Tuns Sashimi with Cucumber Caviar and Citrus Dressing

neanderthin

Warning this recipe is a little artz fartz

I served this as an amuse bouche at a catering event and I thought this might be something for the more adventurous. Everyone has done this or similar at one time or another (well, almost everyone) and it makes a nice appetizer by adding a few to a plate and changing the daikon from small disks to julienne.

Serves 12 portions
Ingredients

Sashimi
1 small daikon radish- sliced into 12 thin small discs, submerged in water
12 oz of sashimi grade tuna-cut into 12 1 oz portions
3 or 4 perilla leaves- rolled cigar fashion then cut julienne style
1/4 cup of soy & 1/4 cup of fresh oj, thinned with 1 or 2 ounces of water

Cucumber Caviar
2 cups of any oil.
2 english cucumber
1/4 oz/8g's/4leaves gelatin
1 tbsp of red wine gastrique
salt to taste

Method

red wine gastrique
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 tbsp of water
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar

In a small pot add the sugar and the water and without stirring cook on
medium heat until the mixture becomes amber, it takes about 5 minutes, it's very hot so be careful. Remove from heat and add the red wine vinegar, return to the heat and gently heat until the caramel is dissolved, about 5 minutes, salt to taste when it's not hot. Remove and chill the gastrique , about 30 minutes.


cucumber caviar
Put the oil in a glass bowl and refrigerate for a few hours. Half and seed the cucumber and run it through a juicer or puree it in a blender and press through a fine meshed sieve. Reserve only 1 cup of the juice.

Take a 1/2 cup of cold water and add the gelatin and allow 3 minutes or so to soften. In a saucepan heat 1/4 of the cucumber juice, add the gastrique on low heat for a few minutes, add the gelatin and stir to dissolve. Add the remaining cucumber juice and put in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

This is were the fun part starts . Put this juice mixture into a squeeze bottle and working quickly drip into small droplets into the chilled oil. The drops will set into little balls and strain through a fine seive and the oil can be saved for another use. The caviar will keep for 2 days in the fridge.

I know it sounds complicated but it really isn't, it's just a little time consuming making the caviar, but this can be made the day before and the whole dish comes together not much longer than it takes to put the tuna on the daikon.

Sashimi assembled: Take the perilla julienne and dip into the soy-citrus dressing and rest on top of the daikon radish, then add 1 portion of tuna to each
portion. Add the cucumber caviar over the tuna and serve.

EDIT: Whoops sorry I forgot to mention that I added 1 tbsp of wasabe to the citrus-soy mixture for a little heat, it was a good change from the last time I made it, I recommend it.