Bulletproof Condiments: Balsamic Syrup and Tonkatsu Sauce

Here are some condiments that we make at home. They're pretty straightforward. Some things (soy sauce, ketchup, chili paste, Franks, etc) just aren't worth making for yourself, but both of these have been solid additions to our inventory.  Last weekend I went on a tear and filled up a 6-pack of squeeze bottles with homemade condiments.  One bottle was my peanut sauce, three bottles were a tzatziki that's not yet ready for publication, one was the balsamic syrup, and one was the tonkatsu sauce.

Balsamic Syrup
This is perfect over fresh fruit. I couldn't stop eating it with a pineapple we had. But then I had just plain pineapple and it was still delicious. It's hard to mess up good fruit. But if you're serving company, this makes for an impressive-looking (and ridiculously easy) dessert.

Ingredients (double or triple as desired)

• 1/2 cups balsamic vinegar
• 1 T brown sugar

Steps

1. Add vinegar and sugar to a small saucepan on medium-high heat.
2. Leave on heat and stir occasionally for 20 minutes. Syrup will reduce by 1/2 to 1/3.
3. Add to squeeze bottle and refrigerate.

Tonkatsu Sauce

Think of this as a korean bbq sauce. It's probably not close to real tonkatsu sauce, which I've only had once. I'm sure if I tasted them next to each other I'd be able to tell the difference. But this tastes similar to my memory of tankatsu, and it's delicious. I tried making spring rolls today with very thin rolled pasta, and stuffed them with fried pork, onion, garlic, jalapenos, and a bit of this sauce. A big win.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. dry mustard powder
• 1 cup ketchup
• ¼ cup Worcestershire
• 4 tsp. soy sauce

Steps

1. Combine and refrigerate.