Aburi Wagyu with Radish & Ginger Fuzz and Crisp Garlic

This week on a business trip i went to a Japanese restaurant in Brisbane called Sono. The food there was absolutely amazing! One of the dishes they had was aburi wagyu, an unusual almost tataki style dish, but the resultant flavour was very different. This recipe began as an attempt to replicate that dish, but finding no example recipes online, i decided to make it my own with the addition of rice and a much fresher mixture on top of the wagyu. I'm pretty proud of the results!!

Ingredients

• About 100gm wagyu fillet
• 1 cup sushi rice
• 2 cloves garlic
• 5 small radishes
• 1 2 inch knob ginger
• 3 tbsp light soy
• 1 lemon
• 4 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 spring onions, slivered

Method

Rinse the sushi rice and cook with 1 cup water over low heat until water has evaporated.

Lay the sushi rice out on a plate to cool.

Combine the 3 tbsp mirin with the salt and sugar and heat until dissolved together.

Sprinkle the mirin mixture over the rice and carefully toss. Set aside

Heat a frying pan to high heat with no oil.

Sear the outside of the wagyu fillet for 30 seconds on each side and then transfer to fridge immediately to halt cooking process.

Finely grate the radishes with 1/2 clove garlic and 1/2 inch of ginger. 

Heat in a frying pan over very low heat, being careful not to brown, until some of the spiciness has left.

Set aside for later.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan.

Finely slice the remaining garlic clove and fry until golden, then transfer to a paper towel.

Pare off a slice of the lemon's peel and 'fillet' out any of the white as below.

Thinly slice the peel into long thin strips.

Wet hands and shape rice into small logs and place on serving plate.

Very thinly slice the wagyu fillet diagonally.

Layer the wagyu on top of the rice pieces.

Top the wagyu with a small amount of the ginger and radish fuzz. 

Top the fuzz with 2 thin slices of the lemon peel.

Top with slivered spring onions and a slice of the fried garlic

Serve with ponzu sauce.

Ponzu Sauce

Finely grate the remaining ginger.

Combine the soy, 1 tbsp mirin, and 1 tbsp of the lemon juice in a cup.

Press the ginger in a sieve over the cup to extract 1 tsp of ginger 'juice'.

Mix together and pour into serving dishes.