Octopus tiradito, nobu style

Enjoy the texture and flavour of raw octopus, enhanced by cilantro and chili paste.Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tentacle North Pacific giant octopus, 1 kg Sea salt
Cilantro (coriander) leaves
Rocoto chilli paste
1 tbsp plus 1 tbsp yuzu juice
2 tbsp plus 2 tbsp lemon juice
Thin cucumber slices
Benibana (safflower) for garnish, optional
Procedure:
Starting at the thickest end, cut along the row of suckers on the tentacle. Gradually remove the skin as you work the knife sideways underneath the suckers.

Place the skin with suckers attached in a ceramic mortar or bowl and knead with plenty of salt to remove the slime and grit inside the suckers. Rinse. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of sea salt. Add the octopus skin and boil for about 5 minutes. Remove octopus skin and drain. Cut out the suckers to use later for decoration.

Use a kitchen cloth to gently rub off the membrane covering the skinned tentacle. Rinse the tentacle briefly in cold salted water and wipe dry with paper towels.

Slice the tentacle as thinly as possible, between about 1/16 and 1/8 inch thick.

Arrange the octopus slices attractively on a plate. Place a cilantro leaf in the middle of each slice. Add a sucker to each and top with a small dollop of chili paste. Drizzle with the yuzu and lemon juice. Decorate with thinly sliced cucumber.

Sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Remember that salt provides the main flavouring here, so the dish will taste bland if you use too little. Decorate with the benibana flower.

Watercress and black sesame salad with watercress dressing Serves 4

Ingredients:
150 gm watercress
2 tbsp black
sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 cup watercress dressing
20 udo curls
7 carrot curls

Procedure:
Rinse and drain the watercress. Cut off the thick stalks and stir them into the dressing. Toss the watercress and toasted black sesame seeds together with the Watercress Dressing in a mixing bowl. Transfer the salad to a serving dish and top with udo and carrot curls. Be generous with the sesame seeds!

Oysters with Nobu�s three salsas Svor raw oysters served with three spicy, slightly sweet and fiery salsas. Serves 4

Ingredients:
12 fresh oysters in the shell
4 tbsps matsuhisa salsa
4 tbsps maui onion salsa
4 tbsps jalapeno salsa
Finely chopped chives for garnish

Procedure:
Remove the oysters from their shells and rinse under cold water. Drain.
Arrange the oysters in their shells on a serving dish lined with crushed ice and top with a little of each salsa -- i.e. four oysters per salsa.
Sprinkle the chives over the maui onion salsa.
This trio of salsas is also a good match with mussels boiled in salted water. In Peru, choros con salsa criolla are mussels sprinkled with ingredients like onion, cilantro (coriander), chili paste and lemon juice.

Mushroom Salad with Yuzu dressing.Serves 4

Ingredients:
120 gm assorted mushrooms, cut into uniform bite size pieces (shiitake, enoki, shimeji, maitake, pleurote du panicaut, white mushrooms, trumpet, mushrooms, girolles and yanagi matsutake used here).
4 tsps clarified butter
5 tbsps plus 1 tsp Yuzu Dressing
60 gm lollo rosso lettuce
asatsuki chives, cut into 1-1/2-inch (4-cm) lengths yuzu citrus rind, thinly julienned

Procedure:
Maitake and yanagi matsutake fall apart easily, so immerse these in boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds, then drain. Put the clarified butter in a small heated frying pan. Add all the mushrooms except the enoki, maitake and yanagi matsutake and saute over high heat. Combine all the mushrooms with the Yuzu Dressing in a mixing bowl. Line a serving dish with the lettuce. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the dish and top with the asatsuki chives and yuzu strips.Be careful not to overcook the mushrooms.

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