A Spoonful of Happyness
I have never tasted the original spoonful of Happyness, but I think I have come close to the real thing. This spoondish was described to us with much relish from E, who tried it during her trip to San Franscisco last year in a Western Japanese fusion restaurant.One quail's egg, raw
One slice of uni
Ikura roe (fish roe)
Dashi stock (from a dashi teabag)
Break one quail's egg carefully into a porcelain spoon or tiny bowl. Dribble in a little dashi stock.
Add one slice of heavenly uni and top with a little Ikura roe and/or mentaiko roe if you have some at hand. That's the pink stuff you see in the picture.
Angel Hair Pasta with Mentaiko Cream Sauce
Mentaiko is the marinated roe of the pollock fish. and is one of the common ingredients used in Japanese cuisine. Mentaiko originated in Korea, and as with many things, the Japanese substantially improved the use of it in cooking.
You can buy mentaiko from good Japanese supermarkets like Medi-ya at Liang Court. A little goes a long way, since it has a distinct spicy roe flavour.
We were looking for mentaiko recipes after finding that there was two sac-fuls leftover after wee-bit that we used to create the Spoonfuls of Happyness (see above entry). Cooking Buddy M found a ChubbyHubby recipe, which formed a good base for the following one, which was developed after a couple of attempts.
Ingredients:
20 grams mentaiko roe
150 grams ham or bacon
Angelhair pasta
Half cup light cream
Half cup water
A tablespoon butter
Melt butter in pan fry ham/bacon for 3 minutes. Reduce heat. Slowly stir in light cream and half a cup of water. Cook angelhair pasta for 5 minutes in a saucepan. Drain and pour cream sauce over. Break up mentaiko roe sac and spread lightly over pasta. Sprinkle some nori flakes or brocolli bits on top of it all.
Flying Cows on a Grill
Go up to the beef counter at Medi-ya, which sells Kobe beef by the microgram, and ask unshamedly for only 6 thin slices of Kobe beef, because that's all you can afford for the 5 guests and yourself who are coming to dinner that night.
Start a mini furnace, and when the coals are amber hot, grill the Kobe beef over it. Marinating with a little Sukiyaki sauce an hour beforehand may or may not add to the rather mind blowing experience. Those cows were massaged daily with sake, you know.
Sumi Seaweed Salad
A refreshing salad that was a hit with the folks:
Rocket salad mix
Sumi (crab sticks)
Japanese kelp
Japanese sesame dressing (sesame oil, olive oil, mirin, rice vinegar, lime)
Noritamago sesame flakes (looks like bird feed, but made up of bits of seaweed and sesame, and egg)
Mix all together, and sprinke noritamago sesame flakes .
Shrimp, Crab, Avocado and Wasabi Wrap
4 crab claws
8 fresh shrimp
Chinese rice wine
One Avocado, sliced
Wasabe (tube form is fine)
Japanese mayonnaise
Butter lettuce
Plain wraps
Crack the crab claws and place in a steamer together with the shrimp. Add a dash of Chinese Shaoxing wine and steam for 10 minutes or so. Extract the crab meat and peel off the shell and tails of the shrimp.
Place a wrap flat on a plate. Squirt some mayo and dab a little wasabe on the wrap. Place a lettuce leaf on top. Create filling of crab meat, shrimp and avocado, and roll into a wrap. A great brunch entree!
