Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sushi Dinner at Home

We thought that there would be no better way to indulge in some gourmet Japanese food than to invite a few friends over for an overindulgent Japanese feast at home. Our menu consisted of six courses, though to be fair nobody had room for dessert, and three different drinks. We had a cheese (three types) and olive (two types) hors d'oeuvre course followed by miso soup for the starter, tempura shrimp with an orange sauce for the first course, the entree was miso marinated black cod and finally there was a sushi course of yellowfin tuna and salmon. We served lychee martinis, saketinis, and cold sake throughout the night. This might sound like a lot of food, and it was, but it wasn't too much of an effort for two of us to have all of this ready by the time our friends arrived. The first thing we did was marinate the black cod 48 hours in advance, which helped us minimize the amount of prep to do the night of the dinner.

Miso Marinated Black Cod

6 1/2 tablespoons sake
6 1/2 tablespoons mirin
3/4 cup of sugar
10 oz white miso paste
4 4 oz. Fresh Black Cod fillets, with the skin on but any pin bones removed

1. In a non reactive saucepan, bring the sake and mirin to a boil, continue to boil for about two or three minutes to let the alcohol evaporate.

2. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the sugar until it dissolves, then slowly mix in the miso paste, a little at a time. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly so as not to let the mixture burn for about ten - fifteen minutes.

3. Strain the mixture through a strainer to remove any
lumps, then let cool and then refrigerate until very cold.

4. Line the bottom of a non-reactive container with the miso marinade. Lay black cod on top of the marinade, pour the remaining marinade over each fillet, and let it marinate for about 1-2 days in a refrigerator.

5. When you are ready to cook the fish, heat a broiler or oven to 400 degrees. Scrape marinade off of the fillets into a pot. Wash remaining marinade off of fillets. Thin the reserved marinade with enough water to achieve the consistency of warm maple syrup and heat on low until ready to serve. Place the fillets in the broiler pan or a non-stick baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes, turning once if broiling, until cooked through and golden on the outside.

6. Place on a plate and drizzle the thinned miso marinade over it and serve.



The night before our dinner I made the lychee puree for the martinis.

Lychee Martini
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups drained canned lychees in syrup (1 3/4 8 oz. cans)
Juice from 1 whole lemon
2 1/4 cup vodka
4 1/2 oz (9 Tbsp) Cointreau

The lychee puree has enough flavor that there is no need to use a top shelf vodka. I prefer Svedka, but anything that you have on had will work just fine. We also thought that this recipe was very sweet, depending on your tolerance I would suggest using less sugar.

Begin by making simple syrup by dissolving the sugar and water in a saucepan over high heat. Pour into a medium bowl inside of a large bowl filled with ice water.

Puree the lychees with the syrup and lemon juice in a blender until smooth, strain through a sieve, discarding solids. Fill cocktail shaker half-way with ice cubes and add lychee puree, vodka and Cointreau. Shake and strain into Martini glasses.

Since I made the puree the night before, I refrigerated it in a bowl until I was ready to mix the drinks.

The first thing that I did the night of the dinner (about an hour in advance) was cook the rice (instructions are listed below) and prepare the orange sauce.

Orange Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 1/2 cup Orange Juice
1 Tbsp Butter

In a medium saucepan combine the dry ingredients. Stir in orange juice. Bring to a simmer, stirring until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in butter or margarine.

The orange sauce was pretty simple, but be careful. For some reason the sauce was very prone to splattering and was also very hot. I kept the sauce warm in the saucepan until I was ready to serve the shrimp.

Shortly before our guests arrived I made the tempura batter for the shrimp. The batter recipe consists of equal parts of club soda and rice flour. I was only able to find brown rice flour, which worked out great, but I don't know if it would have been any different with white rice flour. Since this was an appetizer for four we used 1/2 pound of shrimp with 2 cups each of the club soda and brown rice flour. I mixed the batter in a large bowl and let it sit covered with plastic wrap. This recipe made more than enough batter for the shrimp, and could possibly work for twice as many shrimp.

After preparing the tempura batter I took the cheese out of the fridge to get to room temperature. Fortunately for us, we live in NYC and have access to great affordable food, if you know where to look. East Village Cheese is possibly on of the greatest hidden gems of Manhattan; the catch is that the minimum purchase is 1/2 pound. The three cheeses that we served were a semi-soft French double cream cheese with walnuts, a garlic Gouda, and a Spanish Manchego. In addition to the cheese we also bought a half pound each of green and kalamata olives.

While I was preparing the cheese plate, my wife was working on the miso soup. We thought that this would be a good way to use the remaining miso paste that we bought but didn't need for the black cod marinade. The soup recipe made us as we went along - miso soup is about as simple as it gets. We put several cups of water in a large pot with the miso paste and brought it to a simmer. I can't tell you how much water or miso, but I can say that we did use too much water and had to boil it down until the flavor was right. It's a dish with a lot of room for variation, which is always good when there is so much else going on in the kitchen. After the water boiled down enough, we added the tofu. We used regular firm tofu cut into quarter inch cubes. This continued to simmer until it was served. We added some chopped scallion as a garnish when serving.

After preparing the soup, my wife finished preparing the black cod to be cooked. The only thing to do at this point was to rinse the fillets and make the sauce s described above.

To finish making the lychee martinis I poured equal parts of the puree and vodka Cointreau mixture into a cocktail shaker and shook it over ice, pouring the combination into a pitcher. I repeated three times until all of the puree and vodka mixture was mixed and refrigerated until it was served.

We served the cheese and olives first followed by the miso soup. While my wife cleared the table, I started on the shrimp. Our original inspiration for this dish was an appetizer from Nobu that has fried rock shrimp with an orange sauce. I guess rock shrimp isn't in season right now, so we were left with regular shrimp. Instead, we used 1/2 pound of regular shrimp, cleaned and de-veined. I heated a pot, filled less than half way with vegetable oil, on a medium-high heat. The tempura batter had a tendency to cause the shrimp to stick to each other while cooking so I had to cook them in small batches. I lightly salted each batch after taking them out of the oil. The whole process only took a few minutes and they were served immediately. Before serving I drizzled a little of the warm orange sauce on top of the shrimp and also filled a small ramekin of the sauce for dipping on the table.

The end of the shrimp course also marked the end of the lychee martinis. The flavors of the lychee and the orange went together perfectly and I would definitely recommend a sweet drink like this with this shrimp recipe.

After putting the black cod in the oven, my wife mixed up a batch of the saketinis.

The black cod was paired with the saketinis, much like the miso soup this was done more to use the leftover sake that was part of the black cod marinade than by design. Also, much like the miso soup, this ended up being a great addition to the meal. Saketinis are a wonderfully light and refreshing drink that, if made properly, also act as a palette cleanser. The danger is in how easily you can loose count of them… The flavor was not overpowering and was a great compliment for the black cod.

We finished the night with the cold sake. I picked up a great sake pitcher that has a separate internal ice compartment that allows you to keep the sake cold without watering it down.

The final course of the evening was also the main event - sushi. We bought a half pound each of yellowfin tuna and salmon. We found that making our own sushi wasn't nearly as complicated as we originally thought, I guess it is the whole mystic of a sushi bar that is so intimidating. By far the most important thing about sushi is the fish. My wife was able to find some exceptional sushi-grade fish at the Chelsea Fish Market. Aside from that, the only tricky part is the rice.

Instead of buying specific sushi rice, I used risotto. I think that any good short grain white rice will be just fine for this. I used 3 cups of rice and 8 cups of water with no salt or other seasoning; that comes later. Cover the pot and bring the water and rice to a boil. After 1 minute, reduce to medium high. After the top of the rice is visible reduce to low until all of the water is absorbed. Turn the heat to high. Remove from the heat after 15 seconds. Keep covered so that the rice can steam for 15 minutes.

Vinegar Dressing
75 ml mirin
45 gm sugar
15 gm salt

Dissolve the salt and sugar into the mirin over low heat. Remove from heat and cool until the rice is prepared.

After the rice is finished cooking spread it out onto a large surface as thinly as possibly. Pour the vinegar dressing onto the rice over the back of a spoon to help spread it evenly. Toss the rice to make sure that the dressing is evenly incorporated and allow time to cool. Periodically turn the rice so that it can properly cool and does not get mushy. I was surprised at how long it took for the rice to cool, and even resorted to resting it on top of our air conditioner for a while.

When the rice is completely cooled, you are ready to begin working on the sushi. Everyone has their preference with sushi and that is why it is such a great thing to make at home. We used a very sharp knife to cut the fish, it was actually Japanese but I don't think it mattered. A sharp knife is important for this because a dull blade will not give as clean of a cut through the fish, or later through the rolls.

We made basic sushi, also called Chirashi Sushi, which consists of thin slices of raw fish and no rice. Using the rice, we made Nigiri Sushi, which is simply a small ball of rice squeezed in your hand with a thin slice of fish placed on top. Some people put a dab of wasabi between the fish and rice. The wasabi powder that you buy at a store is not real wasabi (it is apparently quite rare and expensive), it is colored horseradish with a lot of kick - so be careful. The last type that we made was Maki Sushi and was made with nori. Nori is a thin sheet of smoked seaweed that is wrapped around the rice to make a roll.

To make the maki rolls we placed a piece of nori on a Makisu (a bamboo mat used to make the rolls - it is cheap and pretty easy to find) and spread the rice over it, covering all but a small portion of two ends of the nori. We took small strips of the fish and layed them over the center of the nori going from end to end. Using the Makisu we rolled the nori tightly, dabbing water on the ends without rice to help secure it.

The great thing about this is that you can make any kind of roll or sushi that you want. We made some that were either tuna or salmon as well as some that were a mixture.

The night was a blast and we all had a great time. One thing that worked out surprisingly well was the drink pairings. The different courses of food progressed from the stronger to subtler flavors which made the proper pairing all the more essential. Finishing the night with a crisp cold sake was the perfect compliment to the fresh flavor of the sushi.

We look forward to having more friends over and doing this again soon. There wasn't anything that we wouldn't make again and we hope that has inspired you as much as it has us.

Enjoy!