Citrus kosho - japanese citrus chili paste

Serves: 8

If they like it, it serves 8 otherwise

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: No cooking required

Totaltime: 20 minutes

This citrus chili paste is a fresh take on the traditional Japanese yuzu kosho, substituting limes and lemons and orange and grapefruit for the tough to find yuzu. It’s fragrant and salty and hot. You’ll want a microplane and a mortar and pestle for this recipe. You could finish the mixing in a food processor or in a blender for a finer paste. The citrus kosho pairs well with beef, chicken recipes and with Miso soup..It also combines unexpectedly well with pasta, particularly with the Japanese-style pasta flavored mainly with soy sauce.Japanese.

Ingredients

1 lemon ( Meyer lemon if available)
1 lime
1 small grapefruit
1 small orange
2 stalks lemongrass
2 serrano or jalapeňo chilis
1 tablespoon fine grained salt

Preparation

Zest the lemons, limes, along with the grapefruit and orange into a medium bowl. Remove the fibrous outer layers and tops and bottoms from the lemongrass, leaving the tender center of the stalk. Finely chop the center of the stalk and add to the bowl. Finely slice the chili, and add it, seeds and all, to the bowl.
Transfer the ingredients to a mortar, add the salt, and pound with a pestle until everything combines into a rough paste (alternatively, blend in a food processor or blender into a fine paste). Juice one half of a lemon and one half of a lime and add the juice to the paste and stir.

Place in a glass jar, cover, and let ferment a few days at room temperature. Store in refrigerator.

Will keep in the refrigerator for about a month.