FOOD:Blackened cod, the signature dish at Japanese restaurant, Nobu, can be adapted for salmon fillets and cooked at home, writes Domini Kemp
EVERY NOW AND THEN, the Restaurant god can throw you a bone, although this particular bone-throwing department is usually reserved for VIRS (very important restaurant slaves). Through an obscure and secretive network of constantly migrating personnel, it is possible to get to someone, who usually knows someone, who kinda knows someone else, who has the ear of the receptionist, who can squeeze you in at the last minute, to eat in a great restaurant which seems impenetrable to Joe Soap, (whoever he is). When you have a food chain as international as this, it means that hard-to-come-by-reservations can be swiftly secured over a coffee and a fag break in a dark alley before lunch service begins.
Us insiders never have to resort to name-dropping or outright bribes. All we need to have on our CV is evidence that we, too, have been in the restaurant trenches.
This policy of minding our own kin has made it possible to sample some fantastic food and get a glimpse of some great kitchens at work. I ate like a queen at Nobu in London, when they first got their Michelin star, and was so spoiled I was reluctant to visit again, lest I be disappointed. I eventually got to dine in the New York restaurant (which was great) and by then, plenty more Japanese restaurants (such as Zuma and Roka) had opened up in London.
The one dish they all had in common was the famous "blackened cod" that Nobu Matsuhisa had pioneered. The problem with recreating this dish was that in the Nobu cookbook, it relied on buying loads of Nobu's sauces and marinades, which were only available in New York. Trying to recreate these flavours, I spent a while trying to come up with the trademark flavour of sweet and savoury succulence.
I've been lucky enough to eat a few versions of this, which have all been exceptional. My counterfeit version below isn't a bad fake. It's a good party dish, but it does produce quite a lot of smoke and I think it works better with salmon (which is a bit hardier when grilling in this way). It can burn like crazy on a barbecue, so the best way to cook it is on a wire rack (with a baking tray under it) under a piping hot grill.
Leave the windows wide open and pour yourself some sake. Get out the kimono and pretend you're sitting beside Robert De Niro and Co. Who needs to beg for a reservation in a swanky restaurant when you can recreate some Asian magic, right here in damp and gloomy Ireland.
Blackened salmon
In Roka, a trendy Japanese restaurant in London's Soho, they cook their blackened cod over a mini flame-grill. It is much gentler than home barbecues, so a hot grill is the safest option.
Sustainable cod is getting very rare, and a lot of what is available is very inconsistent. Cod can tend to stick and fall apart if turned too much, whereas the salmon holds its shape and is quite tasty served a bit on the medium-rare side.
The marinade would probably be sufficient for even more salmon, if you wanted to cook it for six to eight.
100ml Chinese rice wine
100ml mirin
150 g caster sugar
Generous knob of butter
2 tablespoons of miso paste
4 pieces of salmon fillet, skin removed
Heat the Chinese wine and the mirin in a small saucepan until it is boiling. Boil for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and slowly add the caster sugar. It may bubble up when you do this, so add the sugar carefully. Whisk gently and add the butter and the miso pate. Allow this to cool fully and then pour it over the fish, and leave to marinate for 10 minutes, or overnight.
Pre-heat the grill and when it is piping hot, grill the salmon, on each side, quite quickly, as it will burn if you leave it for too long. Baste the fillets with sauce and handle them carefully as the glaze becomes super-hot. So, no wandering off to answer the phone. They will only take a maximum of 10 minutes to cook. When they're caramelised and singed on each side, serve straight away.
Spiced aubergines and curly kale
Curly kale is one of those vegetables that needs serious amounts of taming.
1 head of curly kale
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Handful of raisins
Handful of pine nuts
6 aubergines
Good few glugs of olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
Large knob of root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
100ml rice wine vinegar
100ml mirin
1 chilli, deseeded and finely diced
Freshly ground black pepper
Handful coriander
Wash, chop and blanch the kale for a couple of minutes in boiling water, then drain it really well, squeezing every drop of excess water out of it. Then sauté the chilli, garlic and a handful of raisins in a hot pan with some olive oil. Chuck in the curly kale and season with some salt and pepper. Finish with the pine nuts.
Chop the aubergines into very small dice. Don't bother salting them. Heat the olive oil in a big saucepan and fry the onion and aubergines over a high heat. If you have to add an extra splash of olive oil, do. If your saucepan isn't big enough, fry them in two batches. Add the rest of the ingredients and keep on a high heat until the mixture becomes quite dry. Check the seasoning and add more soy sauce if the aubergines have become too sweet, or a pinch of sugar if they are too salty.
Serve with some coriander on top, and the kale on the side. This is good with any type of fried fish.