Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu)

Today’s recipe, Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing, is all about the dressing. I would say that it is a Japanese version of mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce, but it does not use oil at all. It is called ‘kimizu’ (黄身酢) in Japanese, which translates to egg yolk vinegar. Kimizu is a versatile sauce for Japanese dishes.

Kimizu is very easy to make, using only pantry staple ingredients. You can use Kimizu in a wide range of dishes as a dressing or a thick sauce over a couple of ingredients. Kimizu is often used in Kaiseki-ryōri (traditional multi-course Japanese haute cuisine) too.

The method of making Kimizu is similar to hollandaise sauce and the consistency of the sauce is similar too. Since Kimizu does not use oil, it is not as rich as hollandaise sauce.

Egg yolk starts coagulating at 65°C/149°F. By gently heating the yolk in a water bath, you can make the sauce thicken without overcooking the yolk.

The basic Kimizu is made with egg yolk, rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt. The proportion of each ingredient can vary, but it does have a strong acidity. To make the acidity of the sauce milder, some recipes, including my recipe, add dashi stock and/or light soy sauce to it. You can also substitute rice wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar.

What’s in my Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu)

I used asparagus and prawns today, but you can use other ingredient combinations. Instead of asparagus, you may want to use beans, broccoli, or Chinese greens. Not only prawns, but boiled octopus, raw scallops, and squid are often paired with the green vegetable. It’s OK to have just vegetables too.

• Asparagus
• Salt
• Raw prawns in shell, no heads, de-veined
• Cooking sake
• Water

Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu)

• Egg yolk
• Rice wine vinegar
• Mirin
• Dashi stock
• Sugar
• Salt
• Light soy sauce (optional)

Light soy sauce is optional but it gives more umami to the sauce. But the yellow colour of the sauce will be more intense than the sauce without the soy.

Left: Kimizu without soy sauce. right: Kimizu with soy sauce.

As an alternative to rice wine vinegar, you can use apple cider vinegar.

How to Make Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu)

1. Steam prawns in a small amount of water and sake, then peel the shells off.
2. Trim hard part of the asparagus stems at lower end and blanch them.
3. Cut the asparagus into 3-4cm/1⅛-19⁄16″ long pieces. Halve prawns.
4. Mix the Kimizu ingredients in a heat-safe glass bowl or a metal bowl.
5. Place the bowl in a pot of simmering water and mix the sauce until it thickens.
6. Put the sauce in ice water to quickly cool it down.
7. Place asparagus pieces and prawns on a serving plate. Pour the sauce over.

Instead of steaming prawns, you might buy cooked prawns. However cooked prawns at seafood shops are often overcooked and salty. The saltiness of the prawns might overpower the delicate flavour of Kimizu.

Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu) is a delicate-looking dish with beautiful colour combinations. No wonder dishes like this are often included in Kaiseki-ryōri.

The combination of ingredients to go with Kimizu is endless. The photo below is boiled octopus and cucumber with Kimizu.

You can make Kimizu variations by adding other ingredients to the sauce. Add mustard (preferably Japanese karashi mustard) to make a spicy Kimizu. White miso is also good to mix with Kimizu.

Yumiko

5 from 2 votes

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Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing (Kimizu)

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

Asparagus and Prawns with Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing is a delicate-looking dish with beautiful colour combinations. The dressing, Kimizu, is the Japanese version of mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce, but it does not contain oil at all.

It is a refreshing, versatile sauce for Japanese dishes. It keeps in an airtight container for about 1 week in the fridge.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Appetiser, Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: Japanese dressing, Japanese mayonnaise recipe, Japanese sauce, Oil-free dressing

Serves: 2

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 4 stalks asparagus
• 4 raw prawns (medium size, note 1)
• 1 tbsp cooking sake
• 2 tbsp water

Kimizu (Egg Yolk and Vinegar Dressing)

• 1 egg yolk (note 2)
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (note 3)
• 1 tbsp mirin
• ½ tbsp dashi stock (note 4)
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp light soy sauce (optional)

Instructions

Prepare Asparagus and Prawns

1. Remove the hard part of the asparagus stems at lower end.

2. Boil water in a saucepan, add a pinch of salt and par boil asparagus for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Drain.

3. Cut the asparagus stems into 3-4cm/1⅛-1 9⁄16” long pieces.

4. Remove the head of the prawns and de-vein (note 5).

5. Put prawns, sake and water into a pot and steam the prawns for 3-4 minutes over medium heat with a lid on. Let them cool and peel the shell.

6. Halve each prawn perpendicular to the spine (note 1).

Making Kimizu

1. Put the egg yolk in a heat proof glass bowl (preferred) or a metal bowl and mix well with a spatula.

2. Add sugar to the bowl and quickly mix well. Then add salt and mirin to the bowl. Mix well ensuring that the mixture is smooth with no lumps (note 6).

3. Add vinegar and mix well.

4. Put water in a shallow pot or a saucepan that can fit the bowl inside and bring it to a boil. The depth of the water should be about 5cm/2” deep (note 7).

5. Reduce the heat to the lowest so that the water does not even simmer, then place the bowl inside the pot/pan (note 8).

6. Mix the kimizu mixture gently with the spatula for 4-5 minutes. As the yolk is heated up, the mixture starts getting thicker.

7. When the yolk becomes creamy but still runny, transfer the bowl from the water bath to a bowl with ice water and continue to mix. The sauce will thicken to the consistency of slightly runny mayonnaise.

Serving

1. Put the asparagus and the prawns on a serving bowl, clustering each ingredient together.

2. Pour the kimizu over the asparagus and prawns. It will look nice if you cover part of these ingredients with kimizu (see the photo).

Recipe Notes

1. I used tiger prawns so I would have vivid red stripes on the cooked prawns. But any species of prawns are OK.

If your prawns are small, you can increase the number of prawns to 6 or 8 and serve without halving them.

You could use cooked prawns from the fish shop, but these prawns tend to be overcooked and slightly salty, which overpowers the delicate taste of the sauce.

2. My egg weighed 54g/1.9oz in shell and the yolk was about 12g/0.4oz. If your egg yolk is much larger (say, more than 25% heavier), you need to increase the quantity of other ingredients accordingly.

3. You can use apple cider vinegar as an alternative.

4. I used konbu dashi because the colour of the dashi stock is almost transparent. Dashi stock made from bonito flakes is yellow brown and it makes the colour of the kimizu not as vivid as the sauce with konbu dashi.

5. By gently pulling the head, the vein usually comes out naturally. If not, pinch the end of the vein sticking out of the flesh and gently pull it out.

If these methods fail, you can use a toothpick and pierce it into the soft flesh between the shell segments, then lift the vein with the toothpick to pull it out.

6. Yolk coagulates when sugar is added, so it is important not to leave the yolk and sugar without mixing them.

If the mixture has tiny, coagulated bits on the surface, don’t worry. You can put the kimizu through a sieve after the sauce is thickened at the end of making kimizu.

7. When you place the bowl, the water level should be above the surface of the kimizu mixture.

8. If you are using a metal bowl, turn the heat off and place a kitchen towel in the pot/pan and place the bowl on it. This is to prevent the bowl from getting hot too quickly.

9. It keeps in an airtight container for about 1 week in the fridge. Seal the surface of the kimizu with a piece of cling wrap with no air bubble to prevent the kimizu from drying out on the surface.

10. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 75g calories: 65kcal fat: 1.8g (2%) saturated fat: 0.6g (3%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.3g monounsaturated fat: 0.7g cholesterol: 80mg (27%) sodium: 363mg (16%) carbohydrates: 7.2g (3%) dietary fibre: 0.7g (2%) sugar: 6g protein: 3.3g vitamin D: 0mcg (2%) calcium: 23mg (2%) iron: 0.9mg (5%) potassium: 86.6 mg (2%)

Nutrition per serving (Kimizu only)

serving: 27g calories: 47kcal fat: 1.6g (2%) saturated fat: 0.6g (3%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.3g monounsaturated fat: 0.7g cholesterol: 65mg (22%) sodium: 294mg (13%) carbohydrates: 5.8g (2%) dietary fibre: 0g (0%) sugar: 5.4g protein: 1g vitamin D: 0mcg (2%) calcium: 9mg (1%) iron: 0.2mg (1%) potassium: 7.9mg (0%)