Top Recipe - Chili Oil Poached Cod with Dashi, Spot Prawn Shabu Shabu

Yay - Top Recipe is back, and this time Michael Voltaggio is doing the demos....

Chili Oil Poached Cod with Dashi, Spot Prawn Shabu Shabu

Serves 4

Chili oil, 4 cups
Fresh chili, 1each
Cilantro stems, 1 bunch
Ginger (chopped ruff) tablespoons
Green onion (ruff chopped) 1 bunch
Celery stalk 1 each
Shallot, half each
Morels, half handful, well rinsed, chopped
Turnips, 4 each, sliced
Heirloom baby carrots, 2 each, sliced
Spot prawns, 4 each
Ling cod filet sliced to 3 ounces per portion
2 cups Dashi
Salt to taste

Dashi:
2 ounces Kombu
4 ounces bonito flake
1 quart water
Cod bones, cleaned
Shrimp shells

1) Add all the ingredients to chili oil in a pot; temperature of the oil should be 110 degrees F.

2) Drop the filet in oil, cook about 6 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, cook morel and carrot in dashi (do not overcook it!). Clean the shrimp, and cut each bite size (basically four pieces from 1 shrimp)

4) Place prawns, morel, and carrots in a bowl. Place cooked fish on top, pour dashi over top. Season fish with fleur de sel on top, if needed.

To Make the Dashi:

Place water, cod bones and shrimp shells in pot over medium high heat. Let steep for 10 minutes. Strain through chinois into a clean sauce pot. Place kombu into stock and bring to soft boil. Remove from heat, add bonito flake and let steep for 10 minutes, Strain through chinois.

© 2012 JOHN TESAR, KUNIKO YAGI, SHELDON SIMEON
Posted on AllTopChef.com

Meet the Chefs - Kuniko Yago

Hometown: Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Profession: Executive Chef, upcoming David Myers restaurant, Los Angeles, CA

Culinary Education: Self-taught

Favorite Simple Winter Recipe: Nabemono in any style, a family-style hot pot dish in Japan

Kuniko is living the American Dream, and she came to food in a roundabout way. Unhappy working in finance in her native Japan, Kuniko picked up and moved to Los Angeles, getting a job as a server at a noodle house in Los Angeles. Here, she met Chef David Myers of the Michelin starred Sona, who, moved by Kuniko’s passion and zeal, suggested she test her culinary aspirations in his kitchen. Not only did she rise to the challenge -- an un-trained cook in one of the city’s most famed kitchens -- she blossomed. Five years later, she is Myers’ protégé and most recently served as Executive Chef of his popular Los Angeles restaurant, Comme Ça. She will be opening his upcoming Los Angeles restaurant as Executive Chef in December 2012. In 2010, Kuniko was named StarChef.com’s Rising Star.

Posted on AllTopChef.com