Creating a vegetarian Japanese dish isn’t easy but not impossible, specially in the realm of modern Japanese cuisine. Modern Japanese restaurants are serving a version of Japanese food, which curiously blends the Asian and Japanese ingredients. The dish requires careful cooking of the haricot beans as they should be crunchy and not soft. The grated coconut should be roasted properly, otherwise it will give a raw taste to the dish.
Teriyaki glazed haricot beans with white truffle oil, basil, peanut and coconut
Ingredients
Haricot beans – 120 gms
Purple basil leaf – 2 gms
Fresh coconut — 20 gms
Peanuts — 10 gms
Mustard Coleman — 2 ml
Bell pepper red — 2 gms
Bell pepper yellow — 2 gms
Teriyaki sauce — 60 ml
Truffle oil white — 1ml
Butter (unsalted) — 2 gms
Lemon juice — 2 ml
Edible flower — 1
For teriyaki sauce
Soy sauce — 20 ml
Cooking sake — 20 ml
Mirin — 20 ml
Sugar — 20 gms
Ginger — 2 gms
Garlic — 2 gms
Onion — 2 gms
Method
For the teriyaki sauce, mix soy, sake, mirin, sliced ginger, garlic and onion and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from fire and strain. De-string the haricot beans and cut into three-inch-long baton. Grate coconut with a coconut grater, and roast peanuts on a pan and crush them. Thinly slice the red and yellow bell pepper and keep them in ice chilled water for two minutes and then strain and pad dry them.
Heat butter in a pan, add haricot beans and sauté for two minutes. Now add basil leaves, 15 grams of grated coconut, crushed peanuts and teriyaki sauce and sauté for a minute and then add mustard. Sauté till all the sauce is absorbed. Pour lemon juice and toss and remove from flame.
Place the cooked beans on a plate, garnish with pepper juliennes, grated coconut and edible flower and pour white truffle oil on top and serve hot.
Note:Please note that haricot beans are French beans. Purple basil can be substituted with fresh green basil. If cooking sake (Japanese rice wine) and mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) are not available, please substitute them with any sweet white wine and in that case don’t use lemon juice.
About the chef
Chef Achal Aggarwal is the new corporate Japanese Chef at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi. He has joined at the TK’S Oriental Grill and has redone the menu of the restaurant. Chef Achal started his career in the popular Japanese restaurant Sakura at The Metropolitan Hotel as Commis, where he trained under some extraordinary Japanese chefs.
During his tenure at Sakura, he participated in several food promotions in Japan, where he gained a deeper insight into cooking a perfect Japanese meal. In September 2010, Chef Achal was appointed Chef de Cuisine in Asian Food Corp. which runs a contemporary Asian restaurant in Delhi. Chef Achal was nominated by the Country Chefs Association as ‘Chef of the year’ for 2010. In 2011, he was appointed corporate chef de cuisine, Japanese cuisine for the Leela Palace and Resorts and was responsible for introducing Japanese cuisine.
Starting August 2013, Chef Achal will be showcasing his special style of cooking by holding special cooking showcase followed by a meal at TK’S Oriental Grill.
