Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com –
* https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/morimoto-nyc-3/ (21 Dec 2009)
I recently had an omakase dinner at Morimoto NYC (21 Dec 2016) and picked up a copy of Iron Chef Morimoto’s new book
Mastering The Art Of Japanese Home Cooking. On pgs 146/147 was the recipe Hambagu – Japanese Style Hamburger With Tangy Sauce. The recipe for the sauce read:
1 c Morimoto Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 c ketchup
2 t dijon mustard
This mixture was cooked for about 3-5 minutes read to me ‘Tangy BBQ Sauce’. The minute the thought dawned on me I immediately remembered Hitoshi Aita’s 21 Dec 2009 omakase offering of:
1st Morimoto Omakase Dinner Steak offering from Hitoshi Aita
Grilled Kobe And Mushroom Glutinous Rice –
* Ginger, Chives, Morimoto “BBQ” Sauce, Hot Scallion Oil
estimating 1/8 c of sliced onion
prepping the rest of the aromatics (1 pile of grated garlic and 2 1/2 ginger slices would be used)
So how to make the sauce? Well, Morimoto-sama kindly provided a recipe for his Tare No Teriyaki (p.108). As a microbatch
Aromatics in the pot with the liquid seasonings
recipe, I decided to combine:
1/4 c Japanese soy sauce
1/4 c mirin
1/4 c sake
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/8 c roughly chopped yellow onion
2 1/2 thin round slices of peeled ginger
1 medium garlic cloves peeled/mashed (I would grate the garlic)
Heating up the teriyaki sauce
which I would bring to a boil then simmer for about 8 minutes and then strain out the solids.
Finished, strained teriyaki sauce
To complete the sauce, I combined the microbatch amounts of the rest of the ingredients
Tangy/BBQ Sauce ingredients
and got them into a pot. For starters, I must say I was a little skeptical since the teriyaki glazing sauce was very liquid; I was
Combining BBQ sauce ingredients
expecting it to be a bit more viscous. As I started mixing and heating the sauce, I remembered that the mustard would break into tiny lumps (based on the experience of making my own personal signature sauce). So I whisked the ingredients to make
Completed BBQ sauce
sure they blended properly. I brought the sauce up to a steady simmer on medium heat and simmered it for about 5 minutes and it thickened up very nicely.
Now that I had the sauce, I collected some Morimoto scallion oil that I had in my refridgerator as well as peeling/shredding some ginger and then washing and drying some fresh chives. The fact that hot scallion oil, ginger/chives was in the dish pointed to the influence of Nobu’s new style sashimi legacy.
So while my wife helped out by roasting some eggplant, carrot and broccoli to be served family-style, I seasoned a 1lb boneless shortrib, portioned for my wife and myself, with a teaspoon of 4:1 salt/pepper mix. After searing the boneless shortribs in a pan, I went ahead and cooked that shortrib at 4 minutes/all four sides. At that point, I set the shortrib portions aside to rest for about 5 or 6 minutes. I then collected my shredded ginger and washed chives to prepare for plating.
After the beef had rested, I cut them into about 8 slices/portion and got them onto their plates, topped them with chives and then shredded ginger. I finally began heating 4 tablespoons of Iron Chef Morimoto’s scallion oil in a small sautee pan until it started smoking (new style sashimi anyone?) and spooned the hot scallion oil over the ginger/chives atop the sliced shortribs.
Plating before the addition of Iron Chef Morimoto’s Tangy/BBQ sauce
I finished the dish by spooning 3 tablespoons of the tangy/bbq sauce.
‘Steak’, ginger, chives, hot scallion oil and Morimoto tangy/bbq sauce
Tasting the dish brought back memories of our first omakase meal at Morimoto NYC. My wife agreed with my decision to drop the sugar from the teriyaki base – she thought the tangy/bbq sauce tasted very balanced with the steak, ginger, chives and scallion oil. The flavors seemed to echo the offering that I had had from Chef Hitoshi Aita; but I agreed with my wife – there was enough sweetness from the mirin. I felt the teriyaki base didn’t need the sugar – the sweetness might have been overpowering. My wife and I were very happy with the meal and even happier now that we could make this at home. Thank you Chef Aita and Iron Chef Morimoto for offering this dish to us and sharing the recipe for the sauce!
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