Four sticks of Yakitori or grilled chicken on skewers to go around. Tender morsels of boneless chicken meat grilled to perfection and dipped in a special sauce consisting of mirin, sake, soy sauce, and sugar with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
Ordered three each of the Beef and Pork Roll with Golden Mushroom (Bifu/Buta Enoki Maki) as one of my colleague declined it for fear of having the mushroom stuck between her teeth. Too bad the restaurant does not have meat & asparagus roll else it would be great.
For the last dish, my colleague had the Cod Roe Spaghetti (Mentaiko Spaghetti) after we promised to help her finish it. While the seasoned roe adds umami profile to the pasta, we were almost at our limit to consume more food so each of us took a few strands to aid her. :D
Hey all! Happy Sunday! I’m kinda-sorta going through my backlog of photos. I only say “kinda-sorta” because this mentaiko spaghetti I actually cooked earlier today!
To be honest with you, the only reason why I decided to make mentaiko spaghetti was because I kept thinking of Cooking Mama... only later to find out that there isn’t even a mentaiko spaghetti recipe in the game. Whoops.
Oh well, who cares.
The first time I’ve ever had mentaiko was when I had mentaiko udon from a local izakaya, and the salt and spice from the mentaiko and the smoothness of the cream is something that hits all the right notes with me. It’s comforting, delicious, and easy to make.
“Wait, what’s mentaiko?”
Mentaiko is salted pollock roe! It’s spicy, salty, and full of flavor! It’s been a popular thing since Korea’s Joseon era, and was brought to Japan at some point and has become a staple in Japanese cooking.
Normally, you’d use shiso leaves to add to the spaghetti, but uh, I was having SUCH a hard time trying to find shiso leaves, and I really did not feel like driving to Uwajimaya, so I opted for something different: Thai basil.
Thai Basil and shiso come from the same family and have a very similar taste profile. The only difference is the general size of the leaf. Shiso is larger than Thai basil and is usually used to wrap stuff with.
Another thing that I like to do with my mentaiko spaghetti (which I have completely forgot to do here) is add some Parmigiano-Reggiano. Along with the cheese flavor that we’re all really familiar with, the cheese I feel like gives the pasta an even bolder, and more savory flavor.
Lastly, chives. Because chives are fancy and taste good. Heh.
Anyway, the recipe for the mentaiko spaghetti I made today will be at the jump below.
Ingredients
8 oz. dried spaghetti noodles
3 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp. whole milk
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 oz. karashi-mentaiko (karashi means spicy)
2 tbsp. usukuchi (light soy sauce)
3-4 dashes of black pepper
Chives
Kizami (shredded) nori
Shiso (or Thai basil)
1. In a large pot, boil water and add salt. Add the spaghetti noodles to the pot and cook to al dente, which about 10 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, get a mixing bowl ready.
2. In the mixing bowl, add the heavy cream, whole milk, usukuchi, black pepper, and melted butter. Set aside.
3. The mentaiko will come inside this kind of weird membrane. You can cut it open and scoop out the roe inside gently. Scoop the contents into the mixing bowl with the heavy cream and other stuff. Once you got all the roe in the mix, mix the contents together.
4. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain the water, and add the noodles to the mixing bowl, coating the pasta evenly with the sauce.
5. Cut the shiso (or Thai basil) into thin strips. You can do this by rolling up the leaves from the point of the leaf to the little stem part of the leaf, then cutting the leaves vertically along the rolled. As for the chives, make small slices.
6. After mixing, plate the pasta onto your dish of choice, and top the pasta with the garnishes, and the kizami nori.
And, that’s about it! For extra flavor and presentation, you can sprinkle some Parmigiano-Reggiano on top, and putting a dollop of the mentaiko on the pasta as well.
I hope you all enjoyed this post! I’ll be back with another post soon.
