The thought of making sushi at home can be intimidating as the techniques required to turn out a reasonable facsimile of what you'd get in a good sushi bar are quite advanced.
However, there are a few Japanese recipes that don't require samurai-level knife skills or the third hand you seem to need when rolling sushi. Tuna tataki is a delicious dish of seared tuna cloaked in a vinegary, gingery sauce, and it's easy enough for a novice cook to master.
Here are a few basic tips to help:
a) Use only fresh, sushi-grade tuna.
b) Use a heavy stainless steel pan to sear the tuna. Don't use a non-stick pan because they don't caramelize food as well as steel pans.
c) Don't overcook the tuna. Only about one-quarter inch of the outer surface should be cooked.
To make the carrot and jicama slaw, I highly recommend investing in a julienne cutter, which is a little gadget that looks a bit like a vegetable peeler but has small serrated teeth that create thin julienne strips. Most good kitchen stores carry them, and they only cost a few dollars.
The miso soup recipe below is a quick and easy version that doesn't require the traditional dashi broth, which contains ingredients that might be a bit difficult to find.
And don't be misled by the word "cheesecake" in the dessert title. This isn't like some other cheesecakes. It's light and not terribly "cheesy." The secret to a good result is to use the exact ingredients listed in the recipe with no substitutions.
Quick Miso Soup
4 cups vegetable broth
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup kale, thinly chopped (remove and discard tough stalks from kale)
1 cup diced firm tofu
3 Tbsp white miso paste (you can find miso in the refrigerated section of most large supermarkets)
Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and reduce heat to simmer. Add the green onions and kale and simmer for five minutes. Add the tofu and simmer for an additional five minutes. Remove saucepan from heat (miso shouldn't be cooked). In a small bowl, stir about half a cup of the hot liquid into the miso. Whisk to mix thoroughly, then add miso paste back into the saucepan of broth. Stir to mix well and serve immediately. If the soup isn't hot enough you can reheat it very gently over low heat, but don't let it boil. Makes four servings. The miso will separate from the broth as you eat it, just stir it to mix it back together.
Tuna Tataki with Carrot & Jicama Slaw
½ lb sushi-grade ahi tuna, one-inch thick
½ cup black or white sesame seeds, or a combinationKosher salt and freshly ground black pepperPeanut oil or other neutral vegetable oil
2 large carrots, peeled
½ of a medium jicama, peeled
Sauce:
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp Asian toasted sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 green onions, finely sliced (garnish)
Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and stir to combine; set aside.
Place the sesame seeds on a shallow plate. Rub both sides of the tuna with a little oil. Season generously with salt and pepper, then press each side into the sesame seeds. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a sauté pan over high heat. When pan is hot, add the tuna and sear on all sides until tuna is opaque for about one-quarter of an inch on each side (use tongs to hold the edges of the tuna on the pan to get them seared). Remove seared tuna to a plate and set aside to cool slightly at room temperature.
Using a julienne cutter, cut the carrots and jicama into very thin shreds. Place the shredded vegetables on a serving plate and drizzle about one third of the sauce over top; toss to coat evenly.
With a very sharp knife, cut the seared tuna into quarter-inch thick slices and arrange them on top of the vegetables. Pour the remaining sauce evenly over top and sprinkle with chopped green onions.Makes four servings.
Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake
The ingredient quantities are a bit strange because they were converted from a British recipe. Remember, use exactly the ingredients the recipe calls for to achieve best results.
9 ounces cream cheese (one large block plus 1/8 of another one, or ¼ of a small package), room temperature
4 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup homogenized milk
6 eggs, room temperature, separated into yolks and whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
½ cup plus
2 Tbsp fine granulated sugar (usually called "berry sugar" or you can pulse regular granulated sugar in a food processor until grains are finer)
1/3 cup plus
1 tsp cake and pastry flour (don't use regular all-purpose flour)
3 Tbsp cornstarchIcing sugar and fresh berries or sliced mango to garnish
In the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water (don't let bottom of bowl touch the water), melt together the cream cheese, butter and milk. Stir until well combined and smooth. Remove the bowl from heat and let it cool, whisking vigorously if mixture gets lumpy. When the mixture has cooled, lightly beat the egg yolks and fold them in along with the flour and cornstarch until completely incorporated.
Preheat oven to 325° F. Lightly grease an eight-inch springform pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper. Wrap the bottom of the pan in a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil, extending foil right up the sides of the pan.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating, adding the sugar gradually until soft peaks form (meringue should fall back on itself when beaters are lifted).
Add about one-quarter of the egg whites to the cream cheese mixture and stir until batter is lightened, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites until well incorporated (a few little visible specks of egg white are okay). Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and place into a large roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until water reaches halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Loosely tent a piece of aluminum foil on top of the springform pan to prevent the cake from over-browning. Bake for one hour and 10 minutes. After that time open the oven door a crack, remove foil from top of pan and continue baking with door open for another 10 minutes. Carefully remove the pan from the water bath; remove foil from bottom of pan and place pan on wire rack to cool completely (cake will pull away from the sides of the pan). Remove springform ring; dust top of cake with icing sugar if desired, and serve with berries or sliced mango alongside. Makes eight to 10 servings.
Angela Shellard is a self-described foodie. She has done informal catering for various functions. Contact: [email protected].
