“We start with cubes of ripe avocado, but I want everything we do to be seasoned to the same level. So we add a little bit of lemon juice, scallion green, and soy sauce. A little bit of onion gives it extra depth.”
“Here we have some texture: I use pink radishes, but if I can get them, I’ll use breakfast radishes, tossed with some daikon-radish sprouts and some rice-wine vinegar for a little acid.”
“The thin part of the skate is tough when you get it in Korean restaurants. But sliced off the bone and tossed with Korean peppers, garlic, some sugar, and a little sesame oil, it has a bit of shellfish flavor. The texture is like a lean sashimi.”
“I wanted this to be a sauce, so we just add a little dashi and cook it as a purée.”
“It’s a classic kimchee. The sour and acidic flavors really bring out the sweetness of fish. And there’s also a little crunch, but because it’s fermented, it’s a different crunch — more picklelike than the shaved radishes on the other side.”
“Salt, pepper, a little Wondra flour, and we sauté until it’s a golden crispy brown. There’s already two sauces and a garnish. It’s about the skate; it shouldn’t be overloaded.”
“You take the juices from the kimchee, cook them down with lobster stock, and emulsify them in a blender with some soy oil. It spreads that kimchee flavor over the entire skate.”