For all of you Japanese food aficionados, who bought a bottle of sushi vinegar (sushi-zu) to make sushi and never managed to use it all, I have a solution.

So what's sushi vinegar, to begin with? To make sushi rice, tradition dictates that you steam the rice with konbu (kelp) stock, and add a mixture of vinegar, salt, sugar and mirin when the rice is cooked. But nowadays, many Japanese amateur cooks simply cook the rice normally (i.e., sans konbu stock) and pour pre-mixed sushi vinegar that contains all you need: konbu extract, vinegar, salt, sugar and mirin, as well as flavor enhancers in some cases. I keep one at hand, even though I never make nigiri sushi (sushi with raw fish on it--too risky and too skill-intensive) and rarely make chirashi zushi (sushi rice mixed with pre-cooked ingredients).

The reason I keep a bottle of sushi vinegar around is that it can be used for things other than sushi rice. The other day, I used it for a faux-Chinese sauce for sautéed red snapper. It was pretty hot well into the evening, so I wanted something light and refreshing; the kick of the vinegar in sushi vinegar would be nice.

First, I made the sauce (the amount is approximate; you can modify it to your taste):
1 tablespoon sushi vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/3 tablespoon sesame oil
1 green onion, chopped
2 pinches crushed red pepper

Then, I heated some oil in a pan, and threw in 2 green onions (cut into 2-inch pieces) and about 1 inch of ginger (thickly sliced). When they start to produce that wonderful aroma, I spread the pieces evenly on the pan, and placed the red snapper fillets on top of the green onions and ginger. It was the first time I did this half-sautée, half-steam method, but it worked well: the flavors of the green onions and ginger got transferred to the fish as it cooked, and this method requires a bit less oil than placing the fish directly onto the pan (in which case I would use more oil to prevent the fish from getting too intimate with the pan).

When the fish was done, I placed it on the plate and spooned the sauce over it. Served with steamed rice, the faux-Chinese red snapper was pretty good. As I planned, the vinegar shooed away the humid heat of the day, and the aromatic green onions and ginger added refreshing kick. With this sauce, I could eat two bowls of rice! (I didn't, but I could.)

The sushi vinegar I currently have is from Mizkan, a 200-plus-year-old vinegar maker in Japan. Its ingredient list is a bit more cluttered with dubious stuff (high fructose corn syrup, especially) than I would like, but it's convenient, and it's tasty. I've seen other brands at Mitsuwa; next time I buy a bottle, I'll check the ingredient lists and go for a less dubious one.

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Mitsuwa 100 E. Algonquin Rd., Arlington Heights, IL
(847)956-6699
Other Asian supermarkets, like H Mart, should have sushi vinegar available, though I haven't checked. It may even be around in Whole Foods and Trader Joe's (though, again, I haven't checked).