Kazunoko Salted Herring Roe for New Year

[helenjp]

Kazunoko Salted Herring Roe for New Year

This is one of the trio of festive dishes for New Year in Japan – black beans, salted herring roe, and candied dried fish – served as drink snacks.

If you can buy desalted roe, simply check that it is clean, wipe with sake if need be, and soak in the seasoning mix.

* Quantities disappeared when using the Ingredient Wizard, here they are...

150g roe, 1T sake

For seasoning: 1 c dashi stock, 1 T each of sake and mirin, 1-3 T light soy sauce.

• salted kazunoko herring roe
  
• sake (rice wine)
  
• (200ml) dashi (kelp/katsuo stock)
  
• sake
  
• mirin (sweet rice wine)
  
• 1 light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu)
  
• Katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes)
  

* Soak the salted kazunoko in lightly salted water for 5-6 hours, changing the water twice. Start with a 3% solution (6g salt dissolved in a 200ml cup of water) and gradually reduce to a 1% solution (2g or a pinch of salt dissolved in a 200ml cup of water). Break off a small piece of roe and taste – it should neither be unpleasantly salty, nor bland and tasteless. The time required will depend on how it was salted originally, and how large the pieces are.

* Rub the membrane off the surface of the roe, removing it with a toothpick.

* Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sake over the cleaned roe.

*Mix the remaining seasonings together in a container or bag, wipe the roe, and place in the seasoning mix. Use more soy sauce if you like, but I prefer to use less, and have people add more at table as desired.If you need to make dashi, use about 5g (half a cup) of katsuo-bushi and 5cm of kelp.

* Refrigerate at least overnight, until needed.

* To serve, drain, cut into bite-sized pieces, and serve topped with katsuo-bushi.

Kazunoko also goes well with namasu salad and other vinegared dishes.

Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Seafood, Easy, Japanese

( RG2064 )