Recipe - Wagyū beef in Peking wrappers with miso molé and seaweed salad

Kent Baddeley, chef and CEO of Parehua Martinborough Country Estate, introduces the ultimate sausage roll
Wagyū beef looks like it’s covered in snow due to its extensive fat marbling. However, the fat content differs from that of more traditional beef. In fact, Wagyū beef is celebrated because it’s high in monounsaturated fat. So even though the beef seems well marbled, the fat content is lower and may actually bring down cholesterol levels and help people watch their weight.

This recipe is a brigade recipe, so there are many little recipes within the final dish.

Ingredients

500g Wagyū beef
3 tbsp panko crumbs (Japanese breadcrumbs) 1 tsp ground Indonesian stick pepper
1 tsp pacific salt
1 tsp chipotle flakes
1 free-range egg
2 tbsp sake

Peking wrappers (see recipe below)
Miso molé (see recipe below)
Tapenade (see recipe below
Wakame salad (see recipe below)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275ºC.

2. Grind the beef coarsely with a knife, add all other ingredients, mix and leave to stand for 30 mins.

3. Shape the mixture into 4 batons, gently brown on all sides and place in the oven for 3 mins.

4. Wrap each baton in a Peking wrapper, place on a baking-paper-lined tray and return to the oven for a further 3 mins.

5. Pour a tablespoon of miso molé into 4 large, flat bowls and garnish each with a little tapenade in the foreground.

6. When the Wagyū rolls are hot, arrange them on the miso molé and serve with the wakame salad gently placed on top.

Serves 4

Peking wrappers

1 cup of flour
¼ cup of boiling water

1. Make a well in the middle of the flour and carefully add boiling water.

2. Form the mixture into a ball(about the size of a golf ball), cover and leave to stand for one hour.

3. Oil hands and make four smaller balls, then roll thinly, paint with oil and stack.

4. Fry each wrapper (without getting colour), then leave to rest and cover.

Miso molé

This is a base sauce that plays with the idea of a classic Mexican molé. Just a tablespoon or so of this on each plate, just before serving, really lifts the flavours.

2 cups strong chicken stock (see recipe below) 100ml mirin rice wine 1 green chilli
2 tbsp red miso 2 tbsp fresh prawn and chilli paste (see recipe below)
1 tsp cacao nibs
½ tsp cumin

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and whiz till thoroughly smooth.

2. Remove and gently warm the sauce to cook out all the chilli and miso.

Tapenade

20 large green Sicilian olives, chopped
20 caper berries, chopped
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
Grated zest of 2 lemons, plus juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp pine nut oil

1. In a bowl, mix the olives, capers, spring onions, lemon zest and lemon juice.

2. Drizzle the pine nut oil on top and set aside.

Wakame salad

Enter the wildcard! The trick to a wakame salad is that you need to prepare it just before serving. The wakame will rehydrate very quickly, and can become soggy if prepared too far in advance.

5 strands dried wakame
2 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp pine nut oil
½ tsp pepper flakes

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a pan over heat, shaking the pan constantly. When their colour turns, remove from heat.

2. Dip wakame into a little boiling water to soften, drain, and then add to a bowl with all other ingredients and mix.

Sub recipes for the miso molé

Strong chicken stock

Two chicken carcasses
Butter
Fresh parsley
Bay leaves
Thyme stalks
1 cup amontillado
Water

1. Roast the chicken carcasses in a large stockpot with butter for 3-5 mins.

2. Add a handful of fresh parsley, bay leaves, thyme stalks, amontillado and cover with water.

3. Bring to a boil and reduce for 8 mins before straining.

Prawn and chilli paste

200g whole prawns (shells and all)
4 jalepeño chillies
3 whole shelled garlic cloves
5 cardamom pods
3 tbsp turmeric coconut palm sugar

1 tsp cumin
3 tbsp ½ cup fresh coriander, chopped
100ml rice wine vinegar

1. Just throw everything together! You are looking for a runny porridge consistency; add a little water if you feel the mix is too dry. Remember you are making a paste, which will be strained and forced with a spatula through your straining device, so don’t worry if the odd bit of shell or skin is in the mix.


2. In a large pot, roast the prawns, jalepeño, garlic, cardamom, turmeric coconut palm sugar, cumin and coriander.

3. Add the rice wine vinegar, bring to a boil and reduce rapidly in 2 to 3 minutes. When quite thick, pass through a strainer.