fluffy eggs

ingredients:

eggs
salt
sugar
mirin
green onions, thai basil, and/or sea urchin (optional)

directions:

1.  beat the eggs with a bit of water in a bowl.  add a pinch of sugar, salt, and some mirin to taste.

2.  add in green onions if preferred.  can also substitute with thai basil or sea urchin (jason's personal favorite) if desired.

3.  cook eggs in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to create the "fluffiness."

4.  serve immediately

spicy hamachi tartare, nori sheets

ingredients:

hamachi (belly cut works best with this preparation)
orange tobiko
quail egg
miracle whip
mayonnaise
siracha hot sauce
lemon ponzu
crushed garlic
chives
sliced cucumber (optional)
nori sheets
shichimi
fine sea salt

directions:

1.  finely chop hamachi and refrigerate.
2.  in a bowl, mix equal portions of miracle whip and mayo together. then fold in shichimi, siracha hot sauce, crushed garlic, salt, and chives.  the spicy mayo should be orange-ish.
3.  gently stir the spicy mayo mixture into the hamachi, little by little, to taste.

to plate:

1.  put some of the spicy hamachi tartare into a bowl.  garnish with sliced cucumbers all around.  top with a bed of chopped chives, then some orange tobiko, and finally top with quail egg.  (yolk only) gently spoon some lemon ponzu around the tartare.  serve with nori sheets and extra shichimi on the side.

japanese tapas: ika noodles, caviar, uni, uzura

ingredients:

ika noodles - squid noodles, can be bought at japanese grocery stores
caviar - sevruga pictured above
orange tobiko
uni
sujiki
uzura - quail egg
kaiware
meyer lemon
ponzu
wasabi

directions:

1.  in a bowl, mix ika noodles, black tobiko, ponzu, wasabi, kaiware leaves, and meyer lemon juice together.

2.  plating: place a mound of the ika noodle on a white plate.  off to the side put a quail egg yolk in the egg
shell and meyer lemon wedge.  garnish the ika noodles with a bit of fresh uni, orange tobiko, and sujiki.
serve immediately.

crab and shrimp vermicelli, roma tomato, roe filled fish balls, thai basil

ingredients:

crab paste in soy bean oil
shrimp paste in soy bean oil
fish balls with roe - you can buy them at ranch 99
eggs
chicken broth
roma tomatoes, cubed
bean sprouts
thai basil
scallions
cilantro
lemon wedges
rice vermicelli
noodles
fine sea salt

directions:

1.  in a big soup pot, heat up chicken broth and cubed tomatoes to a boil.
2.  beat 2-3 eggs in a bowl and add two huge spoonfuls of both the crab and shrimp paste. mix together.
3.  when the chicken broth is boiling, slowly pour in egg/crab/shrimp mixture. after egg mixture comes together and is cooked in the broth, throw in the fish balls and reduce heat to a medium flame. season with salt.
4.  heat up another pot of salted water and cook vermicelli noodles.
5.  prepare side accompaniments. blanch the bean sprouts, cut lemon wedges, pick basil leaves, chope the cilantro, and slice the scallions.
6.  when noodles are cooked, put a moundful in the bottom of a bowl. top with hot soup and garnish with side accompaniments. serve immediately.

 *you can dip with fish balls in hoisin sauce and siracha. it's reallllly good.

caviar canape, potato rosti, crème fraiche, crumbled egg, chive

ingredients:

caviar- sevruga pictured

potatoes

white onion

eggs

panko

crème fraiche

chives

kosher salt

freshly cracked black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

directions:

1.  make the potato rosti first.  grate peeled potatoes into a bowl of water.  this prevents browning/ graying of potatoes. strain potatoes and plop the potatoes onto a clean towel.  squeeze out as much of the water as possible then put potatoes back into a bowl.  grate a small white onion, squeeze some of the liquid out, and add to the potatoes.  the potato to onion ratio I used is about 4-5 smallish medium potatoes to onesmall white onion.  add about 3 egg yolks, and season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.  mix.  depending on how wet the mixture is, add panko to hold it together for frying.  in a flat pan, heat up olive oil over a medium flame. press the potato mixture into a very flat pancake and fry the potatoes for about 5-8 minutes on each side till gold brown.  drain on paper towels and let it cool.  once cooled, you and use a cookie cutter to cut out individual mini rostis.

2.  prepare the crumbled eggs.  fill a small pot with cold water and place eggs in pot.  set your stove to medium heat and after about two minutes, turn up the heat to medium high.  this prevents the eggs from cracking due to drastic temperature change.  once it begins a rapid boil, set a kitchen timer to five minutes. 

large eggs may need six minutes.  when the timer is up, put eggs in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.  when eggs are cooled, peel and crumble the eggs into small pieces. 

3.  get your mise en place ready. caviar, potato rosti, crumbled egg, crème fraiche, and chives.  dab a bit of crème fraiche on each potato rosti.  top with some crumbled egg, then top with caviar.  garnish with chive. then enjoy with some champagne. 

*this picture is shown with the same ingredients sans the potato rosti.  I used crispbread underneath for these.   

salmon belly amuse bouche, sujiki, fried thai basil, lemongrass oil

ingredients:

sashimi grade salmon belly
sujiki- fresh salmon roe marinaded quickly in sake and soy sauce (or ikura will do)
thai basil
lemongrass stalk
lime ponzu
grapeseed oil
shichimi

directions:

1.  using a mortar and pestle - if you don't have one, use a bowl and the end of a rolling pin - mash up
chopped lemon grass stalk.  marinade lemongrass mashings in grapeseed oil and set aside.

2.  heat up oil in a small saucepan.  fry basil leaves one by one and set aside. careful- the oil really pops when you do this so have an oil mesh screen available.

3.  slice salmon into 1 cm thick slices. strain lemongrass oil.

plating:

1.  get your mise en place ready: salmon, sujiki, fried thai basil, lemongrass oil, lime ponzu, and shichimi.

2.  place salmon on a plate.  top with some sujiki, then top with fried basil leaf.  spoon lime ponzu around
each salmon piece and lightly drizzle lemongrass oil over it. sprinkle with a light dusting of the shichimi
and serve immediately.

bacon infused egg frittata, kale, yellow onion, potato

ingredients:

bacon (preferably applewood)

eggs (buy pastured if possible!)

potatoes

kale

yellow onion

garlic

cayenne pepper

fine sea salt

pepper 

*you can make this with mostly egg whites too for the health conscious; instead of using bacon, you can just use extra virgin olive oil

directions:

1. peel then cube potatoes and cook in salted boiling water.  set aside.

2. trim kale and blanch in salted boiling water.  set aside.  when cooled, squeeze out extra liquid and chop.  

3. slice onions and mince garlic.

3. whisk eggs with a bit of water and season with sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

4. render bacon in a le creuset braising pan (or regular cast iron will work) over medium low heat.

5. saute onions in bacon fat, add garlic, kale, potatoes.  season as you go.

6. stir in egg mixture and cook for a bit.

7. bake uncovered in a 375 degree oven until eggs are set.  broil for a minute or so if you want to brown the top. serve with extra cayenne on the side/ tabasco/ ketchup if preferred.

uni shooters, uzura, black tobiko, ponzu

ingredients:

uni

uzura (quail egg)

black tobiko

chives

ponzu

directions:

1.  gently place uni into shot glass

2.  separate white from quail egg and plop over uni

3.  drizzle ponzu over

4.  garnish with black tobiko and chives