For me, this was without a doubt the toughest of the ten Project Food Blog challenges. You see, I’ve been travelling around Asia for over three weeks now, and while I managed to get challenges one through four scheduled before I left, FoodBuzz hadn’t posted the dish for challenge five before my departure.
Since Japanese kitchens don’t typically have ovens, I was vaguely concerned about a cake or bread showing up, but I figured I could always do a steamed cake or bun on the stove. I never anticipated pizza to show up as the dish upon which we needed to base our fifth entry. A steamed pizza didn’t sound very appetizing, and while I was able to find some pre-baked naan at a grocery store here, making an Indian-style pizza just didn’t seem like it was making good use of the locally available ingredients.
Thankfully, the prompt for the challenge had a very vague definition of pizza, listing the requirements as having a “solid base, a sauce and at least one topping”. The title of the challenge, “Recipe Remix” seemed to imply that we weren’t aiming for authenticity, so I decided to run with it and see if I could come up with a Japanese style pizza.
Watch the video below (shot on an iPod Touch) to see what my supermarket run yielded and get a peak at my hometown: Kadogawa, Japan.
My first attempt was a Japanese take on a Pizza Margherita. It turned out looking great, but heating the rice cracker in the fish grill, once it had wet ingredients on top, proved to be a bad idea. The crispy rice cracker to soaked up the liquid, giving it a stale texture in the middle.
Ingredients
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4
salt rice very large flavored crackers (about 6" in diameter)
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4
ounces
Ahi tuna sashimi grade slightly frozen
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2
tablespoons
mayonaise Kewpie
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1
tablespoon
olive oil
-
4
shiso green leaves , cut into chiffonade
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1
package
daikon kaiware sprouts
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sea salt
Steps
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Lightly toast the rice crackers so they are nice and crispy (be careful not to burn them).
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Before you start assembling these, make sure you have all the toppings ready as they need to be eaten immediately after being assembled.
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Slice the semi frozen tuna as thin as possible (think prosciutto thin).
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Mix the mayonaise, kabosu zest and kabosu juice until combined. When all the ingredients are ready, use a pastry brush to paint on a thin layer of the citrus mayo on the rice cracker. Top with some tuna slices, then use a different pastry brush to apply a thin coating of olive oil. Top with some green shiso and kaiware daikon, then sprinkle on a pinch of sea salt.
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Serve immediately.
Marilia says
I’ve voted for you – all the very best Marc!
Have Spork Will Travel says
This was a very creative entry considering what little you had to work with! Best of luck 🙂 I voted for you!
Daily Spud says
That one was a challenge in more ways than one for you Marc! Best of luck with getting through to the next round, you more than deserve to.
Reeni says
If you hadn’t told us I would of thought you planned this one right from the start. It turned out great! Really gorgeous. Best of luck!
Daphne says
another very good Asian treat. . Pizza OMG! so inviting
marla (Family Fresh Cooking) says
Congrats on your Sashimi pizza win! It does look awesome 🙂
Natika says
I realise this is super old now, but if you’re feeling like trying sushi pizza again, you should check out the sushi pizza conceived in Toronto, Canada.
You basically make a crust out of leftover sushi rice formed into a flat patty and fry it (kind of like purposely making okoge). The sauce is half mayo half hot sauce (I like to use doubanjiang) and the toppings are either fake crab or salmon with roe, nori and sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Some people also put down a layer of thin avocado slices before adding the fish. Some restaurants also bread and deep-fry the rice crust, but that’s just too much for me.
Since the sauce is a bit strong, you have to use a strong-flavoured fish which sort of limits your choices to the two I mentioned above. However, I’d like to try it with smoked salmon sometime because I think that would work too.
I’m going to try making your sushi pizza too! Looks gorgeous!