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Friday, December 9, 2011

Open sandwich of tuna sashimi and porched egg 鮪の漬けと温泉卵のオープンサンド

Believe it or not, we had this as a breakfast! When we visit Japan, for the first few days, we get up very early because of the time difference. Since we often stay at a hotel located in Ginza, we often walk to Tsukiji market 築 地市場 for breakfast (more precisely, to eateries in and around the Tsukiji market) which open up very early in the morning for workers in the fish market. Although we usually go for a Western style breakfast, we were amazed to see long lines of people waiting to have sushi/sashimi for breakfast at one of the popular sushi bars in Tsukiji. We (even I) thought sushi or sashimi was not a breakfast food. But we had to finish the pound of tuna sashimi block we got from Catalina. So we decided to indulge in tuna one weekend morning.
This dish is a variation of the smoked salmon and porched egg dish that we often have for breakfast.

Disk of rice: Instead of bread, I decided to make a disk of rice. I used frozen rice which I thawed by microwaving it. I just added "frikake" seasoning (bonito and wasabi flavor) and mixed. I used a ring mold and the back of the spoon to press the rice into thin disks. I then added vegetable oil with a splash of sesame oil (1 tbs) to a frying pan on medium heat. I made both sides of the rice disks slightly brown and crispy (#1).

Tuna: I sliced the red meat or akami of tuna relatively thinly and marinaded it in a mixture of sake and soy sauce (1:1) for 10 minutes and blotted off the excess marinade.

Wasabi creme fraiche: I mixed in real wasabi into creme fraiche. The amount is arbitrary but you could add quite a large amount of wasabi since the creme tends to tone down the heat. I tasted it a few times as I added more wasabi.

Poached eggs: I used pasteurized eggs and poached them as I described before. I like the egg white congealed but the yolk totally runny.

Assembly: I placed the rice disk (#1) on the plate and layered it with slices of the lightly marinaded tuna sashimi (#2), added the wasabi creme fraiche and chopped chives (#3). I then placed the poached egg on the top and further granished with Kosher salt and more chopped chives (#4).
Compared to the strong taste of our usual smoked salmon dish, this is remarkably mild. It is, nonetheless, a perfectly acceptable breakfast dish. We had cafe latte with it but if this was the evening, sake would definitely be called for.

2 comments:

  1. This reminds me of the maguro eggs benedict (http://goo.gl/U74n8) served at Cream Pot Honolulu, which consists a disk of toasted rice, avocado slices, a poached egg, and a light, shoyu-based sauce over the top. Definitely one of my favorite breakfast meals! I'll have to try out your version the next time I have extra sashimi-quality tuna lying around, haha.

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  2. Erin, Thanks for your comment. I am surprised somebody came up with the similar dish. I thought this was my original! Besides a classic eggs benedict (http://norioonwine.blogspot.com/2010/01/eggs-benedict.html), we sometimes substitute hollandaise sauce with guacamole. So the dish you mentioned is different combinations of these ingredients. We have to try this next time we are in Honolulu. N

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