Saturday, July 24, 2010

Sashimi II

When you have the right ingredients, you can really make yourself  "restaurant" food at home.

I made some more sashimi for lunch today. A quick visit to the Asian market to pick up a few supplies and I was ready. Since I'm mentioning the Asian market, go find yours where you live, you will enjoy it. They are very affordable and once you've shown up there a few times, the shop keepers won't ignore you anymore ;-) It is also a great place to buy unique and cheap produce. I picked up a very large Daikon, scallions and some small fiery fresh peppers.The Daikon has a much better and stronger flavor then the ones I get at the supermarket. Also picked up some good wasabi. One word of caution, asian products liberally use MSG, food coloring, HFCS, and other ingredients you might want to avoid, but they also carry products that DON'T have them, so shop carefully and read labels.

Here some more ankimo. I grated daikon and tossed a few scallions on it. Laid the slices of monk fish liver on top and drizzled with some ponzu sauce and a few more scallions.
The daikon with the ponzu sauce is a tremendous pairing.


I used to eat this little dish below at a very special japanese restaurant in New York. It was a true authentic sushi restaurant where no cooked food was served. It had authentic Japanese protocol, they did not take reservations and they were known for turning customers away when there were many open tables available. They would turn people away, because they had so many regular customers, that they knew for example that a certain customer would come around 7 on a Thursday night. They had no menu's and no prices. The sushi chefs were unbelievable.Many times when I sat down at the sushi bar they would serve a little dish immediately with out me asking. This was usuallly a bit of salmon, cucumber scallion and some soy sauce and sesame oil. So this is what I tried to copy today.


 

It came out well, I really enjoy the combined flavors.

And lastly, just some salmon sashimi and scallop (Hotategai in Japanese).


I'm not a huge scallop fan, but I love raw scallop. If you eat raw scallop, make sure you buy yourself the freshest you can find. Store in the fridge wrapped in paper towel. The paper towel will get all the moisture out of it and will result in getting maximum flavor.

Now what should I make for dinner?

4 comments:

Glenn said...

Marc,
I ordered some sushi from Catalina on your recommendation, but now I'm afraid to thaw anything out, because the pieces are all so big, and I'm not sure I can eat it all in one sitting. (Yes, I know... invite someone over, but that's not really doable right now.)
The monkfish liver, especially, is in a big tube. Can I cut off a bit and put the rest back in the freezer?

Marc said...

Glenn,

I feel your pain ;-) Can I come over? ;-)

The ONLY way the monk fish liver stays fresh is frozen. It goes after 2-3 days in the fridge. YES, you CAN (with a sharp knife) just cut yourself a frozen piece and put the rest back in the freezer. Defrost in the fridge and enjoy. Defrosts in the fridge in about 6-8hours. so that's the easy one.

It's not so easy for the fish that you might have a 1 pound frozen portion of. Maybe defrost....have yourself a really nice sushi night and the following night perhaps have a "salmon dish". This is what i made with about 8-10 ounces of salmon. Pyrex dish, a bit of diced onion,pepper and a bit of garlic, a heavy sprinkle of turmeric and some type of heat. I put in two little fiery chilis.. put the salmon in the dish and add in a can of coconut milk. About 20 minutes or so at 375 in the oven. Delicious.

Let me know how you liked the monkfish liver. (add some ponzu sauce if you can..really awesome flavors)

Hope that helps a bit Glenn.

Marc

Glenn said...

Thanks! I will try the cooked salmon and let you know how it turned out.
(And if you are ever in D.C. you have a standing invitation to dinner!)

Glenn said...

Marc,
Thanks for the tips. It turned out great! Photo on my FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/profile.php?id=671502749