This crudo is truly simple to assemble and just delish!

Chef’s tip: Frankly, there’s little skill needed to put this dish together.  Just get the best hamachi you can buy.  In SF Japantown, at the Nijiya market, they fly in fish from the Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market several times a week. I know, it’s not locally-correct, but you’ve gotta sink your teeth into the fish to feel the springy, crunchy texture to feel the fresh difference.

Ingredients

6 oz of sashimi-grade yellow-tail hamachi

Zest of 1 Meyer lemon
Juice of half a Meyer lemon
1/3 cup of Meyer lemon olive oil (O Brand)
A pinch of sugar
A pinch of salt

¼ of English cucumber

1 Tablespoon dried hijiki, soaked in hot water, 10 minutes
Thinly sliced Meyer lemon
Some fleur du sel

To make the Vinaigrette:
1.    Zest the Meyer lemon with a microplane zester
2.    Combine ½ the zest with olive oil, lemon juice, sugar and salt and mix well.
To Assemble:
3.    Slice the yellowtail thinly and arrange on serving plate
4.    Slice cucumber into half moon slices and arrange around the fish
5.    Drizzle with the vinaigrette
6.    Garnish with sliced lemons and drained hijiki.
7.    Finish with a sprinkle of fleur du sel.

Serves: 4

Tags: Japanese, sashimi.

Cantonese folks believe that the best way to savor the sweetness of fresh fish is to do the least to it.  A classic case of less is more.  “7 minutes” is the magic number to cook the fish.  Regardless of amount.  You want it just flaking, and not tough.  You can control how much oil you want to add.  This recipe makes a small jar of shallot oil that you can use many times over.

Chef’s tip: Invest in a steamer rack, like the picture below….for a grand price of $0.69.  You can find the racks in many of those houseware stores in Chinatown, typically hung outside the shop….as if in marketing terms, an impromptu purchase item.  Go figure.    Just place it on a big pot, wok or saute pan with a cover, add some water till it comes up to the height of the steamer, use a heatproof dish and you would have outfitted your kitchen with a steamer capability.

Ingredients:

2 shallots, sliced thinly
1/2 cup canola oil

8 oz soft, white fish (rock fillet, red snapper, sea bass)
1/2 inch ginger, peeled, julienned fine
1 Tablespoon light soy sauce
1 sprig green onions, green part only, julienned
1 sprig cilantro

To make the shallot oil:
1. In a small sauce pot, heat canola oil.  Add sliced shallots and fry till light golden brown.  Remove from heat and the shallots will continue browning to a deep brown.
2.  When cool, transfer oil and shallot crisps to a glass jar.  Shallot oil can be kept for a couple of months in a jar.
Preparing the fish:
3. Bring a wok of water with a steamer rack to boil.
4. Smear a heat-proof deep plate with a little of the shallot oil.  Place fish on the plate.  Top with ginger strips.
5. Place in steamer and steam under boiling water for 7 minutes.
6. Remove plate from the steamer, drizzle with 1-2 Tablespoons of shallot oil and crisps, soy sauce and top with green onions and cilantro. Serve immediately.

Serves: 2

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, Fish, salty.

This picture was taken eons ago on my first gen digital camera…before I got my VR lens and my D70.  But the memory of that meal at Cha Ca La Vong in Hanoi is still as vivid as ever.  You climb this steep stairs, or more aptly called, a ladder, to get to the second floor of this nondescript shop lot in the old town of Hanoi.  As immediately as you sit down, a charcoal stove appears, together with a variety of Asian herbs and a simmering pan of bright orange tumeric oil.  This was the most simple and memorable meal I had in Hanoi.  I was heady with the smell of turmeric, dill, rau ram and all the wonderful Vietnamese herbs and the sweet smell of fried fresh fish.  Or was it the carbon monoxide from the numerous charcoal stoves in the room that was making me giddy?  I have tried to reproduce the recipe based on that memorable meal sans charcoal.

Chef’s tip: Make sure you have everything mise-en-place before you start cooking. The cooking itself literally takes minutes.  Traditionally, the freshwater snakehead fish is used.  Catfish or tilapia is a good substitute.  I like it with the more fatty salmon.

And here’s an updated picture 10 years later.

Marinade:
3 inches of galangal – Thai ginger
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoon fish sauce
3 Tablespoon tumeric powder
1 Tablespoon rice wine
1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon grapeseed/ safflower oil

1 ½ lb fresh salmon (tilapia or catfish works well, too)

1 (4 oz) package of thin rice vermicelli, cooked and drained

8 approx. 2”X4” pieces of butter/green lettuce leaf, ribs removed
12 sprigs mint, chiffonade
1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ bunch cilantro, tear into smaller sprigs
½ bunch of green onions, julienned, separate white from green
1 cup Rau Ram – polygonum (Vietnamese Mint), chiffonade
1 cup Fresh basil, chiffonade

1 lb dill, stemmed, cut into 3 inch strip
1 ½ cups of grapeseed/ safflower oil

Nuac Mam:
1 red chile, diced finely / 1 tablespoon Sri Racha sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 Tablespoons sugar
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
4 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons fish sauce

½ cup roasted peanuts
2 limes, cut into wedges

Preparing the Fish:
1.    Grate galangal and mix with 2 tablespoons warm water, squeeze juice and discard solids.
2.    Whisk together marinade ingredients with galangal juice
3.    Cut salmon into 1 inch cubes and marinate fish for at least a half hour.
Preparing the vegetables and rice vermicelli:
4.    Bring a pot of water to boil.  Drop rice vermicelli in, bring to boil again. Cover for 15 minutes.  Drain and fluff.  Place in the middle of a large platter.
5.    Wash and clean all vegetables, spin to dry.
6.    Sliced fennel and onion finely. Place onions in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes.  Drain.
7.    Chiffonade herbs except dill. Set herbs and vegetables around the rice noodles on the platter.
Cooking the fish:
8.    Heat a cast iron pan or a wok on high heat
9.    Add oil and cook salmon till golden brown.
10.    Add the dill, cook for 1 minute.
11.    Toss in white part green onions.
12.    Ladle salmon over the rice noodles, sprinkle with ground peanuts.
Just before serving, toss together to mix in herbs and vegetables.
Preparing the nuoc mam dipping sauce:
13. Blend together all nuoc mam ingredients.
To serve:
14.    Serve with nuoc mam, cut lime and freshly cracked black pepper on the side.

Serves: 6

Tags: Rau Ram, salmon, Tumeric, Vietnamese.