Marutou wasabi Farm is a small wasabi farmer in the back of the mountain in Izu.

Wasabi rice bowl

Add dried bonito flakes and a generous dollop of freshly-grated wasabi to a bowl of steaming hot rice, and sprinkle with a dash of soy sauce. This dish is the way to experience aroma, spicy heat, sweetness and savoury richness in one perfect package. If you are looking for something simple, this dish is a meal in itself. It also cries out to be savoured with a drink.

The dried bonito flakes in our house are obtained by shaving genuine mold-dried bonito fillet (karebushi). We hope that you will also give authentic bonito flakes a try.

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Wasabi Risotto

Ingredients 500cc water
1 stock cube
1/4 onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
3/4 cup of unwashed rice
2 tablespoons white wine
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
Sliced and grated wasabi

1. Boil water in a pan and dissolve stock cube, before adding salt and pepper to taste.
2. In a separate pan, fry onion in olive oil over a medium heat.
3. Cook onion until transparent. Add rice and fry over a high heat until well combined.
4. Add white wine and stir over a medium heat.
5. After 20 minutes or so rice should achieve ideal al dente texture. Continue stirring during that time, adding stock a little at a time.
6. When approximately 18 minutes have passed since wine was added turn off heat, add butter and cheese and mix until thoroughly combined. 7. Finally, add sliced and grated wasabi to taste and mix well. This is an adaptation of a recipe given to us by our wasabi delivery person. I was amazed at how the flavours of the wasabi and the cheese complemented each other so perfectly.

This is a wasabi dish that can be savoured with wine. A fresh discovery of a new taste sensation.

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Pickled Wasabi Flowers

This recipe uses an ingredient that can only be found on a wasabi farm: wasabi flowers. These flowers are extremely pungent, and you may find tears streaming from your eyes as you make this dish. Perfect with rice or to nibble with a drink.

Ingredients
Wasabi flowers as required
Salt
Soy sauce, Japanese sake and vinegar (for pickling)

1. Sprinkle salt over wasabi flowers, cover with cling film and stand for about 15 minutes.
2. Pour boiled water that has been allowed to cool slightly over flowers, washing off salt.
3. Finely chop flowers and combine with pickling ingredients to taste.
4. Keep in an airtight container until ready to serve, to prevent flowers from losing pungency. Immediately after ingredients have been combined they will taste a little bitter, but this will soon change to a pungent heat.
The pungency easily dissipates so keep in an airtight container and consume as soon as possible.

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Wasabi Chicken

Ingredients Two chicken tenderloins (tendons removed) Pinch of salt Iced water Ponzu sauce Freshly grated wasabi

1. Boil water in a pan. Add salt and parboil chicken tenderloins well before immersing in ice water.
2. Remove water thoroughly from chicken with kitchen towel and cut into bite-sized pieces.
3. Transfer cut chicken to a bowl, and marinate in ponzu (citrus-based sauce) for 15 minutes while cooling in the refrigerator.
4. Arrange chicken on plates just before serving, and garnish with wasabi to complete the dish.
The combination of the moist flavour of the chicken and the wasabi is just divine! This simple and delicious dish is an ideal complement to drinks, particularly during the hot summer months.

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Two Kinds of Carpaccio Topped with Wasabi Sauce

Ingredients:
Raw snapper
Raw tuna
Finely-cut wasabi
Vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Soy sauce

1. Thinly slice raw fish and arrange carefully on a dish.
2. The basic ingredients for the sauce are generous amounts of wasabi, vinegar, and olive oil. Add salt for the white-fleshed snapper and soy sauce for the red-fleshed tuna.
3. Coat fish in wasabi sauce and it’s ready to serve. This dish is surprisingly simple, but perfectly adequate for savouring the flavour of the original ingredients. You can enjoy a combination of rich and mild flavours.

The dish can also be transformed into a gorgeous-looking carpaccio salad with the addition of fresh vegetables such as lettuce, new onions or spring onions and tomatoes. Substituting herb salt gives you a more authentic carpaccio.

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Tomatoes and Mozzarella Cheese Garnished with Wasabi

Ingredients:
Tomatoes
Mozarella cheese
Wasabi

1. Thinly slice tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.
2. Arrange alternately on a plate.
3. Garnish with freshly-grated wasabi.
4. Drizzle with soy sauce to finish.

This dish is a simple appetizer that can be given a Western twist with the addition of a pinch of salt and a dash of olive oil. Be sure to sample it before the wasabi has lost its pungency.

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Salt-fried Pork Garnished with Wasabi

Ingredients:
Pork belly (thickly sliced)
Salt
Freshly-grated wasabi

1. Cut pork into 5cm pieces and sprinkle with salt.
2. Lightly brown on both sides under pre-heated grill or in frying pan.
3. Garnish piping hot meat with wasabi to serve. Grease and heat cause the flavour of wasabi to diminish so use a generous amount, even if it might leave you saying to yourself: “Do I really need that much?”

This is a simple and delicious dish that really opens your eyes to what a really great accompaniment wasabi can be to meat dishes.

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Pickled Wasabi Leaves and Stems

This dish uses tender young wasabi leaves and stems picked in early spring and pickled in sanbaizu vinegar.

Ingredients
Wasabi leaves and stems as required
Salt
Sanbaizu vinegar to taste Japanese sake, sugar and soy sauce to taste

1. Sprinkle salt over wasabi leaves and stems, cover with cling film and leave to stand for 15 minutes or so.
2. Pour boiled water that has been slighted cooled over wasabi to remove salt.
3. Heat sanbaizu vinegar combined with Japanese sake, sugar and soy sauce until sugar has melted.
4. Cool sanbaizu sauce, remove excess moisture from wasabi and pickle in sauce. While pickling, bitterness changes to pungency, allowing you to enjoy the wasabi’s unique flavour.

This time I also included thinly sliced dried daikon radish in the dish. This can be added without first soaking in water. Letting the dish sit for one or two days allows you to savour the ingredients at just the right amount of pungency and consistency.

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Fried Aubergine with Wasabi Miso Paste

Ingredients
Aubergines as required
Olive oil
Wasabi miso
1. Cut aubergines in half length-wise, and soak in water to remove bitterness (alternatively sprinkle with salt, leave to stand and remove excess moisture).
2. Carefully remove excess moisture and fry in generous quantity of olive oil until brown.
3. Serve with lashings of wasabi miso. Enjoy!
Wasabi miso can be served alone as an accompaniment to alcohol, and a topping for a bowl of rice, but can also be used in a wide variety of dishes such as meat dishes and stir-fries.

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Wasabi Ice cream

Ingredients
2 eggs
60g sugar
200cc fresh cream
Wasabi to taste

1. Break eggs and separate whites and yolks into bowls.
2. Add sugar and fresh cream to the bowl containing yolks and mix.
3. Whip egg whites into stiff meringue-like peaks.
4. Add whipped egg whites to egg yolk mix and mix gently, making sure not to disturb the foam.
5. Switch on ice cream maker, add mixture and mix for 10 to 15 minutes to produce ice cream.
6. Serve into bowls and add a topping of grated wasabi to taste.

Delicious ice cream can also be created without the aid of an ice cream maker by placing the mixture in the freezer. If you would prefer to include the wasabi in the ice cream itself, it should be added to the mixture before pouring it into the ice cream maker.

This mixture is already sufficiently rich, but for an even more creamy texture, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of skimmed milk. Alternatively, substituting one quarter of the fresh cream for milk will produce a more refreshing slightly sherbety ice cream.

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Wasabi Chocolate

Ingredients
50 cc fresh cream (plus additional amount for covering)
100g sweet chocolate (plus additional amounts for covering and dipping)
Grated wasabi as required

1. Pour fresh cream into a bowl and heat over a pan of simmering water. Before cream reaches the boil add 100g of sweet chocolate and heat until melted.
2. Cover a reasonably thick square container with cling film and pour in melted chocolate mix.
3. Cool in refrigerator (or freezer if a speedy result is desired) until hardened. Cut into small cubes, make a hole in the centre of each cube and fill with grated wasabi.
4. Melt a small additional amount of fresh cream and chocolate as in 1. above and pour over the top of filled chocolate cubes to conceal the wasabi.
5. Cool until completely hard and divide into small cubes.
6. Place additional chocolate in a bowl and heat over a saucepan. Roll chocolate cubes in melted chocolate until coated.
7. Place on baking paper and cool in the refrigerator to finish.

Adding fresh cream to the chocolate gives it a soft texture like ganache. The outer coating of chocolate is firm while the inside is gooey and creamy. The sharp heat of the wasabi combines perfectly with the rich sweetness of the chocolate.
I made this for the first time recently, and I was impressed by the way that the heat and aroma of the wasabi stood out even more than I had expected. I also coated sweet summer orange peel in chocolate and served it together with the wasabi chocolate.

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Shochu with Wasabi Mixer

Ingredients:
Shochu (distilled rice, barley or potatoes) Water mixed with wasabi to taste

Add freshly-grated wasabi to water for use as a shochu mixer. The resulting drink has a refreshing but not overpoweringly spicy taste, and you can savour wasabi’s unique sweetness and aroma. Wasabi has strong antibacterial properties and so the drink seems to cleanse your body from the inside out. It is thought to have been relied upon as a medicine in ancient times, and may also help to prevent hangovers! Even so, take care not to overindulge!

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