Wednesday 20 October 2010

Toro Steak with Teriyaki Balsamic Sauce


Some people cringe at the thought of "fusion" food and its probably because many don't do it very well. Nobu Matsuhisa is world-reknowned and has ben quite successful at marrying flavors from the Far East with Mediterranean flavors. This is no exception.

The cool thing about it is in the simplicity. This was by no means a large or complicated dish, but the notes matched up so perfectly and the shiso rounded the whole thing out with a bit of sharpness. We used premium grade ahi tuna (in ABUNDANCE here in Hawaii) and the rest of the ingredients were few and basic.

This would be a great starter dish, or even pared down further into one-bite amuse bouche portions.

Toro Steak with Teriyaki Balsamic Sauce

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Recipe By: Nobu Matsuhisa - Nobu West
Serving Size: 2

Summary:

You will probably be amazed at quite how sweet and subtly flavored roasted garlic can be, and here it makes the perfect accompaniment to lightly seared toro (tuna belly) steak.

Ingredients:

1 head garlic
2x100 g toro (tuna belly) fillets
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
BALSAMIC TERIYAKI SAUCE (see below), warmed through
1 handful baby shiso leaves
1 handful daikon cress (kaiware)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Trim the root and the head of the garlic and remove any loose outside skin but still keep the head intact. Wrap in foil, place in an earthenware dish and roast for 20 minutes.

While that is cooking, preheat a barbecue, grill or griddle pan. Season the tuna fillets with salt and pepper and briefly sear each of them on all the sides for 2-3 minutes, keeping the center rare.

To serve, spoon a little of the hot Balsamic teriyaki sauce on each of 2 plates, cut each tuna steak and the roasted garlic in half. Place the tuna steak halves in the middle of each plate and garnish with the shiso leaves and daikon cress, and a roasted garlic half.

Balsamic Teriyaki Sauce
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Recipe By: Nobu Matsuhisa - Nobu West

Ingredients:

250 ml balsamic vinegar
300 ml chicken stock
50 g granulated sugar
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon mirin
kuzu, arrowroot or cornflour mixed with a little water to thicken

Directions:

Put the balsamic vinegar into a nonreactive saucepan and boil until it has reduced by two-thirds.

Add the stock, sugar, soy sauce and mirin, and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring quickly to the boil and whisk in the kuzu to thicken.

Use while still hot. Any not used will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Notes:

It is not necessary to use an expensive balsamic vinegar as the flavor is intensified during the reduction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've made this at home; For the balsamic teriytaki I dropped the chicken stock (didn't think it needed it), sugar (I thought the sweetness of the balsamic and mirin
was enough) and kuzu/arrowroot/cornflour mixed with water. I reduced the balsamic slowly (as per Thomas Keller's admonition) until it was a little less then 3 oz and then added the soy and mirin. It is a nice dish though - I used O-toro rather than toro
for this dish.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever wanted to add green onions, and sliced japenos while reducing balsamic