Going Global

It was my 22nd birthday on Friday. Thank you, thank you. Well how was it you ask? I was working all day and night as usual but I did manage to get out for a bit afterwards where a good friend of mine presented me with my very first Global knife! I was completely bowled over by the sentiment. Shhh! Don't tell but I'd somehow managed to misplace my chef's knife at work and so, for the last 6 months have been using a cheap Chinese piece of shit which I nabbed from the cupboard at home.
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This weekend marks the beginning of my education in Chinese cuisine (YES! I GOT THE JOB!) and wanting to test out my shiny new Japanese knife I went to the local markets and picked up a few simple ingredients. As you know, I'm a bit of a flop when it comes to Asian cuisine so I tried something incredibly simple. Actually, it didn't really require much effort at all on my part aside from a little searing and slicing. Unfortunately I don't know anything about Swiss food either but luckily the things I picked up covered the red and white colour requirements of Red, White or Swiss.
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As you can see from the picture I made a simple tuna carpaccio with soy caramel (I told you it was easy!) which took literally 10 minutes from start to finish. I started by first cutting the tuna steak into a rectangular shape for presentation and then setting it in a marinade made with 1/2 cup of soy, 2 tablespoons of castor sugar and a few shards of fresh ginger. I left it in the marinade for about 5 minutes, turning it once halfway. After removing the steak from the marinade, I seared it quickly for 10 seconds per side in a smoking hot pan with a little vegetable oil. I kept the marinade and brought it to 110ºC in a small pot with the ginger shards to make the caramel. I sliced the tuna and lay it on top of a few thin pieces of radish, garnished with some baby coriander and the soy caramel on the side. Voila!
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Hopefully the next Asian-inspired recipe I make will be more challenging once I have gained a little knowledge!
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