Mmmm... nothing like celebrating with a new favourite food.
The thing about renovating a house is that
whilst you’re doing it, there is no such thing as payday. Living ‘well’ to me means grasping every
opportunity to celebrate that life allows. Occasion is important to break up
routine, no matter what you’re in the middle of. So when I was celebrating on a
budget last weekend, I decided to make it special myself.
Granted, the fact that I had won a bottle
of champagne helped to bring down the cost of this dinner somewhat. However the
dinner itself would have been of a celebration on its own.
The menu was healthy and colourful – I
turned to my new favourite cuisine to cook at home – Japanese - and dug out the
Every Day Harumi recipe book that I’ve written about here. The boy and I have
been perfecting another Japanese recipe (my favourite at Asa Kusa – written
about here) over the last few weeks too.
It’s called Nasu Dengaku and is made from aubergine and a sweet miso
paste. This really was the star of the show and very simple to make, but we’ll
get to that a little later.
Menu: Sushi rolls, Nasu Dengaku, Green Beans with
sesame dressing, Seared tuna slices with wasabi glaze.
Ingredients:
For the sushi
3 cups rice
½ cup rice wine vinegar
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
Nori wraps
100g salmon
100g tuna
½ cucumber
½ avocado
chilli
chilli sauce
ginger
mayonnaise
For the Nasu Dengaku
1 tbsp white miso paste
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
1 ½ tsp sugar
1 tsp grated ginger
1tsp sesame seeds
 |
| Leave your rice in a bowl to cool |
I paid more attention to my rice than I did last time and it worked a treat. Firstly try to go to a specialist Asian Supermarket - try The Japan Centre or the Thai supermarket in Camden. When you’re there explain that you’d like to buy rice for sushi and they’ll either sell you sushi rice or sticky Japanese rice. The trick that I’ve found for cooking it so that it stays together for sushi is not to rinse it and to add even more water than you usually would: 1 cup rice to three cups of water (I used three cups for two people). Heat the water and rice together in a pan until they come to a boil and then cover and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes.
When you’re done, add ½ cup of rice wine vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar and one of salt per 3 cups of rice and stir. Make sure that you stir with a wooden spoon so as to not damage the rice. Leave to cool before using on your sushi and be sure to spread the rice out onto the Nori with a wooden panel so as not to damage it or to allow it to cluster.
I assembled the sushi much like
last time (see post here). Again, I picked up the fish from Waitrose fish counter
on the day and bought 200g of Tuna and 100g of salmon for two people – bear in
mind that once you’ve added sushi rice and the sides, you don’t need very much
fish at all per person. Tuna and cucumber go nicely together, especially if you
add a tiny slither of fresh ginger or a tiny bit of chilli sauce. The salmon
avocado classic is brilliant – I add a little mayo laced with chilli.
For the Nasu Dengaku, preparing your
aubergine right is key. The one at Asa Kusa is deep fried but this isn’t
necessary when cooking at home and it’s far healthier not to. Heat your oven to
gas mark 5 whilst you prepare the veg. First remove both ends of your
aubergines and half them lengthways, then score the flesh in a criss cross
formation. You’ll need half an aubergine
per person – trust me, this is moreish.
To cook, lightly oil greaseproof paper in a
roasting tray, lay your aubergines skin side up in the tray and cook for 10-15
minutes that side up before turning the flesh upwards and cooking for another
10. As you do this, prepare your miso glaze. First take the tablespoon of white
miso and dissolve it in the mirin and sake.
Finally add the sugar and ginger
and stir until you’re left with a shiny thick glaze. For the last few minutes
of cooking your aubergines, you can remove and coat the flesh in the glaze,
sprinkle sesame seeds on top again and replace in the oven until bubbling.
Serve piping hot.
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