April 2, 2007


Here is a recipe that first appeared in my newspaper column in Japan

Carpaccio of tai with daidai infused olive oil (serves 4).

1 180g fillet of tai or other white fleshed fish

1 daidai, a kind of sour Japanese citrus fruit looks like an orange

2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt as needed.

Fresh ground white pepper

With a vegetable peeler, take 4 strips of peel from the daidai, making sure you don’t get any of the white pith. Using a sharp knife, slice the peel into a very fine julienne. Put the julienned peel into a ramekin of other small container and add olive oil, let sit for at least 4 hours to infuse the oil. Sprinkle the fish with salt and let it rest for 30 mins. Slice fish into very thin slices with a sashimi knife or other very sharp knife and arrange on 4 plates. Slice the daidai in half and squeeze 1 Tbsp of juice into a small mixing bowl, add a good pinch of salt and mix in the olive oil with a whisk. Spoon over the fish slices and garnish each plate with a few strips of the daidai peel julienne. Note: if you can’t get a daidai don’t despair, you can substitute a lemon or a lime and a splash of orange juice.

2 comments:

jannx said...

this looks absolutely fantastic. I'm going to try this. How do you slice the fish.. freeze it first and what about the style of knife to do the slicing?

Jannx

The O.G. said...

Thanks, I have one knife that is literally sharp enough to shave with. It is a Japanese carbon steel chef knife known as a gyu-tou, made be the Sugimoto company. It is pretty important to use a really sharp knife. Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art explains the slicing technique, which is called Usugiri.