Background: I remember when I saw and tasted my first wasabi rhizome. I remember it because it was the only time. The wasabi we get in sushi restaurants (at least in my neck of the woods) or the stuff that comes in a tube is mostly Western horseradish, mustard, food coloring, and thickeners. This isn’t to hate on the stuff. I have a tube of it in my pantry right now. A good wasabi powder is basically the same thing, but with fewer extra ingredients and a bit for versatility. It’s a good thing to have on hand. It takes up little space in the pantry and it packs a punch. It will be there for you when the SHTF. Here are some moves you can do with it:
- Make some Handmixer Mayo and mix the wasabi powder into it for a great wasabi mayo. It’s a great way to make that canned tuna sandwich a little more interesting. It’s even better with a fresh piece of yellowfin. But since mustard plays a large role in the ingredients, it even works on a ham sandwich.
- Make a poor-man’s cocktail sauce by mixing the powder to the desired consistency and then adding those packets of ketchup you’ve been hoarding in your desk or kitchen drawer.
- Add tomato juice and use the aforementioned cocktail sauce as the start of a Bloody Mary mix.
- Make a version of “Jazz Club Shrimp,” one of the first dishes I ever learned to make in a restaurant. It’s simple: P & D your shrimp, put some of that prepared wasabi down the crack where the vein used to be, wrap the mess in a half slice of bacon, secure the bacon with a toothpick and fry ’em up.
- Prepare the wasabi, add sour cream, mayo, chives, and S&P to taste and you’ve got a great horseradish sauce for your favorite steak.
Why It Works
- You can also use Duke’s or whatever your favorite mayo is. It’s already not fancy.
- It works because you don’t have prepared horseradish in your fridge, but you have leftover shrimp and ketchup packets.
- Yes, there are better Bloody Mary recipes. But we’re already using a product that is powdered, bomb-shelter-safe, predicated on false advertising, and implicated in a web of cultural appropriation.
- The original recipe, like most of the things here, called for prepared horseradish, but the wasabi powder actually works better because you can make a paste that better sticks to the shrimp under the bacon.
- With a rare steak, the slight green is a nice contrast, especially around the holidays.
Mods:
- Experiment with all the above swapping out wasabi in a tube, prepared horseradish, and actual Wasabia japonica if you can find some.
- Try it on sushi, I guess.
- Try making a spice with it like they put on those wasabi peas that no one ever asked for.