Scallops with Wasabi Pepper Sauce

We like Nobu's recipes. This was an easy one to make a very tasty. I like it with a strong wasabi flavor. We substituted Scallops for the Abalone when we made Nobu's Abalone with Wasabi Pepper Sauce.

Abalone With Wasabi Pepper Sauce

Nobu the Cookbook

The mild flavor of abalone is joined by the piquancy of wasabi and shichimi togarashi. the thin slices of abalone are swiftly added to the sauce when just cooked.

Ingredients

1       abalone in the shell, about 1 pound, removed and cleaned

½      cup clarified butter

1       clove garlic, thinly sliced

4       spears green asparagus, cut into 2-inch lengths

4       spears white asparagus, cut into 2-inch lengths

7       ounces of at least three varieties of mushroom (shiitake, yanagi matsutake, pied bleu and enoki used here), cut into bite-size pieces

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

shichimi togarashi to taste

3/4 cup Wasabi Pepper Sauce

shredded and fried beet (beetroot) for garnish

Method

Cut the prepared abalone into very thin slices, about 1/16 inch (2mm) thick.

Place a medium frying pan over medium heat, then add the clarified butter and the garlic. When the aroma of the garlic is released, turn the heat up to high, add the asparagus and mushrooms and Sauté. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, black pepper and shichimi togamshi.

Add the abalone slices to the frying pan. Sauté briefly and then add the Wasabi Pepper Sauce, Remove from heat.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with beet shreds.

This dish should be put together with speed so the flavors of all the ingredients harmonize in an instant. If the abalone is cooked too long, it will toughen and shrivel.

Wasabi Pepper Sauce

Nobu The Cookbook

I came up with Wasabi Pepper Sauce when I discovered my customers liked wasabi and soy sauce in generous amounts with sushi and sashimi. First, I blended a solution of powdered wasabi dissolved in water with soy sauce (fresh wasabi doesn't thicken), then I added a little butter and heated it. The result was quite unlike other soy sauce-based mixtures; for a start it was syrupy, and the heating process had mellowed the nostril-burning sting of the wasabi. I added black pepper and served my first Wasabi Pepper Sauce simply with rice.

Wasabi Pepper Sauce was an instant hit, so I began serving it over fried fish, sautéed scallops and so on. Due to popular demand, I also began bottling it as my first commercially available sauce. I eventually stopped selling it as doesn't keep very long, but Wasabi Pepper Sauce is still on the menu in more refined forms. Thin it with dashi if it's too strong and salty, or add a little sake and substitute butter for olive oil and ginger for garlic according to diners' requests. “The customer is a god as we say in Japanese, and I’m happy to go along with that.

3 tablespoons powdered wasabi
2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
8 tablespoons Dashi

Dissolve the powdered wasabi in the and combine with the other ingredients. Powdered wasabi tends to settle so mix before using.

Yield 1 Cup