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04/16/08 |
                
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わさびとしょうゆパスター (Wasabi
and soy pasta)
Yields 2 servings
4 oz. dry long pasta (linguine, spaghettini, etc.) 2 t. pickled ginger, minced 3/4c. dashi 1 c. sake 1/2 c. mirin 8 oz. chicken breast, sliced 2 ea. green onions, cut into 2" lengths (no white parts) 2 t. usukuchi shoyu 2 t. prepared wasabi powder/paste 1/4 c. cornstarch/arrowroot slurry, for thickening Get a pot of water boiling and add your pasta. The sauce should be ready exactly when your pasta is, but you never know. Easier to hold pasta hot than trying to keep your sauce from over-reducing. In a medium skillet, heat a bit of Generic Vegetable Oil®, then add chicken and pickled ginger. Sauté until chicken is about medium-rare (two or three minutes, maybe), then add dashi, sake and mirin. Simmer/lightly boil for about three minutes, then add shoyu and wasabi. (Make sure you leave a few little nuggets of wasabi here and there for "surprises") Reduce one more minute then add slurry to desired thickness (if you add it all at once, you run the risk of raining buffalo; don't do it). After sauce has thickened (should be about 30 secs. after the boil), add pasta, toss, garnish with green onions and serve.
Note from GG: Since things are slowing down at Rays, a lot of time is left for food creation and this is the latest. One of the FOH bussers was like, "Hey dude, throw something together for me." And thus the pasta was born. This has been lingering in my head since the days of Ciao Italia, but now it finally comes to fruition (thanks to the availability of product and lack of inhibition at Rays). Anyway, here's how it went together: I wanted the pickled ginger (gari shoga) and mirin for sweetness, sake and dashi for savour, pasta and chicken for body. The soy sauce (usukuchi is the best soy sauce to use for cooking) and wasabi levels can be adjusted for your particular tastes, though this recipe is pretty middle-of-the-road and should appeal to most tastes. If you want to grill the chicken before it comes in here, be my guest; just add it a little later on in the process. I had originally thought to do this recipe with either udon or somen noodles, but I thought that might be a bit "too Japanese," so I threw you all this curveball. However, if you want to rock either of those options, go ahead. I think they'd do fine here, though you'd have to adjust the cooking time for the somen. They don't take much time to get done, and if you overcook them they get REALLY brittle.
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