Tired of sushi? Hitoshi Shigaki, executive chef at Metropolitan Hotel, shows us more from Japan.
He may love kathi rolls, but in the kitchen Chef Hitoshi Shigaki is fiercely loyal to his native cuisine. “Very easy,” is how he describes Japanese cooking, flashing us a warm smile as he fries tempura in a pan. His junior colleagues skitter around respectfully as we watch the master chef at work in the kitchen of Sakura, the Japanese restaurant at the Metropolitan Hotel in Delhi. Shigaki has been in Delhi for eight months, making himself at home. He has been known to share kathi rolls and a round of drinks with chefs from other hotels in the city.
His culinary skills lie in Japanese cuisine, he says, and he wouldn’t trust himself with Indian masalas! When we ask him to make us his best — not sushi, though, there’s an overdose of that — he stirs up a teppan cha soba along with tempura, a popular side dish at Sakura.
Is it tough to adapt Japanese cooking to Indian tastes? “Not really, though only 50 per cent of people who come to eat Japanese food here really understand it,” he says. Shigaki’s first working kitchen, decades ago, was at a traditional diner in Tokyo. Since then, he has worked in Belgium, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines before he made his way to India. He says, “This was an assignment I coveted, as India is one of the largest consumer markets, where the hotel and restaurant industry is still in the growing phase. It provides enormous opportunities to professionals like me.” As a bonus, he found people here “very friendly”.
Chef Shigaki has out-of-kitchen skills too. He is a qualified ikebana artist, photographer and music enthusiast.
A believer in innovation, while working with traditional Japanese ingredients, Shigaki’s additions to the menu include the Buta Salad (shredded vegetables mixed with grilled slices of pork), Ika Butter Yaki (pan-grilled cuttlefish with spinach in lemon butter soy sauce) and Curry Nanban Soba (buckwheat noodles with Japanese curry). The chef is keen to make us a portion of Kamisuki Nabe, a dish served in a paper boat placed over a flame, and his homemade wasabi ice-cream. The ice-cream is, indeed, a fitting end to a hearty Japanese meal.
FAVOURITE RECIPES
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8 tiger prawns
4 bite-sized red snappers
1 eggplant
1 medium-size sweet potato
4 medium-size pieces of okra
4 pieces babycorn
1 lt vegetable oil
For the sauce:
125 ml dashi (fish stock)
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp mirin (rice wine)
1 tsp grated ginger
4 tsp grated radish For the batter:
2 cups flour
2 cups iced water
1 egg yolk
To make the sauce, heat dashi in saucepan and mix in dark soy sauce and mirin. Once the liquid starts boiling, set saucepan aside. Divide grated radish into four equal portions, shaped like cones. Top radish with grated ginger. Remove shells of prawns and de-vein. Leave tails intact. Make two or three incisions on belly portion of prawns so they don’t curl. Chop off okra stalks and make lengthwise incisions; repeat with babycorn. Wash sweet potatoes and cut into four thin, cylindrical pieces. Cut eggplant into two halves.
To make batter, pour iced water into mixing bowl, add egg yolk and beat thoroughly. Add flour and whisk very roughly with chopsticks. Do not beat batter, it should be lumpy. Heat oil and fry all batter-dip ingredients one by one. Arrange in plate and serve with dipping sauce and grated ginger carrot cones.
TEPPAN CHA SOBA
400 gm cha soba (green tea flavoured noodles)
4 lt water 3 tbsp kizaminori (seaweed)
2 tsp chopped spring onions
15 gm wasabi paste
4 tsp sesame seeds
400 gm sliced pork belly
2 tsp oil
80 gm julienned shiitake mushroom
For the sauce:
4 small cups dashi
5 tsp soya sauce
5 tsp mirin
2 tsp sugar
Combine ingredients for dipping sauce in pan and heat till mixture boils. Set aside. Cool sauce by placing pan on bed of ice cubes. Heat water in a sauce pan. When it starts boiling, add noodles and cook on low flame for five or six minutes. When cooked, strain water out. Wash noodles under running tap to remove starch. Keep aside.
Heat pan and sauté pork belly till fat starts coming out. Arrange noodles on a hot plate, put sautéed pork on top. Garnish with mushroom juliennes. Serve sizzling noodles on hot plate with dipping sauce in a bowl, with spring onions, wasabi paste and sesame seed on side.
