Sake Butter Recipes

STEAMED CLAMS IN BUTTER AND SAKE

Steps:

• Scrub and rinse clams. Soak in a large bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
• Heat a wok or large saucepan over high heat. Quickly pour in the sake, mirin and rice vinegar. Add the clams; cover and cook until the clams open, 3 to 4 minutes. Discard any clams that do not open.
• Remove any scum that forms on the surface using a spoon or paper towel. Stir in the butter, soy sauce and green onion, tossing to coat the clams as the butter melts. Arrange clams on a serving plate and drizzle the sauce over them. Serve immediately.

SAKE-STEAMED SALMON WITH SAKE BUTTER

Steps:

• Bruise lemongrass with back of a knife. Place it, with 2 cups of water, sake, ginger, star anise and orange peel in bottom of a steamer.
• Butter steamer tray and lay salmon in it. Set tray in steamer.
• Bring lemongrass mixture to a boil. Cover and steam salmon 4 to 5 minutes, until just cooked through. Serve with sake butter and lime wedges.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add ginger and shallot. Cover and sweat for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden. Add 1/2 cup sake and bring to a boil. Boil until liquid is reduced to 3 tablespoons, about 2 minutes. Whisk in butter bits one by one until creamy. Immediately remove from heat. Whisk in remaining sake, lime juice and salt to taste. Keep warm.

MISO-MARINATED SALMON

Steps:

• First, make the tama-miso sauce. In a small cup, mix the sake with 2 tablespoons water. In a suribachi or other mortar, grind the miso, sugar, and egg yolk to a smooth paste. Add the rice wine and water mixture little by little, grinding all the time. Season to taste with shoyu. Have at hand a bowl half-filled with cold water and ice cubes. Transfer the sauce to the top of a double-boiler, and cook the sauce over simmering water, stirring constantly and thoroughly so you do not scramble the egg, until the sauce becomes thicker, about 6 to 8 minutes. Set the bowl of sauce in the bowl of cold water and ice cubes to cool. Tama-miso may be stored in the refrigerator, covered, for three days. Heat the sauce through before using it.
• Salt the fish on both sides, and rest it on a steel rack set over the pan, for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
• In a medium bowl, soften the miso by stirring in the sake and mirin. Spread one-third of the miso mixture in the bottom of a large pan in which the fish can fit without overlapping. Lay a tightly woven cotton cloth or two layers of cheesecloth over the miso in the pan. Wipe the salted salmon with a paper towel to remove the salt and the liquid exuded from the fish. Place all the salmon pieces on the cloth in the pan, and cover them with another tightly woven cotton cloth or two layers of cheese cloth. Spread the remaining miso mixture over the cloth, covering the surface completely. Wrap the entire pan with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for 5 hours.
• In a small saucepan, combine the dry white wine, komezu, and shallot. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to very low, and cook the mixture until it is reduced to 1 tablespoon syrup.
• In a large pot of boiling water, parboil the spinach, excluding the 4 leaves, 1 to 2 minutes. Cool the spinach in ice water, and drain the spinach well. In a food processor, purée the spinach. In a skillet, heat 1 inch oil over medium heat to 320°F. One at a time, add the 4 reserved spinach leaves to the oil, and cook them until they are bright green and translucent, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer the spinach to paper towels to drain.
• Lift the top cloth (or cloths) from the salmon, and remove the salmon from the marinade. Discard the marinade, or reserve it to use as a fish marinade one more time within 2 weeks, after heating it through and adding more miso and sake, or for making miso soup. If there is any miso residue on the fish, gently wipe it away with a paper towel. At this point you can refrigerate the fish, in a well-sealed plastic bag, for up to 3 days, or freeze it for a longer period.
• Heat a broiler or grill, and the broiler pan or grill rack. With a pastry brush, lightly grease the pan or rack. Transfer the salmon to the pan or rack, and cook the salmon, turning once, until both sides are light golden. A 1-inch-thick salmon steak needs about 8 minutes' total cooking. Marinated fish burns easily, so you may need to cover the fish with aluminum foil as it cooks.
• In a small saucepan, combine 2 Tbsp tama-miso sauce with the reduced vinegar-wine syrup. Place the saucepan over low heat, and cook until the mixture is heated through. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, and add the spinach purée. Little by little, whisk in the olive oil. Serve the salmon with the spinach sauce underneath and garnished with the fried spinach leaves.

JAPANESE FRIED RICE

Steps:

• In a small bowl combine soy sauce and sake. In a separate bowl combine butter and minced garlic. Set both aside.
• Heat a large cast iron pan or wok over high until very hot, about 2 minutes (a sprinkle of water should evaporate immediately). Add 2 teaspoons oil and swirl to coat. Beat together eggs and 1 teaspoon soy mixture. Add egg mixture; cook until set, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer cooked eggs to a cutting board (reserve skillet); roll up, and thinly slice eggs crosswise. Set aside.
• Increase heat to high, add chicken in one layer; season with salt. Add half the butter mixture. Cook turning once until browned on both sides, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon soy mixture; stir to coat. Remove to board with eggs. Add onion, carrot, scallion, and remaining butter mixture; cook 2 minutes until just beginning to brown. Add rice, cook, tossing occasionally and scraping rice from bottom of pan, until heated through, about 3 minutes. Add back chicken and scrambled egg and remaining soy sauce mixture. Toss to coat and heat through. Stir in scallion greens. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with additional scallion greens.

SAKE-STEAMED SOCKEYE SALMON WITH SAKE BUTTER

Steps:

• Fill a large saucepan or wok with 2 cups water. Add lemongrass, sake, ginger, star anise, and orange peel. Bring to a boil. Spray the bottom interior of a bamboo steamer with cooking spray and set over saucepan; add salmon fillets. Cover and steam until salmon is just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve over white rice with sake butter and lime wedges.