Promise me that if you use this recipe, please stick to a sustainable source of the Chilean sea bass.  Whole Foods Market, where I teach, carries farmed Patagonian toothfish seabass. Otherwise, you can always substitute with other higher oil content white fish such as black cod which is sometimes referred to as butterfish or sablefish, or escolar fillets

Chef’s tip:  You can just broiled or grilled fish till cooked.  Also, instead of mirin, you can use 1/4 cup sake with 2 TB sugar.  Here’s a recipe to making your own pickled ginger.

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white miso paste
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped pickled ginger + 1 Tablespoon pickle juice

Four 6-oz chilean seabass, black cod or escolar fillets

1. Mix marinade ingredients together.  Add fish, cover and refrigerate 24 hours
2. Broil fish 4 minutes.
3. Roast in oven 425 degrees for 3-5 minutes.

Serves: 4

Sweet succulent diver scallops, pan seared and topped with crispy bacon in a bacon-miso vinaigrette.   I had better post this recipe before the new year’s resolutions kick in.  Or perhaps the new resolution is to eat more bacon?  Or this may qualify for a salad diet?

Chef’s tip: To make the nutty flavored clarified butter, heat 4 tablespoons of unsalted sweet butter under medium heat till solids separate.  Spoon off the foam, gently pour out the clarified butter leaving the golden brown solids and more liquid moisture behind, if you hadn’t boiled off the watery part of the butter already.  You can pass the clarified butter through a cheesecloth to remove all solids.  Make a large jar of it and store it in the fridge.  Or you can buy clarified butter in a jar, typically labeled as ghee.
To perfectly sear scallops. make sure the scallops are totally at room temperature, pat it dry and salt just before it hits the pan.   Do not move the scallops until the brown crust forms, which will naturally release the scallop.  The temperature of the pan should be medium to hot.  Lastly, look out for the 1/4 inch thick white opaque layer that forms on both side of the seared scallop face.  The middle should be a little translucent, it will cook in its own heat to perfect tender.

Vinaigrette:
4 strips apple smoked bacon
1 small shallot, finely diced, reserve 1 teaspoon
3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons mirin
1 Tablespoon sherry
3 Tablespoon orange juice
2 Tablespoons white miso
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
1 teaspoon sugar

16 large diver scallops
2 Tablespoons clarified butter
Kosher salt
White pepper

3 cups baby spinach

1. In a small saucepan, render the bacon till the bacon is somewhat crispy,  remove bacon.
2.  Add chopped shallots to the bacon fat, and sweat shallots under medium low heat until golden brown.  Add rice wine vinegar, mirin, sherry and orange juice and deglaze the pan.  Mix in miso, ginger and sugar.  Let simmer till reduced till half and liquids is thickened.  Add in reserved shallots, set aside.
3. In a cast iron pan, heat clarified butter on medium heat until smoky.  Thoroughly dry the scallops with paper towel, rub with salt and pepper.  Add to the pan and turn up the heat.  Let scallop cook without turning until a brown crust forms or a whitish opaque forms about 1/4 inch up.  Flip the scallops and cook till the opaque white goes up 1/4 inch again on the other side of the scallop.  Remove scallops and set aside.
4. Remove pan from heat, add spinach and toss to warm but not wilt the spinach.  Add half the vinaigrette when tossing.
5.  Place a serving of spinach on a plate, top with 4 scallops and sprinkle with reserved bacon.  Drizzle in a tablespoon of vinaigrette.

Serves: 4

Rosemary just have a great affinity with lamb.   The rosemary is finely chopped, releasing its inner oils into the vinaigrette.    The lamb is cut carpaccio thin, creating as much surface as possible as a vehicle for the tasty vinaigrette.  You really have to love your meat rare to appreciate this dish.   In the King Mushroom Coins in Rosemary Vinaigrette post, you can use the same dressing for your vegetarian friends so that they don’t miss out on this yummy vinaigrette!

Chef’s tip:  Freezing the meat slightly, about 20 minutes, will help you to cut it razor thin.

Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup grapeseed oil or other nuetral flavor oils
1/2 tespoon dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 oz lamb loin, whole
1 Tablespoon garlic olive, or use extra vurgin olive oil with a lightly smashed garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To make the Vinaigrette:
1.  Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl and whisk to combine well.  Set aside.
To make the Tataki:  
2.  Marinate the lamb loin in garlic-roasted olive oil, salt and pepper for at least 2 hours.
3.  Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat.   Sear the lamb loin on all sides.
4.  Transfer the lamb loin on a plate.  Refrigerate at least one hour.  20 minutes before serving, pop the lamb into the freezer. 
To Assemble:
5.   Slice the lamb loins against the grain as thin as possible.   Arrange on serving plate, overlapping the slices. 
6.   Drizzle with the vinaigrette, give it a few turns of black pepper from a mill and serve immediately.

Serves: 4

An alternative to tuna tartare – salmon tartare.  The robust truffle complements the salmon well.  The goat cheese adds a tang to break up the richness of the tartare, and the daikon sprouts complements the flavor.  Capers and salmon are a classic combination.  This recipe is adapted from Tetsuya’s “Recipes from Australia’s Most Acclaimed Chef.”

Chef’s tip: Make sure you get sashimi grade salmon. Regular salmon, even if it’s fresh out of the sea, needs to be frozen to kill the natural micro-organism that resides in salmon.

6 oz of sashimi-grade salmon

1 teaspoon capers in salt, rinsed, chopped
1 teaspoon white truffle paste
1 Tablespoon white truffle oil
1 Tablespoon parsley or chervil, chopped finely
1 tablespoon chives, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
A pinch of black pepper

2 Tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
1 teaspoon meyer lemon zest

1 cup daikon sprouts
1 Tablespoon truffle oil

To make the Sashimi Tartare:
1.  Chop salmon into small cubes
2.  Mix salmon with capers, truffle paste, truffle oil, parsley, chives, salt and pepper
3.  In a separate bowl, mix the goat cheese with lemon zest
To Assemble:
4.  Using a tall cake ring, put some chevre in the middle
5.  Top with the salmon mixture
6.  In a separate bowl, toss the sprouts with the truffle oil
7.  Place sprouts around the tian.
8.  Serve with some wasabi crackers.

Serves: 4

Cilantro or coriander, depending on where you come from, is perhaps the world’s most widely consumed herb. Cilantro is used in cuisines from Latin America to across Asia. I refer the seed of the plant, the spice, coriander and plant itself, cilantro. You can use the stem and the leaves.
In this Asian Fusion recipe, we combine the freshness of Japanese sushi style with a cilantro pesto and an avocado guac. The flavors come together with the help of the best EV olive oil and lime zest. The finishing sprinkling of crushed coriander and sea salt gives the dish an aromatic kick and texture.

Chef’s tip: Zesting is done best with microplane…just like how those Food Network folks do it on TV.  If you are like most of us who are right handed, hold the citrus with your left hand, then slide the microplane around the citrus, being careful to only remove the colored part of the peel.  The zest collects right on the microplane itself.   To make your own lime-infused olive oil, warm the olive oil to about 175F. Add in the lime zest, cool and let it sit for an hour. Strain.

12 Square Wonton skins or store-bought shrimp chips/rice chips
Canola Oil

1 tablespoon lime zest
1/3 cup lime-infused olive oil (or EVOO)
1 cup cilantro, leaves and stems, packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 oz sashimi-grade tuna
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
A drop of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon lime-infused olive oil (or EVOO)
1/4 teasppon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 Avocado
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted, crushed coarsely
A few turns of sea salt

Directions
1. To make the Wonton skin crisps: Heat a wok with 1-inch canola oil. Cut each wonton skin into two triangles. Deep fry till golden brown. Finish with salt. Drain and set aside.
2. To make the Vinaigrette: Zest the lime with a Microplane zester. Combine zest with the cilantro and lime-infused olive oil. Blend together.  Add salt.
3. To make the Sashimi Tartare: Chop tuna into small cubes. Mix tuna with mirin, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime-infused olive oil, white pepper and salt.
4. To Make the Avocado mash: Dice the avocado and gently mash avocado, lime juice and salt with a fork, leaving some chunkiness texture in it.
5. Assemble: Using a tall cake ring, fill the lower part of the ring with the avocado. Top with the tuna mix. Drizzle around the sides with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle with crushed coriander seeds and a few turns of the sea salt. Serve with wonton skins or chips on the side.

Serves: 4