Many restaurants do variations of this. Some restaurants use caviar instead of prawn roe and may not add the Sakura prawns.
I decided to add a Japanese twist to this dish hence those Japanese inspired ingredients.
It’s not that difficult and can be prepared easily at home. It’s great party food as it can (and in fact needs) to be prepared in advance and just prepped up when guests arrive.
Here’s my recipe ( to feed 4):
1. In a big bowl , add the following :
– Two spoons of soft butter (take out from fridge half hour before)
– Juice from one slice of lemon
– One tablespoon of Japanese Soy. If you don’t have Japanese soy skip this step . Do not replace with normal Chinese soy as it tastes different
– One tablespoon of Mirin
– One teaspoon of truffle salt
– One tablespoon of truffle oil
– One tablespoon of the fried Sakura prawns and one teaspoon of the fried sliced garlic.
The remaining fried Sakura and fried garlic is to garnish the dish just before serving.
– One tablespoon of tobiko flying fish roe or ebiko prawn fish roe. Remaining tobiko is to garnish just before serving
Mix the above mixture well.
2. Over medium heat , slow fry about 4 big tablespoons of Sakura prawns in olive oil. Fry until brown and fragrant, remove and set aside .
3. In the same pan , heat more olive oil and fry 2 to 3 cloves of finely sliced garlic until crispy and fragrant . Remove and set aside.
4. Cook angel hair or no 3 spaghetti and remove when al dente . Do not over cook .
5. When you have finished cooking the garlic (para 3 above), add one more tablespoon of olive oil and switch off the fire .
6. If the Pan is too hot, wait 30 seconds and while the pan is still hot, throw in the finely chopped Konbu (you can buy soft chopped konbu in some Japanese supermarkets. For dry konbu, you need to soak the sticks of konbu and finely chop it when soft).
7. Toss the Konbu and finely chopped chives with the cooked angel hair pasta.
8. Remove the angel hair from the pan and toss it well with the mixture in 1 above in a big bowl.
9. When cool, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate (at least 2 hours or more) until guest arrives.
10. (Optional) Cook soft boiled or onsen eggs. When your guest arrives, plate the pasta, make a well in the Centre and crack the soft boiled egg into the middle.
Trickle a few drops of truffle oil over the egg and pasta.
Add a sprinkling of truffle salt over the egg .
Sprinkle a full teaspoon each of crispy Sakura prawns, flying fish roe and Crispy garlic and serve.
THE WOLF AND BULLDOG CHRONICLES 