Ingredients
Vegan Tosazu or highly fermented vinegar
75 gms rice vinegar
50 gms shoyu or Japanese style soy sauce or use any readily available soy sauce
4 gms dried shitake, thinly sliced
For Amazu or Japanese sweet and sour sauce
75 gms rice vinegar
80 gms sugar
2 gms salt
5 gms kombu or edible algae
For Nanbanzu or Japanese vinegar-based sauce
100 gms vegan tosazu
100 gms Amazu
For zucchini carpaccio
8 ea zucchini, thin sliced
5 gms pearl onion, thin sliced
3 gms crispy shallots
1 gms micro shisho or leaf of beefsteak plant
7 ea (slice), red jalapeno, thin sliced
1 gm maldon salt
Method
To make vegan tosazu
1. Combine vinegar and shoyu and bring to a simmer.
2. Add the dried shitake and let cool down at room temperature.
3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
4. Keep in chiller until ready to use.
To make Amazu
1. Combine shiragiku or rice vinegar, sugar, salt and bring to a simmer and dissolve all the ingredients.
2. Add the kombu to the vinegar mixture and remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. Strain through a chinois (a conical sieve with an extremely fine mesh).
4. Keep in chiller until ready to use.
To make Nanbanzu
1. Combine all ingredients thoroughly.
To Assemble
1. Slice the zucchini with a Japanese mandolin 1/5 mm thin.
2. Bring water to a boil, blanch the zucchini for 5 seconds and immediately remove and place it in ice water to cool it off. Dry zucchini and set aside.
3. Trim the seeds away from each slice of zucchini so that you are only left with the flesh and skin.
4. Layer the zucchini starting from the top to bottom.
5. Using an 11 cm ring cutter, trim off the excess zucchini. Use a cake spatula and transfer to you plate.
6. Cover the zucchini and plate with the nanbanzu.
7. Garnish with pearl onion rings, crispy shallots, red jalapeno, micro shisho and maldon sea salt.
