Japanese Style Asparagus Stew
created by Iron Chef Japanese III, Masaharu Morimoto
Battle Asparagus
reverse-engineered by David J Rust

Ingredients:

Steps

1. Using a slender knife, poke 4 holes through the unsliced slab of bacon from one side to the other. The holes should be big enough for the 4 white asparagus spears. After peeling and lightly rinsing the white asparagus, push them through the holes so that they fit snugly and the whole slab of bacon resembles a rack of ribs with the asparagus looking like the "bones" that stick out.

2. In an open pressure cooker, bring the sake and water to a boil. Dissolve the connsume cubes in the liquid, stirring to get rid of all lumps.

3. In a separate, large pot, place the cabbage, brussel sprouts, onion and bonito broth together over a high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

4. Back in the pressure cooker, season the sake/water/connsume mixture to taste with salt and white pepper. Add the garlic cloves, quartered carrots and the bacon slab with the asparagus spears sticking through it. Cover with the top of the pressure cooker and bring to full pressure. Cook for 15 minutes.

NOTE: Be very careful when using a pressure cooker and -after the 15 minutes are up- allow the steam to fully escape before attempting to open the lid.

5. Meanwhile, taste the bonito broth and season with salt and white pepper to taste. Continue to simmer. Add the 4-6 spears of both white and green asparagus.

6. After the pressure cooker has been removed from the heat (after 15 minutes) and allowed to stop sputtering from it's valve, carefully remove the lid and take out the bacon slab. Cut the bacon slab lengthwise, across the four asparagus spears, to expose the middle of the meat. Place this in the bonito broth and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.

7. Combine the sake/connsume mixture with the bonito broth and season with salt and white pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

8. Pour the whole concoction into a serving bowl and garnish with half a cup of fresh cillantro.

Serves 6 as a large soup/stew.

Serving Notes:

The slabs of bacon should be sliced into cubes just before serving along with the asparagus within them. However, for a more "rib-like" presentation, you may want to simply cut the bacon into large pieces, leaving a bit of the asparagus embedded within each.

Iron Chef Notes:

One of the highlights of this dish was the tasting panels' comments about it's saltiness; that it had been controlled to perfection. Since bacon tends to be rather salty, as well as connsume cubes and bonito broth, be very cautious when seasoning.

At times, on "Iron Chef" the definition of "Stew" and "Soup" seem to be freely interchanged. This "Stew" is very watery and not thick in the fashion that most Americans would identify as a "Stew". If you would like to thicken it, I would suggest using a bit of corn starch dissolved into some bonito broth that's been set aside and saved for adding in step 7.