Japanese-inspired seafood spaghetti with Asian mushrooms

This dish evolved from something we made at Centara Resort Krabi in South Thailand.
My young chef-de-partie John was in charge of our Japanese restaurant and we worked together closely on making some quite memorable dishes.
One was a creamy sake thing topped with pickled ginger and a sauce that was great, but just a little too complex.

Fast forward to here in Da Nang, and I had to have it back on my winter menu with a few changes.
It had to be more simple, letting each of the ingredients speak for themselves.
Our fresh seafood in Da Nang is second to none and we also have an impressive selection of fresh and affordable exotic mushrooms so this dish is the perfect choice for those cooler days and nights.

The secret is in balancing the flavours of the Sake, Mirin and soy.
I do have a soft spot for Thai Golden Mountain seasoning sauce, but in this recipe Kikkoman works well.
Not too salty – it should give some colour and depth of flavour only.

The mirin gives it a sweet edge but it shouldn't taste too sweet.. Be careful with these three, balance their flavours and the dish will be a huge success.

The large 'trumpet mushrooms' are also called chicken mushrooms here, due to their white colour and meaty texture.
They are fantastic stir fried, sauteed, grilled, or even roasted whole.
When simply sliced, they look very much like scallops and they are one of the darlings of this dish.

Feel free to swap my selection for whatever fresh, good quality mushrooms you can find.
Surprisingly I don't use shiitake mushrooms, even though they are a Japanese classic, as their strong flavour tends to dominate the dish

Ingredients

1 serve cooked Spaghetti (150g cooked)

80g Cream, fresh

20g butter

60 ml Chicken stock 

20g Mushrooms, Enokitake 

20g Mushrooms, Chicken/trumpet 

20g Mushrooms, Oyster

3 ea Surf Clams, med to large

3 ea tiger prawns,30-35 size, peeled, deveined, tail on 

40g Mackerel Fillet 

40g Squid, large, cleaned 

80ml Sake rice wine Japanese

30ml Mirin sweet rice wine 

5-8ml Soy sauce, Kikkoman 

1g Peppercorns, black

15g Spring onion  

1. Grill the mackerel and set aside. Boil the clams until they pop open. Set aside.
2. Heat a stainless pan and add butter.
3. Saute the prawns to get some colour, then remove with tongs and set aside with the mackerel and clams.
4. Increase the heat in the same pan, add the mushrooms and toss / saute for a minute, then add the chicken stock to deglaze the pan.
5. Add the cream, sake and 3/4 of the mirin and reduce by half. 
6. Cook or reheat the spaghetti and hang to dry for 30 seconds to 1 minute
7. Taste the sauce and add the soy and the seafood, including the raw calamari rings. These just take a minute in the sauce
8. When seafood is perfectly cooked toss the spaghetti through the sauce, toss freshly chopped chives through
9. Season with freshly ground black pepper, and serve

Be Sociable, Share!

•