Fish Trip Cafe

This is a spring dish.

It looks like the yellow flowers of tenderstem broccoli are blooming in a bowl.

I hope spring is coming soon.

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— Tenderstem Broccoli and Egg Rice (serves 2-3) —

300g rice (Japanese short grain white rice, or sushi rice)

400ml water

2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

10cm square kombu

100g tenderstem broccoli

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

2 eggs

A pinch of salt

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Rinse the rice in a clod water, changing the water several times until the water runs almost clear.

Drain the washed rice in a sieve and place in a saucepan.

Add the water, sake and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the pan, place the kombu on top of the rice and cover with tight-fitting lid.

Bring to the boil over high heat and let cook for 2 minute. Reduce the heat to the lowest and simmer (always cover the pan with a lid) for 15 minute. Remove from the heat, still covered, and leave the pan for another 10 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to boil and add a pinch of salt. Cook the tenderstem broccoli until soft but still crunchy (about 30 seconds – 1 minute), rinse in cold water, drain and squeeze excess water. Cut the tenderstem broccoli into 0.8 inch, toss with the light soy sauce.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add a pinch of salt. Heat a frying-pan, pour the eggs and stir continuously until they form finer scrambled eggs.

Add the tenderstem broccoli and scrambled eggs in to the cooked rice, mix everything together gently.

Italian food, especially pasta is hugely popular in Japan, and we create large numbers of ‘Wafu-Pasta’ (‘wafu’ means ‘Japanese-style’).

‘Wafu-Pasta’ is Italian pasta prepared with Japanese ingredients and flavours. And this is one of my favourite Wafu-pasta.

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— Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Soy Sauce (serves 2) —

200g mixed exotic mushrooms (shiitake mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, oyster mushrooms)

180g spaghetti

1 tablespoon olive oil

120g lardons

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)

1 tablespoon soy source

1 tablespoon butter

Some chives, chopped

Black pepper

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Trim off the bottom of the mushroom stems. Make the mushrooms into bite sized pieces (slice the shiitake mushrooms, separate the shimeji mushrooms and tear the oyster mushrooms).

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, fry the lardons until golden. Add the garlic, fry for a further 1 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, sauté for 2 minutes, or until softened and pour the sake and cook for a further 1 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of lightly salted boiling water until al dente (follow the package directions).

Add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan, add the soy sauce and butter, toss everything together.

Garnish with chopped chives and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

Kakiage is a type of tempura fritter made with mixed vegetable strips, and it’s one of the most popular topping for Japanese soba noodle soup.

I used kombu dashi (dried kelp stock) for this noodle soup, so it’s a good vegan recipe :)

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— Vegetable Kakiage Soba Noodle Soup (serves 4) —

400g soba noodles

Some spring onion, finely chopped

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Nanami chilli pepper (optional)

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— for noodle soup (kombu dashi) —

25g kombu (dried kelp)

1200ml water

80ml soy sauce

80ml mirin  (Japanese sweetened rice wine)

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— for vegetable kakiage —

90g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

150ml water

2 ice cubes

1 carrot (medium size), julienned

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

80g green beans, chopped

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Cook the soba noodles in a large pot of boiling water until cooked (follow the package directions) and drain.

Place the cooked soba noodles in a deep bowl, pour in the hot noodle soup, arrange the vegetable kakiage on top, garnish with chopped spring onion and sprinkle with nanami chilli pepper (optional).

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— to make noodle soup —

Lightly wipe the kombu with a clean damp cloth, Put the kombu in a large saucepan, cover with 1200ml of water and soak for 30 minutes.

Set the saucepan over a medium heat. Just before the water comes to a boil, remove the kombu.

Place the kombu stock, soya sauce and mirin in a pan and bring to the boil, turn down the heat to low and  simmer the noodle soup about 2 minutes.

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— to make vegetable kakiage —

Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170C/340F.

Combine the flout and baking powder in a bowl.

Place 150ml water and 2 ice cubes in another bowl, add the flour mixture and mix together very lightly.

Add the carrot, onion and green beans in the batter and mix together.

Take a scoop of the mixture with a large spoon and slip into the oil. Shape the piece, deep-fry until crisp and golden.

Drain excess oil on kitchen paper.