Cuisine by Nobu

1. Prepare the shrimp: Remove the heads, then shell and devein. Rinse briefly in cold water and drain.

2. Bring about 3 inches of oil in a medium pot to 340F. Dip the shrimp in the tempura batter and fry for 1 to 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

3. Serve with tempura dipping sauce.

Tempura Batter

Add the egg yolk to the iced water and mix well. Stir in the flour until just combined. The batter should not be smooth but a little lumpy. (Potato flour may be added for crispiness.)

Tempura Dipping Sauce

In a small non-reactive saucepan, bring all ingredients to a simmer and then turn off the heat. Pour into individual dipping bowl and serve warm.

1. Pat the fillets thoroughly dry with paper towels. Slather the fish with Nobu-style Saikyo Miso and place in a non-reactive dish or bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Leave to steep in the refrigerator for two to three days.

2. Preheat the oven to 400. Preheat a grill or broiler. Lightly wipe off any excess miso clinging to the fillets but don’t rinse it off. Place the fish on the grill, or in a broiler pan, and grill or broil until the surface of the fish turns brown. Then bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Arrange the black cod fillets on individual plates and garnish with hajikami. Add a few extra drops of Nobu-style Saikyo Miso to each plate.

1. Bring the sake and mirin to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Boil for 20 seconds to evaporate the alcohol.

2. Turn the heat down to low and add the miso paste, mixing with a wooden spoon. When the miso has dissolved completely, turn the heat up to high again and add the sugar, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon to ensure that the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn. Remove the heat once the sugar is a fully dissolved. Cool to room temperature.

Remove any sand and debris and cut the ginger into six-inch lengths. Briefly plunge the ginger into a pot of boiling water to which rice vinegar has been added (1 tablespoons per 1 quart/liter water). Drain and sprinkle thoroughly with sea salt. Let cool to room temperature.

1. Cut the fish into paper-thin slices using the usu-zukuri cutting technique: Place the fillet horizontally on a chopping board with skin side up and the tail end on the left, steadying this end with fingers of your left hand. Hold the knife so that the top is inclined sharply to the right and, from the left of the fillet, start cutting paper-thin slices, keeping the blade at an acute angel to achieve a clean cut across the grain. The fish is sliced in one drawing stroke. Let the weight of the knife do the work as you draw the blade back.

2. Arrange the fish slices on a serving plate. On each slice dab a little grated garlic and place ginger spears and a few menegi or chives. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the fish. Drizzle the yuzu soy sauce over the top and garnish with the carrot curl.

3. Just prior to serving, heat the New Style Oil in a small frying pan until just before it begins to smoke. Pour it over the fish slices and serve.

1. Boil the broccoli for 1 1/2 minutes in a small pot of boiling water to which a pinch of sea salt has been added. Plunge briefly into iced water and drain.

2. Pat the cuttlefish dry with paper towels. Cut the body horizontally into 2-inch wide strips. Use a knife to make fine vertical incisions down the length of each strip along the grain. These should be fairly deep, but very close together. (When the cuttlefish cooks and curls, the incisions will give it a conchiglie-like texture.) Cut the cuttlefish parallel to the incisions into ½-inch wide strips. Sprinkle the strips with a little sea salt and black pepper.

3. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the clarified butter and sauté the garlic slices. When the aroma of the garlic has been released, turn the heat up to high, add the shiitake mushrooms and fry lightly. Add the cuttlefish, green asparagus and broccoli, in that order, and season with a little sea salt and black pepper.

4. When the cuttlefish is about 70 percent cooked (the surface turns opaque), add the Sake Soy Sauce in a swirling motion just before turning off the heat. Mix the contents of the pan to distribute the sauce evenly. Place in a serving dish. Add shichimi togarashi to taste.

Method for making chocolate soufflé mixture:

1. Beat together the whole eggs and the egg yolks and set aside at room temperature.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat without burning, until just before the butter starts to froth. Set aside.

3. Place the chocolate in a medium mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and whisk together until the chocolate melts. Next add the brown sugar and cornstarch and mix quickly before straining the mixture through a sieve. The soufflé mixture should be left to sit covered in the refrigerator for a day before cooking.

Method for baking chocolate soufflé:

1. Preheat the oven to 355-375 degrees F. Grease 4 oven-proof molds 3 inches in diameter with melted butter.

2. Lay 4 pieces of parchment paper larger than the molds on a baking sheet and arrange the molds on top. Fill each with the soufflé mixture.

3. Bake for about 12 minutes. As soon as the soufflés are done, place them on individual plates and remove the parchment paper and molds. Do this quickly, otherwise the chocolate will harden. Sift confectioner’s sugar through a sieve over the tops of the soufflés.

Method for Shiso Syrup:

Briefly dip the shiso leaf in boiling water, then plunge into iced water and pat dry with a paper towel. Chop the lead finely. Bring the other ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan. Boil for two minutes over medium heat. When the syrup thickens slightly, add the finely chopped shiso leaf and let the syrup cool.

Raspberry sauce or any tart sauce is also good match for the chocolate soufflé.

Method for Nobu-style Sesame Ice Cream:

1. Make the toffee: Mix the sugar and water in a small saucepan and boil over medium heat until the syrup turns a light caramel color. Add the sesame seeds. Mix well with a wooden spatula. Spread the mixture out thinly on a baking sheet and leave to cool at room temperature. Once hardened, break up the toffee into small pieces. Shake the pieces in a sieve to remove “dust.”

2. Make the ice cream: Whisk together the sugar, egg yolks and white sesame paste in a medium bowl and set aside. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it boils. Add the sugar-egg-sesame mixture and cook together over medium heat, scraping around the pan with a spatula to keep the bottom from burning. When the mixture has reached about 175 degrees F, strain it quickly into a medium bowl and leave to cool. Mix in the fresh cream and complete churning in an ice-cream maker. Just before the ice cream sets, add the sesame toffee pieces.