Sous vide Wagyu beef with wasabi cream cheese and cured egg yolk

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Wagyu beef is one of the most luxurious ingredients in the world, and when it's cooked sous vide in a flavourful combination of sake, mirin, soy and kombu, the flavour of the meat really shines. Served with an ethereal soy-cured egg yolk, wasabi cream cheese and a slice of black truffle (just to add to the decadence), this is a dish that couldn't be more wow-factor if it tried.

First published in 2020

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Beef

Wasabi cream cheese

  • 100g of cream cheese
  • 50g of kizami wasabi
  • 25g of double cream
  • 25g of mayonnaise

Cured egg yolk

Equipment

  • Sous vide equipment
  • Squeezy bottle

Method

1
The day before you plan to serve the dish, place the eggs in the freezer to freeze solid overnight. It’s also best to cook the beef a day in advance too, so prepare a water bath to 54.5°C
2
Pour the mirin, soy, tamari and sake into a saucepan and add the kombu. Bring to the boil, then set aside to cool
3
Season the beef well with salt and pepper and place a griddle or frying pan over a high heat. Add the hay – when it begins to smoke, add the beef and sear it all over as quickly as you can. The hay will impart a slightly smoky flavour to the meat. Transfer the sealed beef to the fridge to halt the cooking process and chill it
4
Once the beef has chilled, place it in a vacuum bag with the cooled mirin mixture and seal. Place in the water bath and cook for 4 hours
5
Meanwhile, make the wasabi cream cheese by blitzing the kizami wasabi with the double cream and mayonnaise until smooth, and softening the cream cheese with a spoon or whisk. Combine the softened cream cheese with the wasabi mixture until smooth, then transfer to a squeezy bottle and keep in the fridge until needed
  • 50g of kizami wasabi
  • 25g of double cream
  • 25g of mayonnaise
  • 100g of cream cheese
6
Once the beef is cooked, place the bag in a bowl of iced water to halt the cooking process, then place the bag in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to infuse and develop
7
The next day, remove the eggs from the freezer and allow to come to room temperature. To cure the eggs, place the sake and mirin in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the soy sauce. Leave to cool
8
Gently crack open the eggs and submerge the yolks in the cooled soy sauce mixture. Leave to cure for 4 hours
9
Remove the beef from the bag and set aside. Pour the cooking liquid through a fine sieve (or ideally a muslin cloth) into a clean pan and gently heat. Add the slaked cornflour and stir to thicken, then continue cooking over a very low heat
  • 1 tbsp of cornflour, mised with 1 tsp water to make a paste
10
Slice the beef into 2mm-thick slices and place on a baking tray. Preheat a grill to medium and place the beef slices under the grill for a few minutes until warmed through and the fat has rendered and softened
11
To serve, brush the beef liberally with the thickened cooking liquid, then divide between 6 plates. Add a cured egg yolk alongside, topped with a slice of truffle, then pipe dots of the wasabi cream cheese around the dish. Brush the beef with a little more of the cooking liquid, then garnish with the pink peppercorns and shallot rings
First published in 2020

A traditionally trained Japanese chef, Masaki's creative flair meant moving away from the strict culinary rules of his home country to create a fusion-led approach to modern Japanese food in London.

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