Teppanyaki is a Japanese style of barbecue – ‘teppan’ being the Japanese word for an iron plate and ‘yaki’ meaning grilled. You can buy cast-iron teppanyaki pans (such as the one in our photo) online, or use a char-grill plate or barbecue. Teppanyaki is also a great way to entertain if you arrange a selection of seafood, meat and vegetables on a platter and cook at the table on a portable grill.
INGREDIENTS:
1 Loligo Squid, cleaned
12 Saucer Scallops, off the shell, trimmed
1 x 150g piece Patagonian Toothfish fillet, skin off, bones removed
1 x 150g piece Salmon fillet, skin off, bones removed
3 shiitake, halved (see notes)
4 green onions, sliced into 5cm lengths
½ red capsicum, seeded and sliced
¼ cup vegetable oil
12 vongole, purged (see notes)
Steamed short-grain rice, for serving
Japanese sesame sauce, for serving (see notes)
Ponzu sauce, for serving (see notes)
Ginger Dipping Sauce
1 cup Japanese soy sauce
100ml mirin (see notes)
½ cup sake
1 tablespoon ginger juice (see notes)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
METHOD:
Make Ginger Dipping Sauce: combine all ingredients and set aside.
Cut Squid hoods down one side and open out flat. Score the inside of the flesh with angled cuts, turn the hoods around and repeat so that the cuts form a crosshatched pattern. Slice into bite-sized pieces. Cut fish into bite-sized pieces
Heat a barbecue or char-grill plate.
Toss Squid, Scallops, fish, shiitake, green onion and capsicum with oil. Cook, in batches, first the vegetables then the seafood including the vongole, turning once, until lightly coloured and vongole open.
Arrange on a platter and serve with steamed rice and sesame, ponzu and Ginger Dipping Sauces on the side.
NOTES:
Shiitake are Asian mushrooms available fresh from many fruit and vegetable shops; if they are unavailable use oyster mushrooms. Vongole are usually sold ‘purged’ to remove sand and grit, however it’s still a good idea to place them in a large bowl of cool salted water and sea salt (30g salt per litre water) for several hours or overnight, at room temperature, to get rid of any remaining sand (if you refrigerate them they’ll close up and won’t ‘spit out’ the sand).
Sesame and ponzu sauces are available from Asian grocers.
Mirin is a sweet Japanese fortified rice wine used for cooking. True mirin (labelled ‘hon mirin’) contains alcohol, so what is available in supermarkets and Asian grocery stores, and normally used, is non-alcoholic ‘mirin seasoning’.
To juice ginger, grate it finely then squeeze the juice from it.
ALTERNATIVE SPECIES:
Blue-eye Trevalla, Calamari, Cuttlefish, Flathead, Leatherjacket, Mussels, Ocean Trout, Snapper, Tuna.