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Ochazuke

15 Oct 2018

What happened?

Round 1:

Pan seared salmon skin side down + basted, made matcha tea and combined with dashi. Put some rice in, topped with chives

Round 2:

Added lemon – flavor turned out too strong. Makes it taste like fish and chips in a bad way. Maybe that’s why they use yuzu which is softer in citrus?

Just matcha with no dashi. Way less complex and flavorful

Also salmon was thinner this time. Didn’t taste nearly as good. Need the fattiness from the thick cut.

Round 3:

Tried focusing on the broth. Blind taste test 1:2, 1:3, 1:5, 1:10 matcha to dashi broths. 1:3 and 1:5 taste the best in terms of mixture. But when we mixed in larger quantity for actual salmon, it tasted a bit too bitter and not seasoned enough

Fish we did sous vide vs pan seared. Pan seared skin was crispier, fish was a bit tougher. Sous vide fish was very creamy, but skin wasn’t done as well. Pan seared some of it we also burned and that hugely took away from everything else.

Rice we tried cooked with chicken bouillon vs not. With chicken bouillon was better, but might just be because broth wasn’t salty enough.

Round 4:

Took the best from all our learnings and it turned out quite good. We also added confit garlic that we had on top. Goes really well with it.

What learned?

  • Make sure broth is hot. Makes a very big difference!
  • Flatten fish so it cooks evenly.
  • Salting all sides much better than just salting skin.
  • Chives is a great garnish for this. Green onions is a bad one.
  • Basting the oil on top very good for cooking it through more evenly. Don’t do too much or it gets tough on the top. Even better is sous vide though, and just searing a bit at the end to get the skin crispy.
  • Need the matcha with the dashi in the broth for most complex and flavorful, but also need to be careful about ratio.

To learn

Much to learn about dashi. Our version just follows what we’ve heard from different people, not really knowing why, a lot of conflicting information online, and we don’t really understand what makes a good dashi.

Try yuzu in the future for some acid that’s not as intense.

Try rice crackers for more crunch and salty umami.

Final recipe

  • Salmon Skin on Fillets (higher quality is better)
  • Garlic Oil (from Garlic Confit)
  • Confit Garlic Cloves
  • Rice
  • Kombu
  • Katsuoboshi (Dried bonito flakes)
  • Chives (chopped, for dressing)
  • Sesame seeds (for dressing)
  • Seaweed
  1. Let Kombu soak overnight in water. 35g to 1.8L water, more kombu if you want more seaweed taste
  2. Salt the Salmon on all sides
  3. Sous Vide salmon at 120F for 1h15m, more if there are more pieces of salmon
  4. Cook rice
  5. Heat Kombuwater to 80F, then take it off the heat. Strain out the Kombu and add Katsuoboshi (35g)
  6. Allow to steep in residual heat for about 15m, then strain out the katsuoboshi as well.
  7. After sous vide, remove salmon and pat dry
  8. Use garlic oil in cast iron, sear salmon skin for about 1m
  9. At the same time as the salmon sear, brown the confit garlic

To plate:

  1. Heat earthenware pot with lid in Oven at lowest temperature, just to keep it warm
  2. Place a portion of rice in the bottom of the bowl
  3. Pour about a teaspoon of garlic oil from the cast iron into the rice
  4. Salmon, skin side up, on top of the rice
  5. Pour the dashi broth around the side of the salmon so it doesn’t ruin the crispness of the skin
  6. Top with sesame seeds, chopped chives, and seaweed

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