Sake, Japan’s national beverage, has a centuries-long history and a wonderfully complex nature, but it’s only in the past few decades that it’s gained a foothold in America, raised up alongside sushi culture and even produced by a handful of local makers. Though it’s brewed in a process somewhat like beer and technically made from a grain — rice polished to remove the fats and proteins from the outer layer, exposing the starchy core— sake is more commonly referred to in the Western world as rice wine, which provides a good jumping off point for cooking with it.
Usually you’d use fish stock or white wine when steaming mussels or poaching oysters, says Takashi Ito, executive chef of the Inn at Laurel Point in Victoria, British Columbia, where he began introducing Asian influences six years ago. Instead, he suggests swapping the wine for a dry sake, which will infuse shellfish with subtler fruit notes of peach or honeydew melon. Once you’ve set the table, Ito suggests popping a bottle of an elegant sparkling sake called Mirai, a tropical foil for seafood, fermented with Canadian-grown rice by Artisan SakeMaker on Vancouver’s Granville Island.
In this light and satisfying late-summer salad, crisp, quick-pickled vegetables and bright sparkling sake offset succulent seared scallops.
Sake and Scallop Sunomono Salad
Recipe by Chef Takashi Ito of the Inn at Laurel Point
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
PICKLING LIQUID
3 ½ ounces rice wine vinegar
3 ½ ounces mirin
3 ½ ounces water
¼ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
SALAD
3 ounces Artisan SakeMaker Osake Junmai, or another sparkling sake
1 small daikon, peeled, julienned
1 medium carrot, peeled, julienned
6 edamame beans, shelled, skinned and split
12 scallops, scored
12 pieces organic pea shoots
Grapeseed or canola oil
Kosher or sea salt, to taste
Fresh-cracked black pepper, to taste
Combine all the pickling liquid ingredients in a pot and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Cool in the refrigerator. Combine the carrot, daikon and edamame beans, then add to the pickling liquid for 4 hours.
Score the tops of the scallops in a crosshatch pattern. Season with salt and the freshly cracked black pepper.
In a hot frying pan with oil, sear the scallops until lightly browned on one side. Quickly flip over for 5 seconds, then remove from the pan and refrigerate.
When the pickled ingredients are ready, strain and arrange into martini glasses starting with the daikon, carrot and then edamame beans. Pour the sparkling sake over the vegetables until just covered.
Place the scallops on top of the vegetables and garnish with trimmed pea shoots.
