Haru Sushi celebrates Japanese New Year, with recipe

By Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
The Japanese celebrate New Year’s on the same day as the West, although they don’t order Chinese food.
Celebrating the new year in Japan means paying special attention to the "first" time something is done in the new year. They often drive to the coast or climb a mountain so that they can see the first sunrise of the new year. They make their first trip of the year to a shrine or temple after midnight or the next day. They’ll have their first tea ceremony of the new year.
Haru Sushi’s assistant general manager Jay Yada recalled growing up in Hawaii with parents who respected the Japanese traditions, waking him up early no matter how much he had imbibed the night before, to take him to the local temple to wake up the gods by ringing a bell, so they could say a prayer for a good year, their children’s education, or a family member’s improved health. There, he’d pick up a lucky token for his car or his career. “I used to enjoy doing that,” he said, saying that he hasn’t found anywhere locally to participate in the temple ritual. “My mom still sends me trinkets.”
He also recalled that his family served a sort of Japanese tapas called osechiryori, where families share small portions of a roasted mochi soup, caviar marinated in sake, and other tidbits.
At Haru Sushi, the Japanese restaurant on Huntington Avenue that replaced Dick’s Last Resort a while ago, this modern Japanese restaurant chain is known for its ample portions and striking décor; this year they’ll introduce a New Year’s Eve four-course prix fixe menu with sake or wine.
“We still get people who pop their heads in here, looking for Dick’s,” said general manager Mike Slavin. He’ll also get a few customers feeling a bit underdressed for the chic décor, but Slavin insists that it’s a casual restaurant for everyone. “We’re actually catering to anyone who comes in.”



Gramercy Park Roll
Eight pieces

Japanese Short Grain Rice – they use Nomoto brand
Sushi rice vinegar
nori sheet
Crunchy tempura pieces – get tempura mix, and pour thin stream into a deep fryer, and fry until golden brown.
2 ounces superwhite escolar tuna
1 ounce tuna
1 ounce salmon
1 ounce yellow tail
fresh cilantro leaves
Lemon, rind removed and sliced thin enough so you can see through it
Yuzu tobiko – yellow flying-fish roe already infused with yuzu
pickled ginger slices
wasabi

Golden Passion sauce
Yuzu juice
white miso
sugar
ichimi red pepper powder
They didn’t have a recipe to give on this, but they said to just combine until you like how it tastes.

Spicy Mayo
Japanese mayonnaise (much egg-ier than American mayo, and worth buying but not crucial)
Korean hot pepper sauce
Tabasco
Guinea pepper paste
Again, combine to your taste. Despite the three hot sauces, this shouldn’t be so hot as to burn your mouth.

Slavin said they brought in Chef “Smoky” Zugui from a New York City branch of Haru Sushi to “roll out” the Boston restaurant last year. For New Year’s Eve, he’ll feature a prix fixe menu of Japanese selections, including the introduction of this NYC a favorite, sort of a citrusy rainbow roll. “The cilantro adds a lot of flavor,” says Yada.
Although the restaurant chain likes to guard its recipes, they offered hints on how to recreate this lemony, crunchy roll at home.
Start with a fresh batch of sushi rice; while it’s still warm, sprinkle in sushi rice vinegar to taste. Haru makes a six-cup batch with five liters of sushi vinegar, although you may want to make one liter of cooked rice to a 1 1/3 cup of sushi vinegar.
First you make an outside maki roll. Spread the rice thinly onto a clean surface, shaped to the size of the nori sheet; and place nori on top.
Top with crunchy pieces of tempura, some spicy mayo, and two ounces of super-white escolar tuna. By the way, you should always get the freshest fish possible, and you can ask for as small a portion as you’d like. Ask your trusted butcher for a good fishmonger; you can try Whole Foods, too.
By hand, roll it firmly into a sausage shape.
Line with the tuna, salmon, and yellow tail. Place plastic wrap on top, then take a bamboo sushi mat and press firmly to form the sushi into a tighter roll. Remove wrap and mat.
Top with cilantro and lemon slices; dab with golden passion sauce, and sprinkle with tobiko.
Slice with a long, extra sharp knife, and serve immediately with slices of ginger and a dab of wasabi. No soy sauce is needed for dipping.
Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu! (Happy New Year!)