fish

Mackerel braised in miso sauce (Saba no miso ni)

maki — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:22:21 +0200

Here’s another classic Japanese recipe from my mother. I have to admit that I’m not very good with fish, with the exception of simple grilling or panfrying and so on, but my mom has all kinds of great fish recipes up her sleeve.

Last week we spent a rather chilly week in Brittany (Bretagne), where the highlight was definitely the abundance of cheap, really fresh fish available to us. One fish in particular that was really good and inexpensive was maquereau, or Atlantic mackerel, which we know as saba （鯖さば）in Japanese. In Japan, mackerel is usually treated one of three ways: grilled over an open flame (amiyaki), treated with salt and vinegar (shimesaba) and turned into an old fashioned kind of sushi (sabazushi), or gently braised in a sauce with the classic Japanese combination of salty-sweet flavors. This mackerel is cooked in a ginger scented miso sauce, then allowed to cool down in the liquid overnight, which allows the flavors to penetrate the firm flesh of the fish. You barely notice the oiliness at all, and the sauce is plate-lickingly tasty. I like to eat it chilled, right out of the refrigerator, with plain rice and a simple salad on the side. It makes for a refreshing yet rich dish for a summer meal.

Recipe: Mackerel braised in miso sauce (Saba no misoni)

Serves 3 to 4, depending on the size of the fish

1 very fresh large mackerel
1 piece of ginger about 1 inch / 2.5 cm long
1 Tbs. mirin
1 Tbs. sake
1 1/2 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. dark soy sauce
2 Tbs. red (akamiso) or blended miso (awase miso), or whatever miso you have

Have the fishmonger take the head off and gut the fish if you can. If not, you will have to do this yourself. Either way, once you get the fish home, wash it carefully and cut it crosswise into 3 to 4 steaks. With the point of your knife, make a slash about 1/4 inch / 1/2 cm or so deep in the skin of the side that will be facing up when you put the pieces into the pot. (This helps the cooking liquid penetrate the fish better.)

Peel and finely julienne (cut into small matchsticks) the piece of fresh ginger.

In a pan that’s large enough to hold the fish pieces in one layer, put in the mirin and sake. Turn on the heat and let this cook until the liquid has bubbled and is almost gone. (This gets rid of most of the alcohol content in the mirin and sake.)

Add about 1/2 cup of water, sugar and the soy sauce, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the julienned ginger and miso, and stir until the miso has dissolved.

Add the fish pieces with the slashed side up, and then add more water until the liquid comes about halfway up the side of the fish. Bring up to a simmer, then lower the heat to about medium-low.

Make a ‘lid’ with some crumbled up aluminum foil with a few holes poked in it, and put this ‘lid’ (an otoshibuta or dropped lid, see here for an explanation of otoshibuta) on top of the fish.

Simmer on medium-low heat (the liquid should be bubbling gently, but not boiling) for about 15 minutes. For best results, lift off the foil lid a couple of times, tilt the pan to gather the juices in a corner, scoop the juices up and baste the fish with them.

After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and replace the foil lid. Let cool to room temperature, then transfer to a bowl, cover and store in the refrigerator overnight. This allows the fish to firm up and also absorb the flavors of the braising liquid.

Serve chilled or heated up a bit, with a little of the liquid spooned over, including some of the ginger bits. A little green for garnish is nice too - I used a fresh shiso leaf, but some parsley or even lettuce will do too.

Note: While this has the strong flavors that go so well with rice, I don’t recommend this for bentos (which is why it’s on Just Hungry, not Just Bento!) since you do have to keep it chilled until right before eating. If you want it warm, just heat it up a bit in a pan with the liquids.

More about mackerel

Saba is an ‘oily’ fish, like herring, bluefish, smelt and sardines (or pilchards). It’s packed with good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids and is considered to be sustainable and low in mercury levels too.

Mackerel can be a bit tricky though. It has to be very fresh, and it goes downhill pretty fast. The best way to gauge if a mackerel, or any fish really, is fresh is to look at their faces. Their eyes should be clear and bright, not dried out or bloodshoot like someone after a drunken night out. They should look like this:

The fish counter is also a good gauge of how fresh the fish is. It shouldn’t smell fishy or rank; it should just smell like the sea. Here’s the counter at the poissoniere we bought the mackerel we used from, in the small villege of Damgan on the southern coast of Brittany.

My mother declared their fish to be as of good a quality as any she’s seen in Japan. Coming from her, this is high praise, since she’s über-picky about her fish!

Sweet Potato, Coconut and Shrimp Miso Soup

maki — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:31:25 +0100

This rich fusion-esque soup is something I just came up with while fiddling around with the idea of a bisque-like soup without any cream or milk in it. After a few experiments, I’m happy with this version. I am not lactose-intolerent, but several members of my family are, especially my stepfather. Besides, even those of us with the sturdiest stomachs may have problems when there is tons of butter and cream involved.

This soup also happens to be quite frugal, since I use the shells and heads of peeled fresh shrimp that I stock up in the freezer to make the base stock. You don’t even have to add any actual shrimp, though they can provide a nice texture contrast.

The key to this soup is to balance the sweetness that comes from the sweet potato and coconut milk with the spiciness of the cayenne or chili pepper, plus the sourness of lemon juice.

Recipe: Sweet Potato, Coconut and Shrimp Miso Soup

For the shrimp stock:

About 2 cups of shrimp shells and heads
1 small onion
1 celery stalk
Olive oil
1 bay leaf

Chop up the onion and celery, and sauté in the olive oil until limp. Add the shrimp shells and 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes, skimming off the scum that rises to the surface. Strain through a sieve or a colander lined with a cheesecloth or gauze. You will have about 4 1/2 cups of soup stock. It will be more orange if you have more heads.

For the soup:

1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large sweet potato (I used the white kind, but the orange kind will work too), peeled and chopped up roughly
1/2 large fennel bulb or 1 small fennel bulb, chopped up roughly (If you can’t get bulb fennel, use a couple of stalks of celery finely chopped)
1-2 Tbs. Olive oil
The shrimp stock
1 cup coconut milk (use low-fat if you must, but full-fat will be richer)
2 Tbs. white miso
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Chopped fresh coriander or parsley
Hot red chili powder or cayenne pepper
A few shrimp (optional)

Equipment:

A heavy bottomed pan, or a slow cooker
A stick blender (mine is a 12+ year old Bamix that still works flawlessly)

In a large heavy bottomed pan (an enameled cast iron one such as Le Creuset is ideal) heat up the olive oil and add the onion. Sauté until limp, then add the other vegetables. Sauté until the vegetables are just turning a bit brown around the edges. (If using a slow cooker, do this part in a big sauté pan or frying pan or wok.)

Add the shrimp stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer gently until the vegetables are totally softened, about 30-40 minutes depending on how small you cut your vegetables.

With a stick blender, puree the soup until it’s smooth. A few small chunks in there are fine. You can also puree it in batches in a blender.

Return to the pot and add the coconut milk. Dissolve the miso in a little of the soup, and add to the pot. Add the lemon juice and pepper. Taste and add salt if you think it needs it (probably around a teaspoon may be needed). You can add more lemon juice at this point too.

Optionally add a few small fresh peeled shrimp just before serving, and simmer just until the shrimp are cooked, a couple of minutes.

Serve topped with a sprinkle of hot chili pepper or cayenne pepper (or chopped fresh red chili peppers), and chopped coriander or parsley. Optionally drizzle a bit of basil scented olive oil or even butter on top. The only accompaniment you need is some good bread or plain rice.

Notes

If you want this to have an even thicker texture, add about 2 Tbs. of potato starch or cornstarch dissolved in a little water; simmer until the soup thickens. Add more of the starch-water mixture to your liking.

Cod marinated in miso and kochujang

maki — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:31:39 +0100

I have not featured many fish recipes here on Just Hungry. This is because at the moment I live in a landlocked country, where sea fish must be shipped in, and is expensive to boot. When I do buy some fish, I savor it as a treat. (I may be preparing myself for something that all fish eating people might have to endure soon, given the problems of overfishing.)

This is a classic miso marinade with a spicy twist. Instead of using just miso, I’ve added a little bit of kochujang, spicy Korean bean paste. I’ve used cod for this, but you could use any firm, flaky white fish instead - or even an oily fish such as salmon or swordfish. The pieces of fish should have a certain thickness, so thin fish like flounder won’t do.

Cod marinated in miso and kochujang

450g / about 1 lb cod or other fish
3 Tbs. white miso
1 Tbs. kochujang
3 Tbs. shaoxing wine (see notes) or mirin
2 Tbs. raw cane sugar or any sugar

Mix together all the ingredients except the fish until combined.

Put down a large piece of plastic. Spread the plastic with a layer of the marinate that is bigger than the surface area of the fish. Put a piece of cheesecloth or a single layer of paper towel on top of the marinade, then put the fish on top of that. Wrap the cheesecloth or paper towel around the fish, then smear more marinade on top.

Wrap the fish up in the plastic securely - you may want to double-wrap it. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least several hours, or overnight.

Peel away the plastic and paper towel or cheesecloth. Heat up a grill pan or a large frying pan, brushed with a little oil. Cook on both sides until the fish is cooked through. (The cooking time depends on the thickness of the fish.)

This will serve 4 people as part of a Japanese meal, with one or two other dishes besides rice and miso soup. It’s also great in a bento.

Notes

Shaoxing wine (called sho-ko-shu in Japan) is a rice wine from the Shaoxing province of China. It has a sweet flavor like mirin, but is more assertive. You can use mirin or a sweet sherry instead, or even just plain sake.

[Edit: added for clarification] The reason why you would use paper towels or cheesecloth between the fish and the miso marinade is that the marinade is rather too salty to leave on, so it needs to removed anyway. By wrapping the fish in a porous material before applying the marinade paste, you make removal of the paste easier. You can just scrape or even lightly wash off the marinade if you want to too. This, by the way, is fairly standard for many miso or sake lees (sake kasu) marinated recipes.

You can freeze the fish while wrapped in the marinade, but if you do so, defrost it slowly in the refrigerator, not in the microwave.

The marinade can’t be re-used, since it’s full of fish-juice!

Oden, a Japanese stew or hotpot

maki — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:21:51 +0100

Happy New Year! If you live in Japan, you are probably still in holiday mode. Elsewhere though, chances are you’re back to your normal routine. That’s where I am now - back to work!

I often get requests for various popular Japanese recipes. I keep on thinking I’ve written up so many of them already, until someone asks for one and I think “why didn’t I put that up already?”. One such recipe is for oden, a very popular Japanese stew dish that is especially suited to winter. Traditionaly it’s made in a donabe or pottery pot, but it’s not a requirement to use one. It’s simmered slowly, so is perfect for a crockpot or my favorite for stewing anything, a Le Creuset-type of cast iron enamelled pot.

While I always strive to list recipes here that people without easy access to Japanese groceries can make, oden is an exception. Most of the main ingredients for oden are so time consuming to make from scratch, that you just have to buy them. I have tried to make my own satsuma age and hanpen, with decidedly mixed results. It’s really hard to grind the fish down to a finely textured paste, even with a food processor. I do freqently make my own ganmodoki, tofu fritters (recipe here), but prefer to eat freshly made ones as-is, crispy and hot.

So, I just buy a selection of oden no mi (oden ingredients). Here’s a selection:

My local Japanese grocery store (Nishi’s Japan Shop in Zürich) is tiny, but I could still assemble a good variety there. You can even buy complete oden sets, but I prefer to buy the individual items, which I supplement with some other ingredients.

Oden no mi

Here are some commonly used oden no mi that you would buy in packets. They are usually in the refrigerated or frozen food sections. The fish paste items are called nerimono.

Various kinds of deep fried fish paste items. The most traditional is Satsuma age, which are burger shaped. There are also Ika balls - fish paste ‘meatballs’ with a piece of squid inside, sausage-shaped ones with a piece of burdock (gobo) inside, and so on. They all have a golden brown color.
Chikuwa is fish paste shaped like a piece of bamboo (the name means “bamboo ring”), and grilled. There are various grades of chikuwa, but for oden the cheapest kind is fine.
Hanpen is also fish paste, which has been combined with yamaimo, a kind of tuber and egg whites. It’s puffy and light, like a pillow shaped quenelle, and is one of my favorites.
Naruto is wheat flour paste that’s been formed into a tube. It’s often colored pink and white. Naruto is also used as a ramen topping. It’s not a favorite of mine, but my mother loves it.
Ganmodoki - deep fried tofu fritters (a recipe, if you want to make them from scratch). The one thing that is not that hard to make.
Konnyaku (a detailed description)

To these, people often add:

Deep fried thin tofu (abura age), the same that is used to make inarizushi, stuffed with chopped vegetables, shirataki, and so on, then tied up with a piece of kanpyo (dried gourd) to resemble a kinchaku, or money purse.
Hard boiled eggs
Pieces of daikon radish
Potatoes

I usually skip the tofu purses, but add one egg per person and lots of daikon, plus carrots.

In case you are wondering if all those fish paste items will make it taste ‘fishy’, it doesn’t at all. Kids in Japan love oden, and your adventurous kids may too!

Oden, the easy way

This makes a big pot, which can be eaten all at once or over a few days. Oden, like most stews, deepens in flavor the more it’s reheated. Keep it in the fridge in between reheatings though.

Note that while it takes its time to cook, your actual kitchen working time is quite short and easy.

1 large piece of dried kombu seaweed. The larger, the better. Use a whole leaf if you can.
Water
A selection of packaged oden ingredients - the amount depends, but try to have at least one piece per person of ganmodoki and satuma age, and a few each of things like the squid balls. Allow for one to two pieces of konnyaku per person (each block of konnyaku can be cut into 4 triangles).
1 medium sized daikon radish
1 hard boiled egg per person
Optional: carrots, potatoes
Dried mustard powder (English mustard powder like Colman’s is fine, or the equivalent from an Asian grocery. Prepared mustard like Dijon-style is not suited.)

Put the kombu in enough water to cover it completely. Let soak for at least 20 minutes.

Put the water and the kombu in a donabe or large stewing pot. Heat until it’s nearly boiling but not bubbling violently.

In the meantime, peel the daikon and cut into fairly large pieces (usually it’s just cut into rounds about 2 cm / about 1 inch thick). Cut up the carrots into fairly large pieces too. Potatoes should be added later.

Cut the konnyaku into triangles, and blanch for a few minutes in boiling water. Drain.

Add the daikon, carrots and konnyaku into the pot, adding more hot water if needed to cover. Let simmer until the vegetables are tender, for at least an hour, or more. The kombu should become quite soft.

Add the potatoes if you are using them, about 40 minutes before serving time.

Add the hardboiled eggs and the packaged ingredients, except for the hanpen. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Add the hanpen in the last 5 minutes or so.

Mix the mustard powder with a little water to reconstitute into a paste.

To serve, cut up the kombu - you should be able to do this in the pot with a spatula. Serve each person a good selection of the things in the pot, including pieces of kombu - or let them serve themselves, with a little bit of the broth. (We often used to fight about someone having more ganmodoki than they were alloted and things like that.)

Each person should take a small spoonful of the mustard and mix it into the broth if they like. If it’s not salty enough, just drizzle a bit of soy sauce. Eat with hot rice, or sake.

Smoked salmon temari zushi: Ball-shaped sushi

maki — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:23:33 +0100

Following up on the previous recipe for shell shaped sushi, here is another kind of sushi that’s great for parties. Temari are small cloth balls made from leftover scraps of kimono fabric, and temari zushi are meant to look like these colorful toys. You can make temari zushi with any number of things, such as thinly sliced sashimi grade fish, boiled and butterflied shrimp, thinly sliced and cooked or uncooked vegetables, and even thin slices of cheese.

For these, I’ve used thinly cut slices of pale pink smoked salmon, with tiny amount of cream cheese inside, rather in the same vein as a New York Roll - quite non-traditional but it’s a great combination. The key is to make the temari zushi on the small side since they are quite rich.

As with the hamaguri-zushi, these don’t require any soy sauce for dipping.

Smoked salmon temari zushi

4 cups of cooked plain white rice cooked with dashi stock, turned into sushi rice either by following the traditional recipe on that page, or into pink sushi rice as per the instructions on the hamaguri sushi page
8 to 12 thin slices smoked salmon
Cream cheese
Finely chopped parsley for garnish

Equipment:

Tiny bowl or small teacup with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup cup capacity
Plastic cling film

The procedure for making these is the same as for Onigiri 2.0, but even easier. A small teacup is lined with plastic wrap, then a slice of salmon, and filled with rice. Everything is gathered up and squeezed in the plastic wrap, and formed into a little ball.

Line the cup or little bowl (I used a tiny glass bowl that I use for holding small amounts of ingredients and such when cooking) with plastic cling film, then a slice of smoked salmon.

Fill with sushi rice. Poke a hole in the middle and put about 1/2 teaspoon of cream cheese in there. I used a kind with olive bits in it, which makes it even more interesting.

Gather up the cling film and twist tightly, and form into a ball. Unmold and sprinkle a tiny bit of green if desired.

If you are bringing these to a picnic or something, leave the plastic wrap on. Try to keep cool until you eat it, since this amount of smoked salmon on the outside will get nastily greasy if left too warm.

Variation

The pale pink sushi rice makes a subtle yet nice contrast to regular white sushi rice. You can make little balls alternating both, for a pretty display, to serve as a side dish or as the rice part of your bento box.

A week of miso soup, day 5: Ground shrimp, ginger and miso

maki — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 00:17:10 +0200

This is a miso soup made of fresh shrimp ground to a paste, mixed with flavoring ingredients, then whisked into hot dashi stock until just cooked. It's called ebi no nagashi jiru (ebi is shrimp). It's a quite traditional soup that used to be laborious to make, before the advent of the food processor. It's not one that is served that often in homes, perhaps because it used to be a bother to make, or perhaps because miso soup is rarely the star of a meal. It's really delicious in any case, and shows yet another way of making a miso based soup.

Nagashi jiru is traditionally made with fresh bonito (katsuo), but bonito is probably not that easy to get a hold of, so I have made it with shrimp here. It can also be made with fresh tuna or a white fish like red snapper.

Fresh ginger and sake are used a lot in Japanese cooking with fish or meat. These ingredients, plus onion, help to lessen any gamyness (kusami). This technique is also used in Chinese cooking. Here ginger juice and sake are used to make the shrimp taste brighter.

The soup has a coral color from the shrimp, and an intriguing texture.

Ground shrimp and ginger miso soup (ebi no nagashi jiru)

4 cups of dashi stock
200g / about 7 oz. fresh peeled shrimp
1 Tbs. miso, red miso preferred, but you can use white or blended
1 Tbs. fresh ginger juice (grate some fresh ginger, and squeeze out the juice)
1 Tbs. sake or dry sherry
1 Tbs. soy sauce
pinch of salt
a little finely chopped green onion

Equipment needed: a food processor

Make the dashi stock following the directions on day 1.

Chop the shrimp up roughly and put in the bowl of the food processor. Process until finely chopped. Add the miso, ginger juice and sake, and about 4 to 5 tablespoons of the dashi stock until it is a very smooth paste.

Add the shrimp paste to the rest of the dashi stock, and simmer very gently while stirring until it turns a pinkish-coral color. Add the soy sauce, and if necessary a little salt (taste!)

Serve with a sprinkle of green onion.

Variation: add some cubed tofu.

IMBB 23: Brandade de Morue

maki — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:33:13 +0100

This is my entry for Is My Blog Burning #23, hosted by Cucina Testa Rossa. The theme is Vive La France. I cogitated over this for a while, but settled on something extremely simple to make, figuring that the other entries might go more elaborate. I'm also a bit cooked-out at the moment due to the Masterchef cooking! But anyway...onwards we go.

The picture above is a little misleading. The star of the show is not the golden brown crêpes. It's the unprepossessing little bowl of white sauce. This is a Provençal staple called brandade de morue. It hasn't become as trendy around the world as other delicious sauces from this much lauded region such as tapenade or pistou, but is, in my opinion, one of the most delicious tastes in the world.

It's possible that brandade de morue is not as renowned because its star ingredient is salt cod. Any seafaring culture has a tradition of heavily salted fish, and since cod has always been a popular fish, there are variation of salted cod everywhere: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and of course France. Marseilles was at one point the major salt cod manufacturing point for the whole of Europe, and it still produces a lot of it. Salted fish does not really fit well into our modern lifestyle, since it needs an extended period of soaking. I love the taste of it though, coming from a culture (Japanese) that has always relied on salting and drying to preserve seafood. I also love the slowness of it: soaking the fish overnight, planning ahead for the meal that it will be the basis of. It's an entirely different experience from popping a frozen dinner tray into the microwave.

Making a brandade is so easy with our modern food processors and mixers, it's almost not a recipe. The one key to it is to soak the fish in cold water beforehand for at least 24 hours, changing the water several times, to reconstitute the cod and to remove much of its salt. You should also use a good, fruity olive oil, preferably from Provence (but any good extra virgin olive oil will do). A brandade can be used for any number of things: as a dipping sauce for raw or steamed vegetables; on crusty bread; even as an interesting pasta sauce. Here I have used it as a stuffing for crepes. This isn't very traditionally Provençal I admit, but the very first time I had brandade was in a creperie in the small, charming town of Grillon, in the northern part of Provence. It was simply spread onto a large, crispy Galette Bretonnière (a buckwheat crêpe from Brittany) which was folded over at the edges, the dark brown lacy edges framing the white sauce so inticingly. One mouthful, and I was a brandade convert for life. It is salty, just slightly fishy (but in a good way, like the freshest anchovies, but less so), garlicky, and full of fruity olive oil flavor, with the slight acidic edge provided by the creme fraiche, that elevates it to the highest level of taste.

As for a wine to accompany a meal with brandade, why not a rosé? There are many rosés in Provence; light and refreshing, to cut through the sometimes intense flavors of the food of the region. Nothing is quite as evocative of summer as a chilled glass of rosé and a meal redolent of olive oil and garlic. The one we had on hand is Domaine de Montine, from the Tricastin region, which is near Montélimar, the self-proclaimed nougat capital in the northwestern corner of Provence.

This area is not nearly as touristy as southern Provence, but I almost prefer it over the more famous areas near Arles or Aix or Marseilles. If you want to see the Provence cliché of lavender fields stretching out as far as the eye can see, go to the north.

Brandade de morue

200g / 7 oz. piece of salt cod
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Provence (it should be a bright green)
4 garlic cloves
150g / 5 oz. creme fraiche

Soak the salt cod in cold water, changing the water several times, for at least 24 hours beforehand.

Cook the drained cod in water to cover, simmering for about 10-15 minutes.

Take out the cod, let it cool and take off the skin if there is a skin. Carefully go over it and pick out any bones.

Roughly flake the cod into the bowl of a food processor or mixer, with the garlic cloves. Pulse to chop it up, then add the olive oil and creme fraiche. Puree intil smooth. The consistency should be that of thick mayonnaise. Add a little more olive oil if necessary.

This makes about 2 cups. Store any left over sauce well covered in the refrigerator, and use up within a few days.

For the crêpes, please refer to this recipe for a good all-around version.

Technorati Tags: brandade de morue, imbb23

Masterchef challenge, day 15: Fish quenelles in vegetable soup

maki — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 13:53:46 +0100

Day 15 of Masterchef! Here are today's ingredients:

Onion
Fennel
Basil
Horseradish
Tomato
Mozzarella cheese
Celeriac
Mackerel (they showed filets, not whole mackerel)

All the contestants who used the mackerel pan-fried it. It's delicious like that of course, but I wanted go in an entirely different direction. Fish balls was it. Or, to put it more elegantly, 'quenelles'. (Isn't it strange how putting a French name on sometime makes it sound more elegant? I could call them Fischknödeln but that doesn't sound as good.)

Ingredient notes: celeriac or root celery was unfamiliar to me until I got to Switzerland, though nowadays it's become quite trendy. Here, it's celeriac that is called simply Sellerie, while the stalk celery that is more common in the U.S. and elsewhere is called Stangensellerie. Either one can be used for this soup.

A classic way of cooking fish is to poach it in a court bouillon, an acidulated vegetable stock. I took the idea for the base soup from this, though I did not add much acid to it. The mixture of onion, carrot, fennel, and celery makes a wonderful vegetable stock base. If the vegetables are cut into small cubes they cook quite quickly.

The fish quenelles are similar to a traditional Japanese fish ball soup, but they are made lighter and more delicate by the addition of stiffly whipped egg whites. The addition of ginger to the pureed fish is quite important: it gets rid of any 'fishiness', and makes for a much cleaner taste. Ginger, onion and alcohol such as sake are used for the purpose of getting rid of kusami - fishiness or meatiness or gaminess in fish and meat - in Japanese and Chinese cooking.

My verdict on this recipe: it is one of the best of all my Masterchef attempts! Don't be scared by 'fish balls' - they are light and really yummy, and the soup is great too.

Another inspiration for the fish quenelles was gefilte fish, a traditional Jewish dish - poached white fish dumplings that are served cold in their gellified stock. I love homemade gefilte fish, but I'll save that for another day.

Unusued ingredients: horseradish, mozzarella, tomato, basil.

The recipe that follows makes enough for 4 to 6 servings.

Vegetable soup with lime and ginger

1/2 c. finely cubed fennel
1/2 c. finely diced onion
1/2 c. finely cubed celeriac
1/2 c. finely cubed carrot
1 piece of ginger, grated
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbs. Japanese essence, or 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce and 1/2 Tbs. sake
1 vegetable soup stock cube
Green onion, finely chopped
Ginger, finely julienned

Heat up about 6 cups of water. Throw in all the vegetables (not including the ginger or lime) and the stock cube, bring to a boil them simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the lime juice and grated ginger and Japanese essence (or soy sauce and sake). Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

At this point it can be served as a vegetable soup. For this recipe, add the fish quenelles and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Garnish with the chopped green onion and ginger.

Mackerel quenelles

4 fresh mackerel filets
1 egg, separated
1 piece of ginger, grated
1 Tbs. Japanese essence, or 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce and 1/2 Tbs. sake
1 stalk of green onion
a pinch of salt

Carefully go over the mackerel filets and take out any bones (a pair of tweezers is the best tool for this).

Chop up the green onion. (Reserve some of it for the soup garnish.) Put the onion and mackerel filets in a food processor and puree. Alternatively, you can chop it up very very finely with a knife. Add the egg yolk, the juice from the grated ginger and the Japanese essence (or soy sauce and sake) and salt and mix in.

Whip the egg white until fairly stiff. Take the fish puree out of the food processor, and mix half of the whipped egg white into it. Fold the rest of the egg white in carefully.

Using two spoons, scoop up the fish puree and drop it carefully into the simmering soup. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Note: if you don't have sake, substitute white wine or sherry.

Masterchef challenge, day 13: Grilled Sardine on Avocado and Endive with Momojioroshi

maki — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:28:52 +0100

It's now week 4! The ingredients for the first day of the 4th round preliminaries were:

Fresh sardines
Avocado
Chorizo
Mango
Tomato
Goats cheese
Short crust pastry
Endive
Bread

Wow, what a motley array, was my first thought at this list. I latched onto the sardines though, since I'm feeling the need to. eat a bit lighter at the moment. When I see an oily fish such as sardine, the first thing that comes to mind is to just grill it simply. Since there is enough oil and flavor in a sardine, there's no need to fry it in butter or anything like that.

I could have just served it plain, with a sprinkle of salt or a bit of soy sauce. But that would have been too simple for this task. So I tentatively put it on a bed of cut up endive and avocado. This really matched well - the bitterness of the liverish parts of the sardine went nicely with the slight bitterness of the endive, and the creaminess of the avocado was the perfect foil.

The mysterious mound on top of the sardine is momiji oroshi, a very versatile Japanese condiment of grated daikon radish and chili pepper that is made in a way that is simple yet leaves you feeling awfully clever. It looks really pretty too, since the chili pepper makes the radish a pale red, with darker flecks of red running through it. It goes very well with grilled fish and meat.

As a dressing of sorts I again used ponzu - such a versatile, tasty, and totally fat- and sugar-free sauce. This whole dish is in fact suitable for a low-carb or even a low-calorie diet, as long as you watch the amount of avocado added.

Unused ingredients: mango, bread, tomato, goats cheese, short crust pastry, chorizo.

Grilled Sardine on avocado and endive with momiji oroshi

Per serving:

1 fresh sardine
1 Belgian endive
1/2 large avocado
1 Tbs momoji oroshi (recipe follows)
Ponzu Heat up a grill pan. Place the sardine on it and grill on both sides until done - about 5 minutes per side.

In the meantime, peel the avocado, and cut it into cubes. Cut the endive into pieces and separate the leaves.

Place a mixture of the endive and avocado on the plate. Place the grilled sardine on top, and mound the momiji oroshi on top. Sprinkle with ponzu.

Momiji Oroshi

A chunk of daikon radish, peeled
A couple of thin slices of a chili pepper at least as long as the chunk of daikon

With a skewer or chopstick, make a couple of holes in the center of the daikon radish. Stick the slices of chili pepper in the holes.

Holding the daikon flat against the grater, grate it. The chili gets grated and mixed with the daikon.

Masterchef challenge, day 11: Calamari fritti and roasted red pepper salsa

maki — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:09:13 +0100

It's day 11 of MasterChef! The ingredients:

Chicken breast
Squid
Bok choy
Leeks
Sweet peppers
Pancetta
Noodles (they were using dried Chinese style noodles)

My immediate reaction to this list was to make some sort of stir-fry, served on or with the noodles. But I have a prejudice against the kind of dried Chinese-style noodles sold in regular Western supermarkets: they suck. Also, I am feeling some slight ingredient fatigue at this stage. So I decided to go for something very simple: calamari fritti, or fried squid. This is one of those very straightforward yet so easy to screw up dishes - how many times have you ordered calamari at a restaurant, and were served a plate of rubber bands with doughy goo on them? You shouldn't go too wrong if you follow my directions, and your friends will be very impressed.

I made a roasted red pepper salsa, because calamari really goes with sour things I think - I always serve lemon or lime wedges with it. (I realize this is the second day in a row I roasted peppers, but I love them so much, and they bring a welcome taste of summer during these cold months.) The consistency of the salsa makes it good for putting on toasted bread slices, or using as a dip for tortilla chips too.

To show off a bit, I also made mayonnaise, but the recipe is not given here since homemade mayonnaise deserves its own detailed article. Store bought with an extra squirt of lemon or lime would work here.

Unused ingredients: chicken breast, bok choy, leeks, pancetta, noodles.

The order to make this is:

Heat up the grill or broiler and roast the peppers.
Chop the onion, and crush the garlic.
Clean your squid, slice and put into milk.
Cool and peel the blackened peppers. Chop it up and assemble the salsa.
At this point, make the mayonnaise or just dollop some store bought in your little serving bowl and mix in some lemon or lime juice.
Put the salsa in another little serving bowl.
Start heating the oil.
Put together the seasoned flour.
Fry the calamari. It should be piping hot when you serve it.

Roasted Red Pepper Salsa

2 large red peppers
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbs. olive oil
a pinch of Herbes de Provence
2 Tbs. lime juice (less if you prefer it less sour)
Salt and pepper Roast the peppers on a grill or under the broiler in your oven, turning frequently, until charred all over. Let cool in a paper bag, and peel off the blackened skin. Chop up very finely.

Combine all the ingredients, and adjust the salt and lime juice amounts as needed. Ideally let this sit in the refrigerator for a while so that the flavors can mellow.

Calamari

2 medium sized squid
Milk
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp (or a small pinch) red chili pepper powder
Several grindings of black pepper
Peanut oil for frying

Clean the squid: pull out the head by grasping the tentacles, then cut off the fins on the back. Peel the body, and cut in half crosswise - this makes it much easier to remove all the slimy stuff inside, and that plastic-y looking piece of cartilage. Cut the body tube into thin, even tubes. You can also cut up the fins and the tentacles, if you wish.

Put the cut up squid into cold milk to cover.

Sift together the flour and the other dry ingredients.

Heat up at least 2 inches of peanut oil in a deep pan until it's quite hot.

Toss the squid in the seasoned flour, then put the calamari in a sieve to shake off the excess flour. Fry it in small batches (don't overcrowd the pan!) until a very light golden. It will cook very fast so watch it at all times, and don't overcook or you will get those rubber bands! 2-3 minutes should do it, provided your oil is hot enough. Drain the calamari and serve immediately with the mayonnaise, salsa and some lemon or lime wedges.

Note: when you are frying squid, it can sometimes 'explode' - the water trapped under the outer layer can burst out. So don't lean your face right over the oil pot and keep children and scaredy-cat spouses well away.

If you're making a large batch of calamari, you may want to change the oil midway through - in order for it to be freshly crisp, you need the oil to be as clean as possible. (This is why restaurant calamari can taste oily sometimes - they don't change the oil often enough.)