Okinawawa - by Pierrot

I am getting the feeling that I am not getting much inspiration for food as of late, so I have decided to introduce (sparringly) a few good friends as guest writers to this kitchen blog to give it a bit of kick.

Please put your hands together and welcome the first guest writer to my recipe blog, the magnificent Pierrot (right).

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Okinawawa

We all know that the staple foods of Okinawa, and the reason the Okinawans have the highest life expectancy in the whole world, is down to a combination of the unassuming but antioxidant-rich kumera (sweet potato), and an elaborate menagerie of endangered seafood. But what most of the world is completely unaware of is that those plucky New Zealanders, being champions of taking their abject poverty with good-humoured creativity, have managed to add to the Japanese culinary tradition by creating the most hardcore vinegar known to humanity out of the ostensibly useless juices drawn from kegs of mature Umeboshi (see www.ceres.co.nz). The nature of this vinegar is such that it must be used cautiously and sparingly. However if you stick to these, not conservative but measured principles, then you can use it to enhance the flavour of basic ingredients which normally call for a more subtle approach.

The following dish, cobbled together by one of Wawa’s most distant fans, combines the two essentials of Okinawan cuisine, and the one essential of Wawa cuisine (ie inexplicably good luck), and is simple and accessible enough for anyone outside of Bangladesh to whip up on a week night.

Ingredients:

1 slab of salmon for each person, with the skin on

Enough kumera for the number of people you are having over for dinner

A corresponding amount of Dijonnaise (a mixture of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard)

¼ of a red capsicum, finely diced

½ a red chilli, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 handful of Italian parsley, finely chopped

1 sprig of rosemary

4 sage leaves, finely chopped

3 tbsp butter

juice of half a lime

1 tbsp of Umeboshi vinegar

rocket

olive oil

salt and pepper

Perform the three following operations so that they are completed at the same time.

Salmon: Warm a fan-forced, grill-equipped oven to 180°C. Rub salmon with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place skin-side up on a cake cooler or similar attractively-patterned metal platform. Place in oven and cook until the sides of the fish turn a light pink, cooked salmon colour. The objective is to cook the fish slowly and evenly all the way through. Once adequately cooked, turn the grill to high, so that the salmon skin crisps up and comes away from the flesh. Remove from the oven. Peel the skin off the salmon and discard.

Kumera: Chop kumera into golf ball-sized pieces, place in a saucepan and add water up to half the height of the kumera pieces. Sprinkle with salt. Cook over a medium flame until soft enough to mash. Mash kumera with remaining water, adding Dijonnaise, a decent amount of chopped parsley, and ground pepper to taste.

Umeboshi sauce: Melt a small amount of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, chilli and sage, and fry for 30 seconds. Reduce flame, add the rest of the butter and stir until melted. Add capsicum, rosemary, lime juice, and Umeboshi vinegar. Cook over low flame for at least 5 minutes.

Spread mashed kumera on a plate. Place salmon on top of mashed kumera, so that the underside (which hopefully has taken on the pattern from the cake cooler) is facing upwards. Pour the desired quantity of sauce over the salmon. Garnish with rocket, parsley and ground pepper.

Serve with miscellaneous greens, for example lettuce, broccoli, blanched Asian greens or finely sliced pears (rocket being the only essential), because they’re good for you too. But go easy on the dressing, or better yet go without.

Eat it.
Do the washing up.
Go to bed early.
Don’t believe everything you read.

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Legal Note: The blog owner is not directly responsible for the content or the consequences thereafter caused by the trying out of the recipes posted by guest writers.