Hibachi-Style Yum Yum Sauce

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The pale coral sauce that gets squeezed over shrimp, fried rice and grilled onions at teppanyaki griddles all over the US — and the one thing people always ask about on the way out. The trick isn't a secret ingredient, it's technique: bloom the paprika and garlic in melted butter so the spices taste roasted instead of dusty, dissolve the sugar in warm rice vinegar so the sauce is smooth rather than gritty, and then let the whole thing sit overnight. Made this way it's rich, tangy, faintly smoky and just sweet enough, with none of the raw onion-powder edge of the quick version.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 1/4 cup Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie) or Duke's, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp cold water, plus more to thin

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a small skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat, about 1 minute. As soon as it's fully liquid and just starting to foam, add the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne. Stir constantly for 30 to 40 seconds — the butter should smell toasty and turn deep orange. Do not let it brown or the paprika will taste bitter.
2. Add the tomato paste and stir for another 30 to 45 seconds, until it darkens from bright red to brick and coats the back of the spoon. Immediately slide the pan off the heat and scrape the mixture into a medium bowl. Let it cool for 5 minutes, until barely warm to the touch.
3. While the butter cools, stir the sugar into the rice vinegar in a small cup until it fully dissolves (about 30 seconds of stirring; a few seconds in the microwave helps if it's stubborn). This keeps the finished sauce silky instead of sandy.
4. Add about 1/4 cup of the mayonnaise to the warm spice butter and whisk hard until completely smooth and uniformly orange. Starting with a small amount prevents the butter from seizing into specks.
5. Whisk in the remaining mayonnaise, the sweetened vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and salt until the sauce is one even pale coral color with no streaks.
6. Whisk in the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauce falls from the whisk in a slow ribbon — thin enough to drizzle from a squeeze bottle but still able to coat a piece of shrimp. It will thicken slightly in the fridge.
7. Transfer to a jar or squeeze bottle, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours and ideally overnight. The sauce tastes flat and powdery right away and becomes rounded, tangy and savory once the spices hydrate.
8. Taste cold before serving and adjust: a splash more vinegar for brightness, a pinch of sugar for sweetness, a pinch of salt if it tastes muted. Serve over grilled shrimp, steak, chicken, fried rice, roasted vegetables or french fries.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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