Last week I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Vinegar-Caramel Dipping Sauce for Tempura recipe from The Wok to go with his Tempura Vegetables or Seafood recipe.

This is the only tempura sauce that required some cooking.

Sugar, water, and salt are cooked in a saucepan until it caramelizes to a “golden honey color.”

White wine vinegar and sliced hot red chiles are added and stirred until dissolved.

This came out to be a delicious sweet, sour, and spicy thin sauce. It had the thinness like the Soy-Dashi sauce, but with a much punchier flavor. This might have been my favorite of the tempura sauces. I think it would be good with grilled or roasted meats, too. I had it with some roasted chicken we had later in the week, and that was very good. Kenji notes it’s “based on Italian agrodolce…, a common pairing with fritto misto, fried seafood.”

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.