm deep (about ⅛ inch). Hold the daikon radish upright and grate it on a Japanese oroshi grater or star side of a box grater, moving in circles.
    grated daikon radish on a silver Japanese oroshi grated
  • Squeeze the grated daikon radish lightly in your hand. Pinch a little between your fingertips and stop when the liquid falls in drops.
    a hand placing a mound of grated daikon in a dish of homemade tsuyu tempura dipping sauce
  • Pour 50 ml per person into a small dipping bowl and stir in 1 tbsp of the grated daikon radish. Dip a corner of each piece of freshly fried tempura and eat it straight away. Enjoy!
    Homemade Japanese tempura dipping sauce "tentsuyu"

Notes

Do not press the bonito flakes: Use only what falls through on its own. Pressing pushes out cloudiness and a sour edge, and neither can be taken back out. Let the last drops go.
Stop the sauce just before the steam rises: This is where most tentsuyu goes wrong. A fried coating drinks hotter liquid faster. The bowl should feel warm against your lip with no steam showing, and the bowls stay unheated.
Do not reduce it: 1 minute on low heat after it boils, and stop there. Every minute past that loses water and concentrates the salt. Holding that ceiling is also how the same taste comes back the next time you make it.
Grate the daikon radish right before you eat: The heat is born the moment it is grated and fades as it sits. Do not grate it the day before and refrigerate it.
Squeeze the grated daikon lightly: Unsqueezed, the water it holds thins the sauce. Squeezed too hard, only fiber is left. Pinch some between your fingertips and look for liquid falling in drops.