Akaiito WA Marron - Chef Recipe by Winston Zhang.

Ingredients

1 x 250g-300g marron
100g Japanese rice, or any high-grade short grain rice
10g puffed wild rice
1 small daikon radish
2 shallots
10g fresh ginger
10g chopped leek
5g spring onion
150mL mirin
30mL sake
20mL soy sauce
30mL sushi vinegar
2g soy lectin
3g xanthan gum
300mL vegetable oil
15mL white soy

Method

Marron preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 180 C and prepare two large bowls of ice water.

Place live marron into one of the bowls.

Once asleep, using a large knife, quickly and cleanly remove marron head from tail.

Skewer the marron tail from top to bottom in preparation for cooking, so that it will remain straight and not curl while cooking.

Place the marron head on a baking tray and roast in pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.

Place a large pot on high heat. Bring 2 litres of water to boil with 60g of salt.

Once water is boiling, place the skewered marron tail in the pot and cook for 105 seconds.

Once cooked, immediately place the marron tail into the second bowl of iced water.

Once the marron tail has cooled down, remove the meat by cutting the shell off with scissors.

Japanese rice preparation:

Wash the sushi rice in running water until the water runs clear, then drain.

Once cleaned, leave drained rice to sit for 30 minutes.

Place rice in a rice cooker with 100mL of filtered water and cook per rice cooker instructions.

While the rice is cooking, prepare puffed rice.

Once rice is cooked, add 30mL of sushi vinegar and mix through 10g of puffed rice.

Puffed rice:

In a small pan, heat one cup vegetable oil (or enough to cover the base of the pan) to 200 C.

Once oil is hot, fry the wild rice until puffed.

Marron bisque preparation:

Roughly chop the shallots, ginger, spring onion and leek.

Place a frying pan on medium heat with a few teaspoons of vegetable oil. Add in the shallots, ginger, spring onion and leek. Cook until fragrant.

Add the roasted marron head and 150mL of mirin, 30mL of sake and 20mL of soy sauce.

Turn the heat to high and cook until the bisque base begins to boil.

Once boiling, add 400mL of hot water and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, strain the bisque base into a bowl and add 5g of katsuobushi. Set aside for 15 minutes to infuse.

Season bisque to taste using white soy or sea salt.

Remove 100mL of the bisque base and place aside for the marron foam.

With the remaining bisque base, add 3g of xanthan gum (or plain flour) and blend together using a hand blender.

Blend until thickened.

Marron foam preparation:

To the 100mL of marron bisque, add 2g of soy lectin and blend using a hand blender until the bisque begins to foam.

Plating:

Mould the Japanese sushi rice mix into the same shape as the marron and place in the middle of the serving plate.

Reheat bisque on stove until hot in preparation to pour over when served.

Just before plating, cook the marron tail on a Robata grill or BBQ for 30 seconds on each side to give a smoky charred flavour. Once cooked, slice in half from top to bottom.

Place one half of the marron tail onto the sushi rice and garnish with daikon slices.

Place the marron foam on one side.

Repeat steps for the other half of the marron on a second plate.

When serving, pour the marron bisque over the marron and enjoy!

Recipe provided by Akaiito