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Recipes with wasabi

4 recipes that use wasabi, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Salmon ochazuke (green tea over rice), takes 15 minutes. It is most often cooked with soy sauce, japanese short-grain rice and nori.

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Kaisendon (seafood rice bowl)

At the morning markets of Hakodate and Sapporo, and in harbour towns all along Japan's coast, kaisendon is breakfast: a bowl of sushi rice heaped with raw salmon, tuna, scallops and glistening salmon roe, eaten with wasabi and a drizzle of soy. At home, buy only fish sold as sushi- or sashimi-grade that has been previously frozen (freezing kills parasites), keep it cold and eat it the day you buy it. Raw fish is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system; for them, sear the salmon and tuna all over and cook through, and use cooked prawns. The common mistake is piling cold fish onto hot rice, which warms the fish and makes the rice gluey; cool the rice to body temperature first. Chef's tip: slice the fish across the grain in one long pull of a very sharp knife, not a sawing motion.

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Salmon ochazuke (green tea over rice)

In Kyoto, where it is called bubuzuke, ochazuke is the light bowl offered late at night or at the very end of a meal, and in Tokyo it is the classic quick supper after a long day at work. Leftover rice is topped with flakes of grilled salted salmon, nori and sesame, then hot green tea is poured over so it becomes a fragrant, soothing soup. Grill the salmon until it is opaque and flakes easily, with crisp skin. The common mistake is using boiling-hot tea, which turns sencha bitter; let the water cool to about 80 °C. Chef's tip: salt the salmon the night before and keep it in the fridge; it firms up and takes on a deeper flavour.

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Hitsumabushi (Nagoya grilled eel rice)

Order hitsumabushi in a Nagoya eel restaurant and it arrives in a round wooden tub, often with a small card explaining how to eat it. You divide the rice into quarters: eat the first plain, the second with spring onion, wasabi and nori, the third drowned in hot dashi or green tea, and the last whichever way you liked best. Nagoya cooks grill the eel until the skin is crisp, then chop it into strips. At home, ready-grilled eel fillets (unagi kabayaki, sold frozen in Japanese shops) work very well once reheated properly. Chef's tip: spoon a little of the sweet sauce through the rice before the eel goes on, so every mouthful is seasoned, not just the top layer.

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Wagyu steak, Kobe style

Kobe's steakhouses cook beef on a hot iron plate in front of the diners, cut it into bite-size pieces and serve it with little more than salt, wasabi and golden garlic chips. Genuine Kobe beef is a protected name: it can only come from certified Tajima cattle born and raised in Hyogo prefecture that meet strict grading rules, and it is rare and costly outside Japan. This recipe is cooked in the same style, with any good wagyu, or a well-marbled sirloin or ribeye if you cannot get wagyu. Because the fat is so rich, a modest portion goes a long way. Chef's tip: cut a small piece of fat from the edge of the steak and melt it in the pan instead of oil; it greases the pan and adds a lovely beefy aroma.

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Goes well with wasabi