Hagashi tuna belly with Hong Kong fries and strawberry kimchi

Elaboration

Hagashi tuna

We take the fattest part of the belly, where it is separated into slices and connective tissue. It is very important that the amount of connective tissue is proportional to the amount of fat and size of the slices.

Carefully separate the slices using a thin, very sharp knife, without breaking or tearing the connective tissue.

The slices should be thick, making sure that one part is covered by connective tissue and the other part is left free.

Season with salt and Jamaican pepper.

Cook them using a nonstick frying pan with just a drop of olive oil, only on the connective tissue side for one minute over medium heat, until they have a golden color and a texture like a crispy potato chip. The other side should be raw and warm, so we will obtain two textures in the same piece. When we eat it, we will perceive on one side a crunchy part and on the other, a resistant texture in the mouth, similar to that of rare cooked steak.

Strawberry kimchi

We mix all the roughly cut ingredients, pack them in three vacuum bags and leave them in a chamber to ferment for at least one month. Once this time has elapsed, we strain the mixture by squeezing it in a strainer until a very dense sauce is obtained. We macerate 100 g of this sauce with 50 g of Aranjuez strawberries for 1 hour.

Hong Kong potato chips

We put the cooked taro through a potato masher and season it with all the ingredients except the duck fat. We then add the warm duck fat, little by little, but it should not blend completely as we knead the dough with our hands to homogenize it as quickly as possible. We let it rest for 24 hours in a cold temperature, and past this time, we work the dough again so that several layers form between the starch and the duck fat. We make small balls of about 15 g and fry them in 160 g of olive oil, so that we obtain a crispy potato on the outside, melting inside and with a layer of puff pastry on the outside.

Dehydrated strawberries

We put the strawberries in the dehydrator at 50 °C for 36 hours. We store it in the cold for at least 6 hours and grind it in the Thermomix until it becomes a fine powder.

We place the tuna fillet in a vertical position, so that the two sides of the tuna are easily perceptible. We evenly distribute the strawberry kimchi, the dehydrated strawberry powder and the Hong Kong potato chips. On top of the ingredients of the dish, we spread a very thin julienne of Thai red chili pepper.