Nobu's New Style Sashimi with Salmon

Nobu's New Style Sashimi with salmon is such a delicious and simple sashimi dish to make at home. It takes just 15 minutes to make!

Our version of Nobu's New Style Sashimi may not look as beautiful as the famous restaurant dish, but we sure do love it! The first time we made it, we quickly gobbled it up (much like we did at the restaurant!) and immediately talked about making it again. It's such a delicious and simple salmon sashimi dish to make home.

Nobu's New Style Sashimi is full of umami flavor — thanks to the combination of tamari (or soy sauce), sesame oil, olive oil and yozu juice (we simply used meyer lemon juice), which is poured over the top of the salmon. The olive and sesame oil are heated to sear and partially cook the fish. The salmon is also topped with minced garlic, julienned ginger, chives and sesame seeds. The original recipe calls for red snapper fillet, but we chose to replace that with salmon sashimi. We simply prefer salmon, and chose to purchase it already sliced (making it easier on us!).

However, to make the dish truly amazing, you have to start with the best sushi-grade salmon you can get. We bought thinly sliced salmon sashimi from one of the best fish shops in Seattle: Seattle Fish Guys. The salmon sashimi there is amazing — it just melts in your mouth. Therefore, if you're making this recipe, it's critical to get the best sushi-grade salmon you can get your hands on — it makes all the difference.

Nobo's New Style Sashimi may seem like a complicated dish, but it's super easy and quick to make. It took us about 15 minutes to make, and if we can make it, most anyone certainly can!

This recipe can be found in "Nobu: The Cookbook". There are many amazing and simple recipes in this cookbook, so you be sure to check it out if you like this dish.

Note: When you order New Style Sashimi at Nobu, you typically get 9 thin slices of the sashimi on a small plate, which is lightly drizzled with the soy sauce mixture and heated oil combination. The recipe in Nobu's cookbook is for a much larger serving size, which we arranged on a larger serving plate, as shown above. However, you can break out into smaller individual servings, similar to the restaurant, as shown further below.

Ingredients

This recipe for New Style Sashimi involves minimal adaptations to the original Nobu recipe. These adaptations include replacing the red snapper filet with sushi-grade salmon sashimi, nixing the the carrot garnish, and making chives optional. We also replace the yozu juice with lemon juice since it's much easier to get.

Important ingredient notes:

• 18 ounces sushi-grade salmon sashimi, thinly sliced: it's important to purchase the best sushi-grade salmon you can get your hands on. We ask the fish shop to thinly slice 18 ounces of salmon sashimi for us — just to make it simple. Now, it's not quite as thin, but it's just as tasty!
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced: you'll want to finely mince the garlic, which you'll directly spread on top of the salmon.
• 3 grams ginger, julienned: we slice the ginger into very thin spears that are about the length of each sashimi (about an inch). We put one spear of ginger on top of each salmon piece.
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds: we love the flavor and texture the seeds add to the dish!
• 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce, plus 1 teaspoon: we prefer tamari sauce, but you could use coconut aminos or soy sauce if you prefer.
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 6 tablespoons olive oil: just simple olive here — it doesn't have to be extra-virgin.
• 1 tablespoon yozu juice or juice from a Meyer lemon, plus 1 teaspoon: we couldn't find yozu juice at our local store, so we simply use juice from a Meyer lemon.
• 3 grams chives (optional): we don't always include chives if we don't have on hand. It's a nice addition, but not mandatory. But if you do use, simply chop each chive about an inch in length to match the size of each sashimi.

Note: When you order New Style Sashimi at Nobu, you typically get 9 thin slices of the sashimi on a small plate, which is lightly drizzled with the soy sauce mixture and heated oil combination. The recipe in Nobu's cookbook is for a much larger serving size, which we arranged on a larger serving plate, as shown above. However, you can break out into smaller individual servings, similar to the restaurant, as shown further below.

Steps to Making It

Here are the steps to making this dish:

* We purchase the salmon sashimi thinly sliced from our fish shop. If you don't buy thinly sliced, then you'll need slice into thin slices as a first step.

Step 1: Prepare the minced garlic and julienned ginger spears (see photo in ingredients). In a small bowl, combine the tamari or soy sauce with the yozu or lemon juice and mix well.

Step 2: In another small bowl, combine olive and sesame oil and mix well.

Step 3: Place the sliced salmon sashimi on a large serving plate in a circular design (or may arrange on a number of smaller plates similar to the restaurant, shown further below). Evenly spread the minced garlic across the pieces of salmon. Place one or two ginger and chive spears (if using) on top of each piece of salmon. Sprinkle the sesame seeds across the salmon.

Step 4: Spoon the tamari or soy sauce mixture over the top of the salmon. Spoon just enough for the salmon. You do not need to use the entire amount. When we ate at Nobu, the chef spooned just enough over the sashimi.

Step 5: In a small pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil mixture until it just begins to smoke. Since I get nervous about overdoing it, I usually stop heating as soon as it reaches 300 degrees F. Immediately pour the mixture across the top of the salmon. When you pour the heated mixture over the salmon, you should hear it sizzle as it sears the salmon. Again, you do not need to use the entire amount. When we ate at Nobu, the chef spooned just enough over the salmon to lightly sear it.

After, garnish with chivies (optional) and serve immediately.

About Nobu & New Style Sashimi

Nobu is a renowned Japanese restaurant and hotel chain created by chef Nobu Matsuisa (and funded by Robert De Niro and a few other notable people).

New Style Sashimi, which is a favorite of Leonardo DiCaprio, was created by Nobu when, one day, a customer declined white fish sashimi since she couldn't eat raw fish. Since Nobu didn't want the dish to go to waste, he poured hot olive oil over the top to partially cook and sear the fish. At that point, the customer ate it and cleaned "every scrap" off her plate.

We are so happy we finally got to eat at Nobu restaurant this year! And we loved every bit of it. Of course, we ordered the new style sashimi while there. The picture on the left below is our new style sashimi at the restaurant (notice how little sauce and oil are used). The picture on the right is our homemade new style sashimi with salmon.

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