Try Something New: YUZU

The first time I heard about this citrus fruit was when I was doing my stage at Area with chef Ian Perrault on Amherst in Montreal. It's juice was added to a tuna tartare adding quite a zing to the whole. It is very bitter, often compared to a lemon and is often used in similar places. Especially to flavor salads, sauces and it is also used in desserts. Cream, tart, cake... try it anywhere!

Yuzu seems to be the new 'hip' thing. A fruit that not many know about which gets your attention when you just say it! 'yoo-zoo'. woooooooo! or taste it, it's so tangy!
The yuzu fruit, also known as citrus juno, originates from China but is now mostly grown and cultivated in Japan. It has a size of a golfball, it can be yellow or green, and is thought to be a cross between a mandarine orange and a lemon, but it's taste is closer to the one of a lime. It has a very thick skin, which is probably needed to survive up to -15 degrees! but it leaves little place for juice...

At my work, we use yuzu under the form of a cream, and we make a 'mousseline' with it by adding butter to make the 'surprise'*. Other pastry chefs use yuzu more and more. Sadaharu Aoki makes a yuzu tart right now, and pastry chef from Per Se in NYC mixes it up with mangoes. Try it out! You can find it in the form of juice in specialty food stores, but fresh... I have no idea! probably hard to find in western countries... I never saw a real one, but maybe at the Jean-Talon Market?? If I see one here, I'll let you know. It is now in season, one of the first citrus fruits to be ready in the year.

Surprise YU: crispy meringue, 10 hours baked and raw apples flavored with yuzu, and yuzu mousseline, wrapped in orange cellophane, sold for 5.80euros(!) at Pierre Hermé Paris
72 rue Bonaparte, 75006
185 rue Vaugirard, 75015