Our Merry Euro-Asian Cooking Session
10 June 2008
My friends who recently came to visit from Spain were particularly impressed by the fantastic quality of fish and seafood sold here in Tokyo, not only at the Tsukiji wholesale market, but also in the department store food halls, where we had a great time buying some appealing ingredients for our home cooking session at my place. As a starter, my friend prepared some delicious sushi of tuna, horse mackerel and scallops. Having attended a sushi course back in Spain, he actually knew really well what he was doing, while I am still searching for appropriate sushi classes (i.e., not aimed at professional chefs) here in Tokyo…
Anyways, while he was busy with the art of sushi I cooked a number of Japanese-style personal-fusion-like dishes, among others the following one. I particularly like the fact that it really combines inspirations from many different sources and cuisines. I made the sauce base according to a technique I had learned in a class with Munich based chef Schuhbeck (based on tomato pulp and caramelised sugar), but exchanged some of the essential "western" ingredients for Japanese ones. Most importantly, I used Japanese dashi, mirin and soy sauce instead of vegetable stock. As if that were not fusion enough, I seasoned my sauce (among others) with red curry – just for a change from the Japanese nanami spice mixture I most frequently use here.
Although the dish was quite yummy when I first cooked it for my friends, there were still some little details that could be improved. Being kind of a perfectionist, I actually re-cooked it for Simon last weekend with some slight alterations, and now it came out really delicious (at least judging from the speed at which Simon's plate was empty). So here's the "real" version:
King Prawns in Spicy Red Sauce
| serves 4 (small portions) |
| 300g fresh king prawns, shelled and cleaned (net weight) |
| 150ml tomato pulp |
| 300ml dashi |
| 50ml mirin |
| 1 1/2 teaspoons of fine white sugar |
| 2 teaspoons of red curry |
| 1 tablespoon of black sesame |
| a pinch of vanilla salt |
| 15g butter |
| soy sauce to taste |
| some oil for frying |
for the dashi |
| a hand full of kombu seaweed |
| about 10 tablespoons of dried bonito flakes |
| 500ml water |
In a sauce pan, melt the sugar. Once it has turned liquid, add the tomato pulp and stir constantly until the caramelized sugar has fully dissolved and the mixture takes a brownish-red colour. Pour in the dashi (Japanese fish-based soup stock) as well as the mirin, and season with 1-2 teaspoons of red curry (according to your taste) and a pinch of vanilla salt. (The latter I once bought in a Munich-based spice store. You can substitute it with a tiny little bit of fresh vanilla extract instead, but be careful not to take too much of it as it should not stand out, but rather give a very subtle touch).
Season the sauce to taste with soy sauce, stir well and then cover with a lid, leaving a small gap open. Let the sauce simmer at low temperature until substantially reduced and creamy in texture, for which you should assume a total cooking time of about 30 minutes.
As for the dashi, this time I actually prepared it myself: [more on how to make dashi]. Alternatively you can use instant dashi, or other fish broth if you cannot get hold of Japanese dashi.
Once the sauce is thick and creamy, add the black sesame seeds and stir in the butter, which gives the sauce a nice and smooth texture. Finally, briefly sear the king prawns for about a minute on each side. Combine them with the sauce and serve immediately while hot, if you like with some Japanese sticky rice as a side dish.
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