Baby Squid with Ginger Salsa

This was our first real foray into fusion cooking... Nobu Matsuhisa makes his money off of this style of cooking and his restaurants are considered to be among the Top 50 in the world. His style is very minimalist, and often fuses Japanese with South American cooking.

I am at a loss to describe why this works, but it does. There are a few components to deal with here, but on the whole, extremely easy to prepare. The salsa makes this whole thing work and deals with flavor profiles which are unfamiliar and intriguing to me. Very interesting to eat!

TOSA-ZU SAUCE

5 tablespoons soy sauce
8 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 g dried bonito flakes (can be found as Asian markets - key ingredient in Dashi, the base Japanese stock for soups)

Mix these together.

GINGER SALSA

100 g finely chopped red onion
25 g finely chopped root ginger
100 ml TOSA-ZU SAUCE (that you just made)

Combine all the ingredients and mix well.

BABY SQUID WITH GINGER SALSA
8 baby courgettes
olive oil for brushing
6-7 baby tomatoes
100 g cleaned fresh baby squid
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons GINGER SALSA (see page 243)

Preheat a hot grill or barbecue. Lightly brush the courgettes with olive oil and grill or barbecue for 2 minutes, turning them halfway, and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 230C. Place the tomatoes, squid and courgettes in a bowl and season with sea salt and pepper and a little olive oil. Put all the ingredients in an ovenproof ceramic dish or similar and spoon the ginger salsa over the top.

Bake for 5 minutes and serve straight from the oven.