sword fish – i love this fish. it is tasty, its flesh very firm and almost meaty, which texture can be soft at the same time depending on how you cook it. i found the 2 large filets of sword fish in our neighborhood supermarket the other day, which reminded me of the dish, sword fish & lemon risotto, from a very special restaurant for my life called “beacon” in tokyo.
beacon is the restaurant where we had a small wedding lunch 2 and a half years ago. although we had a proper wedding in the netherlands (my husband’s home country), we wanted to do something in japan as well for my relatives who would not be able to travel all the way to europe. we chose beacon not only because of their delicious, dynamic food focusing on the taste of its natural ingredients, but also for their stylish, yet subtle and understated style in their interior design.
we didn’t go for the traditional japanese cuisine for the wedding lunch. we just wanted to do it at a place where we felt most comfortable and fitted in. in my view, beacon offers internationally arranged cuisine, which takes good elements from different dishes from all over the world. the type of cuisine at beacon appears to be influenced by italian, french, australian, american, mexican and of course japanese amongst others. their style represents an example of urban living in an international environment – maybe a little bit like us, being a unified mix of diverse social backgrounds, which is hard to be categorized into a specific group.
if you get tired of eating only japanese food in tokyo and want to have a nice western style brunch or dinner with good grilled seafood/meat, beacon is a perfect place to go (see link: beacon).
sword fish & lemon risotto – beacon style
ingredients (2 people)
for sword fish:
2 filets of sword fish
salt & pepper
olive oil
right before grilling the fish, sprinkle salt & pepper, and rub the olive oil around the filets. heat a grill skillet, and place the filets when the skillet is hot enough. turn over the filets after a minute or 2, and then further grill the filets for another couple of minutes. lower the heat and pour a table spoon of water, put the lid on the skillet and smother the filets for 5 minutes or so.
for risotto:
1/2 onion, chopped
3 – 4 table spoons of olive oil
1 cup of rice
1/2 cup of white wine
800 ml – 1 liter of chicken broth (heated)
1 table spoon of lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
3 table spoons of parmiggiano leggiano
1 table spoon of unsalted butter
salt & pepper
pinch of lemon zest
in a large pan fry the onion with olive oil in low heat for 10 – 15 minutes until the onion is nice & soggy. make sure that the onion do not get burnt.
put the rice into the pan, mix it quickly and pour the wine in. mix it gently until the wine is almost absorbed. then pour 1 ladle of broth and mix it gently with rice. once the broth is almost absorbed, pour another ladle of broth, and continue doing this until the rice is cooked (20 minutes or so i think, although i never properly timed it before).
once the rice is almost done, pour the lemon juice and put salt & pepper to taste, and mix it gently.
turn off the heat and put parmiggiano & butter, mixed it gently again and put the lid on. wait for a couple of minutes.
sprinkle lemon zest over the risotto before serving. it not only gives nice colour to the dish but also offers a kick to the taste.
also serve it with ruccola salad or marinated broccoli.
SMALL TOKYO KITCHEN 