{"id":1205,"date":"2013-10-07T09:04:02","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T08:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2015-06-02T10:51:16","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T09:51:16","slug":"smoked-salmon-sashimi-with-watermelon-wasabi-sorbet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Smoked Salmon Sashimi with Watermelon & Wasabi Sorbet"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was the first dish from my tasting menu.\u00a0 The key feature of this recipe is the watermelon and wasabi sorbet.\u00a0 It is something I have wanted to do for a long time, ever since having wasabi ice cream a couple of years ago at\u00a0Whatley Manor<\/a> (probably the best meal I’ve ever had).\u00a0 With that as my inspiration I felt that this would make for an excellent amuse bouche.\u00a0 I love sashimi but it is difficult to properly incorporate into a western style tasting menu.\u00a0 As an amuse bouche I felt it would be a nice and tasty way to begin.\u00a0 It is something unexpected and refreshing and a good palate cleanser.<\/p>\n

The watermelon and wasabi sorbet should be very subtle, it builds like a fine wine.\u00a0 It starts off as a watermelon sorbet, watery and refreshing (the nose), slightly sweet but with a hint of wasabi (mid-palate) before the wasabi really kicks in and then lingers (the finish).\u00a0 The rest of the amuse bouche is built around that experience… the smoked salmon enhances the sweetness, combines well with the wasabi and adds a little complexity with the smoke, the sake glaze with the rice wine vinegar helps to balance it out by providing a little acidity and the pickled ginger helps to ensure you are not left with a strong wasabi aftertaste that lingers until the next dish.<\/p>\n

What I love about an amuse bouche, is that it is a planned mouthful of food.\u00a0 You know that in a couple of bites that guest will have eaten the entire dish, so everything will be combined.\u00a0 In a bigger dish like my Ox Cheek Confit<\/a>, you can’t be sure that someone will combine a forkful of cheek with fondant potato, carrots and tomato essence.\u00a0 It is very difficult to construct a dish in that way, even with starters, it has to be small.\u00a0 An amuse bouche is a great way to make a statement about your own food, to say to your guest “this is what I am capable of…”<\/p>\n

My mistake with this dish was to serve it in tiny bowls, the portion is a little too big for a one-bite.\u00a0 I should have served it on something bigger.\u00a0 If I am being picky it could use a little more colour but I was happy with how the dish turned out and it seemed like a good start.\u00a0 Lastly, this dish uses a hand smoker to smoke the fresh salmon – you get the freshness of the fish and the smoky flavour but without it being dry.\u00a0 However if you don’t have a hand smoker you can substitute with regular smoked salmon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"GnY_WatermelonWasabi\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ingredients (Serves 4 as a starter or 8 as an Amuse):<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 Salmon Fillets (cut to 4\/8)<\/p>\n

Cherry Wood Chips<\/p>\n

Pickled Ginger<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watermelon & Wasabi Sorbet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\/2 Watermelon<\/p>\n

1 Tin (25g) Wasabi Powder<\/p>\n

1\/2 Lemon (juice)<\/p>\n

125g Sugar<\/p>\n

1 tsp Guar Gum<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sake Glaze:<\/strong><\/p>\n

50ml Sake<\/p>\n

1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar<\/p>\n

120g Sugar<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Smoked Salmon Sashimi<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Slice Salmon fillets and place on a plate, have a bowl or other dish ready to place over the top (you need a good seal)<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Ready your smoking gun with the rubber hose, add cherry wood chips, light it and fill the bowl with smoke.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Leave the smoke filled bowl for a few minutes, repeating smoking if a stronger flavour is required.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watermelon & Wasabi Sorbet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Slice watermelon and remove seeds.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Blitz the watermelon into a puree, add the lemon juice and sugar and blend until combined.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Add one teaspoon of wasabi powder and mix well – check the flavour, add another teaspoon and repeat until you have reached your desired strength.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Add the guar gum and give the sorbet base one final mix to properly disperse the guar gum.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Freeze for about an hour then stir and re-freeze.\u00a0 Repeat this again after another hour.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 To serve, take the sorbet out 30mins to 1 hour before service and break up with a fork.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sake Glaze:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Using a small saucepan on a medium heat, add the sugar.2.\u00a0 As the sugar begins to melt, add in the sake and rice wine vinegar.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Reduce until it becomes a thick syrup<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Plating:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 In a small bowl, place one or two tablespoons of sorbet.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Now place a slice of salmon on top of the sorbet.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Drizzle a small amount of glaze on the salmon before finally topping with a piece of pickled ginger.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Serve immediately.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0 The dish could do with a bit of green for garnish, maybe a sprig of chive or parsley.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Avoid letting the glaze run into the sorbet, it will go solid.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Plate this dish quickly, the sorbet will immediately start to melt, you don’t want to be serving puddles of watermelon soup.\u00a0 For best results freeze or chill the bowls before service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the first dish from my tasting menu.\u00a0 The key feature of this recipe is the watermelon and wasabi sorbet.\u00a0 It is something I have wanted to do for a long time, ever since having wasabi ice cream a couple of years ago at\u00a0Whatley Manor (probably the best meal I’ve ever had).\u00a0 With that as my inspiration I felt that this would make for an excellent amuse bouche.\u00a0 I love sashimi but it is[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Smoked Salmon Sashimi with a Watermelon & Wasabi Sorbet http:\/\/wp.me\/p1PTCG-jr","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[40,18,34,33,38],"tags":[68,85,46,79,42,45],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amuse","category-east","category-gluten","category-lactose","category-starter","tag-fruit","tag-hand-smoker","tag-seafood","tag-sorbet","tag-spicy","tag-sweet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-05-19.24.36.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PTCG-jr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}