Nothing fishy about sashimi

A simple Japanese banquet can be a very enjoyable food experience, not to mention one of the healthiest meals you will eat. The Japanese, ever inventive as they are, are renowned for simple food using seasonal ingredients. So here’s how you can prepare a simple Japanese banquet and serve it up to your guests.
Start with a sashimi of tuna, salmon and white fish. Sashimi is so easy to prepare, or buy some from a local seafood market. Plenty of good quality Japanese soy and some wasabi are all that is needed to get people started.
A communal plate is excellent. Garnish it with lots of fresh curly parsley, slices of lemon and pickled ginger.
Follow with a tempura of vegetables and seafood. Tempura batter is so simple. Take some Japanese flour mixed with chilled water and add some ice just before serving. This will ensure that the batter becomes very light after frying.
If you are using hard vegetables, microwave or steam them very lightly to start them off and then ensure they are completely chilled before battering and frying. Again serve with soy or, if you are near an Asian grocery, buy a tempura dipping sauce. If you are in an Asian grocery, find some gyoza (dumplings). Steam them and then dry fry them in a pan to serve alongside the tempura. They are delicious.
Then serve up a big pile of yakitori (grilled chicken). This is where you skewer many parts of the chicken, including thigh, skin, and liver, and then marinate and grill. For the marinade, mix together four tablespoons of soya sauce, three tablespoons of sugar, a little bit of honey or maple syrup, a little bit of mirin and water, and heat it up until it’s homogenous.
Put the chicken pieces into the marinade for as many hours as you have time for, then skewer and grill. Serve on a mound of Japanese rice with black sesame seeds tossed through it along with a side dish of seaweed tossed in sesame oil and some sesame seeds.
Forget dessert. Make sure you have some good green tea to aid digestion, or buy some white miso soup from the supermarket and add silken tofu and sliced shallots with the boiling water.
And no Japanese banquet is complete without some sake. Flavour of the month in Tokyo these days is chilled sake rather than the warm variety.
Let’s hope your guests say “Gochiso-sama” or “thanks” for the delicious meal.
From bnews, www.bnews.net.au