Nobu has released his vegetarian cook book and of course we grabbed it directly and here are some of the dishes we are cooking up at the moment

Hokkaido Surume Ika is a real delicacy that can be used so many ways, though it seems a bit risky to take on for home cooks this is not as difficult as it looks.

please find this Step by step guide on how to cook these 4 dishes using Squid.

Cleaning and Preparing

1. The whole piece of squid

2. Grab the head and pull out the body

3. Cut of the arms just under the eyes, and remove the mouth (in small green ring), then remove the flaps by just pulling them off

split open the squid and remove the “bone” (as soon on Pic 5) then cut a little along the end (large green circle)(you can feel there are some brusk there its this you want to remove)

4. Cut the body and half and open the squid arms again repeating cutting along the end to remove any brusk

Sashimi

For sashimi remove the skin completely and cut fine a cross with and angle of 45° as shown on first photo, (cutting on same side as skin was)

then put the squid on back side of a plate, cover with paper towel and poor 1 cup of boiling water over, then remove the squid to ice water to refresh.

wipe dry with paper towel and cut in 2cm strips

Rolled Sashimi

To make these Sashimi rolls, cut the squid in thin strips but not all the way through again cutting same side as skin was, turn over and place a shiso(pernilla) leaf and roll up slice in 1,5 cm length

The finish result

Squid Pasta

 Start with cutting the squid in thin strips again but this time don’t cut on the skin side but on the side that used to be turned inwards, again cutting not through.

step 2 is start by saute some mushroom of your choice and some asparagus or other green vegetable, remove them from the pan once they have a little color, then add the squid pieces cut side down, let the pan be really hot before you add it, once they have a little color turn them and add back your mushroom and asparagus together with 1 clove garlic finely chopped, add 50ml Sake or white wine, wait 10-15 second and 30 ml soy sauce, remove from pan after 15 – 20 second of adding the soy. from the moment adding the squid the pan should be very hot all the time. Plate in bow and optional add Shichimi.

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Fry two ways ~ tempura rings and pan fried

Take the head and clean it out and without skin, cut in to rings,dust the rings witl little flour then dip in tempura batter (ice water mixed with tempura flour) fry for about 1 min to 1 min and half. plate

For this pan fry version its quite simple, cut across and season with salt and pepper, pan fry 20 second on each side high heat. serve with extra salt and lemon wedge.

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Squid Kaki Age

 First step here is separate all the arms and the wing, and slice that in thin strips,

add it all to a bowl and add some sliced onion, and chopped parsley, then add flour, and water till its all sticky, working it a little together with your hands.

then take a big ladle and slowly lower it in a pot of oil holding 170C, be very careful not to burn your hand as there are steam coming and oil can bounce up. try keep the oil at 170C as much as possible to get a crispy result and not to oily.

remove the kaki age and drain on paper, cut up and serve

ENJOY !

Something that you probably know:

Scallops are a popular type of shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are characterized by having two types of meat in one shell: the abductor muscle, called “scallop” which is white and meaty, and the roe, called “coral”, which is red or white and soft.

In Western cuisine, scallops are commonly sautéed in butter, or else breaded and deep-fried. When a scallop is prepared, the byssus, also called the beard,which tends to be tough, is usually discarded or used later on for stock. Sometimes, markets sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the abductor muscle intact. Outside the U.S. the scallop is often sold whole. In Galician cuisine, scallops are baked with bread crumbs, ham, onions, etc.

Scallops that are without any additives are called “dry packed”, while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) are called “wet packed”. STPP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby getting a better price per kg. The freezing process takes about two days and once you cook these scallops they will loce the water and a small scallop without much flavor will be left.

In Japanese cuisine, scallops may be served in soup or prepared as sashimi or sushi.

Dried scallop is known in Cantonese Chinese cuisine as conpoy (???, ??, ??).

In a sushi bar, hotategai (???, ??) is the traditional scallop on rice, and while kaibashira (??) may be called scallops, it is actually the abductor muscle of any kind of shellfish, e.g. mussels, oysters, or clams.

Scallops have lent their name to the culinary term scalloped, which originally referred to seafood creamed and served hot in the shell (Rombauer 1964). Today it means a creamed casserole dish such as scalloped potatoes, which contains no seafood at all.

Here is something you probably didn’t know:

Shell of Saint James

The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of James, son of Zebedee, and is popular with pilgrims on the Way of St James to the apostle’s shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain). Medieval Christians making the pilgrimage to his shrine often wore a scallop shell symbol on their hat or clothes. The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with him, and would present himself at churches, castles, abbeys etc., where he could expect to be given as much sustenance as he could pick up with one scoop. Probably he would be given oats, barley, and perhaps beer or wine. Thus even the poorest household could give charity without being overburdened. The association of Saint James with the scallop can most likely be traced to the legend that the apostle once rescued a knight covered in scallops. An alternative version of the legend holds that while St. James’ remains were being transported to Galicia (Spain) from Jerusalem, the horse of a knight fell into the water, and emerged covered in the shells (source: Wikipedia)

Here is a few of our Scallop hot dishes

Scallop Yuzu egg sauce

Scallop Platter

Scallolp Aji Amarillo with Scallop bacon

Scallop Creamy Jalapeno

Norwegian King Scallops was the official seafood product for the Bocuse d’Or 2009                      – the most prestigious culinary competition in the world.

This is the second time Norwegian King Scallops ( Pecten Maximus ) is the official product for the Bocuse d’Or competition ( 1999 ) and this confirm that this fantastic product is the best scallops in the world….

http://www.bocusedor.com/

and in 2009 the winner was Geir Skeie from Norway and his Scallop dish was as following

Loin of cod with lightly smoked scallop and cod belly, green pea sphere, brandad Photo: http://www.geirskeie.no/

Simple perfection

Biology, cultivation and harvesting
The king scallop is the largest of the scallop species found in Norway and are generally simply called scallop. Scallops are found from depths of a couple of metres down to several hundred metres, but occur most frequently at depths of between 10 and 30 metres. King scallops often live in areas with sandy bottoms,
resting in small hollows with the less-sculptured upper shell covered by sand, but they are also found on other types of seabed. Scallops are hermaphrodites. They carry their eggs in a special sac in front of the adductor muscle, where the orange part is the egg and the grey-white part is the milt. Scallops spawn in the summer.
The larvae swim freely for approximately one month before attaching themselves to a surface. Juvenile scallops remain stationary until they reach a size of 10–15 mm, when they settle on the sea fl oor. Scallops are marketable after four or five years, when they have reached a size of 10–12 cm.
In Norway, king scallops are primarily collected by divers. In some countries, scallops are harvested by dredging the seabed, but this is rarely an option in  Norway as the seabed around the coast is not flat. More refined methods and
equipment for harvesting king scallops from the seabed are currently being developed. Research is currently underway to develop commercial scallop farming. Scallops are hatched artifi cially in incubators and are nurtured in cases in the sea, before being released on the seabed.

Scallop Shiso Salsa

4 person:

4 Norway King Scallop

3 Table spoon red onion (fine dice)

1 Table red chili (fine dice)

1 Table spoon neutral oil

1 Table rice vinegar

4 pc Shiso leaf

1 pc lime (fresh pressed)

to make the salsa mix all the ingredients above (except Scallop)

season the scallops with salt and pepper then pan fry on high heat in a little oil until you got good golden color, flip them over and turn off down the heat and add 2 dice butter. after 1 min remove from pan and drain on paper and press a little fresh lime or lemon juice over it

arrange each scallop in its shell or on the plate and device the shiso salsa over them

(optional add some blanched green vegetable as garnish)

a story probably many of you have read already from the story flourishing on Facebook but i thought is a great story to think about so i re post today. Read and slow down to see the details in life thats life in itself?

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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?