This is probably my signature dish. Not to brag but it's rare that I get cancellations when I invite friends over to have this!
Monday 29 November 2010
Green Tea/Lotus Leaf Smoked Teriyaki Chicken
This is actually a fusion dish I created between Chinese and Japanese cooking schools. It comprises both the subtle traditional flavours of Chinese cooking and the sweetness and presentation of the Japanese.
Narutomaki / Kamaboko Recipe
For those of you who don't know, those swirly flakes in your ramen soup are called Narutomaki - a form of Kamaboko called narutomaki because it is reminiscent of the whirlpools in the naruto sea - or some such rubbish.
Anyway, these are extremely difficult to get hold of in the UK - at least in the North East of England, and I have seen many people asking for recipes and not many actual recipes about. I have made my own Kamaboko before but the result was not as visually pleasing as the actual Narutomaki brand. This one works a treat.
The Perfect Rabbit Soup Stock (Leftover Yakibuta Ramen Stock)
After having read up on a lot of japanese stock making recipes for ramen and various articles and books on umami and molecular gastronomy, I had an idea for a kind of stock that I thought would be perfect for a dinner I was planning.
My girlfriend and some friends had a week previously managed to get hold of a couple of rabbits - needless to say, the two were more than enough for the four people eating and we had half a rabbit left over. In the meantime I had promised a friend to make him Yakibuta Ramen with various condiments. The result was rather a lot of left over Yakibuta Ramen stock that I had no use for - and the rabbit was fast going out of date.
It was then that it struck me - the various ingredients left over from making the ramen were all rich in umami, precisely, MSG (monosodium glutamate). Although the mix of fish and meat in stock is unorthodox to many stock makers, this turned out possibly to be the best soup stock I had ever tasted.
My girlfriend and some friends had a week previously managed to get hold of a couple of rabbits - needless to say, the two were more than enough for the four people eating and we had half a rabbit left over. In the meantime I had promised a friend to make him Yakibuta Ramen with various condiments. The result was rather a lot of left over Yakibuta Ramen stock that I had no use for - and the rabbit was fast going out of date.
It was then that it struck me - the various ingredients left over from making the ramen were all rich in umami, precisely, MSG (monosodium glutamate). Although the mix of fish and meat in stock is unorthodox to many stock makers, this turned out possibly to be the best soup stock I had ever tasted.