It’s time to put your homemade mentsuyu to good use, with a quick and tasty side dish that looks as pretty as it tastes.
A while back I talked about the delights of eating the whole fish (eyes, tail, guts and all). Today I have another sea creature to add to your culinary menagerie:
Meet しらす干し (shirasuboshi), white fish (usually anchovy, herring or sardine) harvested while still immature and then dried. They are also called 縮緬雑魚 (chirimen-jako), apparently because of their resemblance to Japanese silk crepe fabrics. You can find them in the frozen section of Japanese and Korean grocery store. At the latter, you would be looking for small 마른멸치 (Mareun-myeolchi). Because they are consumed whole, shirasu are an excellent source of calcium!
I usually store shirasu in the freezer, and scoop out the necessary amount for a dish as I’m making it. Because they are so small, they take only seconds to defrost.
I love this little okazu (side dish)! The sliced okra look like stars bathing in a noodle-like mass of gleaming enoki mushroom and fish. Blanched, the okra releases just enough slime to thicken the mentsuyu and toasted sesame oil sauce. The result is gooey, umami and finger-lickin’ good (chopstick lickin’ good?).
Joëlle
Gooey, chewy and umami, this side dish features crunchy okra stars bathing in a noodle-like mass of gleaming enoki mushroom and tiny white fish held together by a thick mentsuyu-based sauce. Chopstick-lickin' good!
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Ingredients
- 10 okra
- 1/4 cup shirasu
- 1/4 dashi
- 1/2 pack enoki mushroom, tough stems removed
- 1/4 packed bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp mentsuyu (see notes)
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt on the okra
- Bring water to a boil and blanch okra for 1 minute.
- Bring dashi to a boil and add enoki. Simmer until enoki is soft and dashi has mostly evaporated. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Cut okra into 1 cm-thick rounds, discarding the stems, and add the cut okra to the bowl.
- Add the other ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Transfer to a serving dish and serve. いただきます！
Notes
Mentsuyu is a rich Japanese sauce made from soy sauce, mirin, sake, konbu (kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), used to flavour noodle dishes, stir fries and hot pots. Find the recipe here.
