This week I enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Nopi with Tim Anderson, one of my favourite MasterChef winners. His exciting adventures with food have given him a geeky Heston-esque reputation, but we mostly chatted about what he cooks at home and his love of Asian – particularly Japanese – food. Where he grew up in Wisconsin there was a Kikkoman soy sauce factory and his mum always kept a bottle on the table, which the family used to season their food.

The lunch Tim and I shared also showed the way soy sauce can be used to add a deep rich umami flavour and replace salt in recipes. Tim also recommends using it instead of Worcestershire sauce (which contains anchovies) if you're cooking for vegetarians, and says you can rustle up a mean veggie Bloody Mary with it.

My favourite dishes were some incredibly tender Beef sirloin with cucumber kimchi and red pepper miso, and Tim's very own Double chocolate brownie with – wait for it – Soy caramel sauce. This sauce was divine, there's no other word for it, and it would be delicious poured over some vanilla ice cream. Luckily Tim has shared his recipe for the sauce with us, below. If you fancy making the brownies too, click here

Tim Anderson's Soy caramel sauce recipe below makes about 900ml (enough for 20 brownies)

Ingredients

• 150ml whole milk
• 150ml single cream
• 300g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce

Method

1. Heat the milk and cream together in a small pan.
2. Place the caster sugar and 50ml water in a deep frying pan and cook over a medium heat – resist the urge to stir!
3. When the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and, when it has turned a golden amber colour, quickly bring the cream and milk to a boil and pour it into the pan with the sugar, whisking continuously. Be careful – the caramel will foam up dramatically.
4. Remove the caramel from the heat and stir in the soy sauce. Leave to cool slightly and allow the mixture to thicken.