Seafarers’ Tribute
This dish pays homage to the many Asian cities that have lived off the oceans’ bounty. It showcases seven techniques for cooking seven different seafoods.
Serves 2 Prep time 2 hour 30 minutes Cook time 1 hour
Fried kinmedai
• 80g kinmedai/red snapper
• 20g sugar
• 30g salt
• 500ml water
• 1 litre vegetable oil 1. Fillet fish into 40g portions.
2. Set the bones aside.
3. Make brining liquid by dissolving sugar and salt in water.
4. Submerge fish fillet into brine for 2 hours.
5. Strain and pat dry fish fillets.
6. In a pot, heat vegetable oil to 180°C and fry fish skin side first without submerging the main part of the protein for 30 seconds.
7. Drop the fish into vegetable oil for 1 minute, remove and put on resting stack.
Grilled squid
• 80g squid
• 100g koji
• 1 tangerine (can be replaced with any citrus fruit), juiced and zested
• 10g salt
• 10g sugar 1. Clean squid, cut open body side, score criss-cross on body and cut into 5cm squares. 2. Mix ingredients into a paste.
3. Marinate squid with paste for 1 hour.
4. Wash off the paste and pat dry.
5. Drizzle a little oil on squid and grill 30 seconds on each side.
Steamed king crab
• 50g dried Osmanthus flowers
• 1 litre water
• 80g king crab leg
• a pinch of salt 1. In a pot, bring dried Osmanthus flowers and water to a boil.
2. Steam the king crab leg in Osmanthus water for three minutes.
3. Remove the king crab leg from its shell and soft bone (without breaking the shape of the meat).
4. Trim the king crab leg to desired size.
Poached lobster
• 10g kombu
• 1 lire water
• 10g bonito flakes
• 30g jasmine leaves
• 5g salt 1. Soak kombu overnight in water. Bring
to simmer, remove the kombu from heat. 2. Prepare Jasmine dashi by infusing with bonito flakes and Jasmine leaves for 30 minutes and strain.
3. Bring Jasmine dashi to boil and poach the lobster for 5 minutes.
4. Remove the lobster (set Jasmine dashi aside), cool it down and remove the meat from shell.
5. Keep the head and shells for later.
Braised abalone
• 1 Korean abalone
• 500ml water
• 5g shio kombu
• 10g light soy sayce
• 50g shallots
• 10g Oolong tea leaves
• 5g corn starch 1. Shuck abalone from shell and scrub the abalone clean.
2. Bring water to boil, add shio kombu, soy sauce and shallots and simmer for 45min.
3. Remove from heat and infuse with Oolong leaves for 10min before straining.
4. Braise abalone in liquid for 2 hours and leave to infuse overnight.
5. Remove abalone from liquid.
6. Thicken liquid with corn starch solution.
Jasmine dashi jelly
• 500g jasmine dashi liquid from poaching lobster
• 3 gelatine sheets
Soak gelatine sheets
1. Bring jasmine dashi to boil and stir to dissolve gelatine sheets.
2. Chill to set and break jelly
Seafood coconut sauce
• fish bone (from Kinmedai)
• lobster shell (from Poached Lobster)
• 200g leeks
• 1 lime
• 1 kaffir lime
• 200g coconut milk
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 1L water
• 10g shiro soy sauce
• 5g corn starch 1. Roast fish bones and lobster shells in oven 180C for 30min.
2. Prepare seafood reduction by boiling leeks and roasted bones.
3. Strain and reduce seafood reduction to 100ml.
4. Mix coconut milk, shiro soy sauce and seafood reduction and thicken with corn starch solution.
5. Finish with freshly squeezed lime juice, lime zest and kaffir lime zest.
Assembly
• 2 pc Botan Ebi
• 10g Uni
• 3 sea fennels
• 3 samphire
• 3 salty fingers
• 3 sea grapes (sea herbs can be replaced with seaweed found in Japanese supermarkets).
• 1g chilli oil 1. Plate the five seafood, Botan Ebi and uni onto a flat round plate.
2. Garnish with the sea herbs
3. Garnish with 1 teaspoon of Jasmine dashi jelly.
4. Drizzle coconut seafood sauce and drops of chilli oil.