“Spicy miso with cucumber sticks is a traditional snack you’d find in an izakaya in Japan or would prepare at home,” says chef Kazuki Tsuya of Melbourne restaurant Kazuki’s.
Ingredients
Smoked almond and sweet miso
Horseradish cream and karasumi
Method
1.For smoked almond and sweet miso, combine shiro, sake, mirin and ginger with 50ml water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and whisk gently to combine. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened (3-5 minutes) to the consistency of honey. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until chilled. Stir in almonds. Place half the cucumber pieces, cut-side up, on a plate. Top with a little smoked almond and sweet miso sauce and scatter with calendula petals.
2.For horseradish cream, whisk cream in a bowl to soft peaks. Fold in yoghurt, honey and horseradish and season to taste. Place remaining cucumber pieces, cut-side up on a plate and spoon over horseradish cream. Finely grate karasumi over the top and scatter with pansy petals and nasturtium leaves.
Shiro miso is available from Asian grocers. Karasumi is a salted sun-dried mullet roe, known as avgotaraho in Greece and bottarga in Sardinia. Bottarga is available from delicatessens; it will keep refrigerated for 1 month.
Notes