buying and preparing fish/seafood

[piazzola]

Once long time ago I remeber eating the most delicous and tender ocotopus tentacles deep fired of course dredged in sesame seeds I wonder how cooks stuck the seeds to the tentacles but it was a marvellous experience of this high class Japanese banquet offered by Japanese diplomats

I wonder if anyone here knows anything about this octopus dish? Thank you

[Hiroyuki]

So, you mean you had what you might call "tako no goma-age"?

(tako = octopus

goma = sesame

age = deep-fried)

I googled to find some recipes for "goma-age", but unfortunately, no recipes for "tako no goma-age".

Here is an example of a goma-age recipe for mackerel.

http://www.e-recipe.org/regulars/251/030814_2.html

Marinate mackerel in

2 tbsp sake

1 tsp mirin

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp ginger juice

in ten minutes.

Coat half the mackerel with white goma and the other half with black goma.

Deep-dry at 160 C.

Does the recipe sound right??

[piazzola]

Possibly Hiroyuki I can't compare recipes since more than 10 have passed years. All the food offered at that banquet was perhaps of the highest Japanese standard. However I may try the recipe you have suggested and kindly provided a link to

Though I still would like to know the Japanese way to tenderise octopus

Spaniards freeze,or Greeks beat it over rocks, etc

Thank you

Edited February 9, 2006 by piazzola (log)

[helenjp]

My Japanese cookbook had the memorable phrase "beat octopus patiently with a daikon to tenderize it".

I cannot really attest to the efficacy of this method from first-hand experience, I am sorry to say.

[Hiroyuki]

Do you know how to tenderize tako? The Japanese way is to place it on a cooking board and pound it with a wooden pestle or daikon!

Anyway, good luck!

[jeniac42]

My Japanese cookbook had the memorable phrase "beat octopus patiently with a daikon to tenderize it".

I cannot really attest to the efficacy of this method from first-hand experience, I am sorry to say.

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OK, I hope you don't mind, but I just found my new signature.

[Hiroyuki]

My Japanese cookbook had the memorable phrase "beat octopus patiently with a daikon to tenderize it".

I cannot really attest to the efficacy of this method from first-hand experience, I am sorry to say.

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I can't believe we posted at the same time about the same subject!

[torakris]

Helen and Hiroyuki,

Do your supermarkets sell fresh octopus? I can't find it anywhere, all they sell is the boiled stuff...

[mizducky]

I adore octopus, but have never cooked it for myself, so this thread got me curious enough to do a Google search--and I found this excellent article on octopus cookery. Not specifically Japanese, but it does give a lot of great info about buying, tenderizing, and cooking the beast.

I'm under the vague impression that the beating-with-a-daikon thing (whether done patiently or otherwise ) is not only about the weight and heft of a daikon, but some kind of tenderizing property of that vegetable. (The above article kind of hints at that idea, though it goes on to say that simple long slow simmering works just as well.)

[Hiroyuki]

Helen and Hiroyuki,

Do your supermarkets sell fresh octopus? I can't find it anywhere, all they sell is the boiled stuff...

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Come to think about it... I often see boiled and vinegared tako, but what about fresh ones? Hmm... I will check the next time I go shopping.

[piazzola]

he!he! I have been snooping on Spanish sites who traditionally big eaters of octopus o pulpo and they have some weird and wonderful way of tenderising

Some claim that you have to scare by immersing the octopus three times in hot water before cooking it for 30 minutes.

Others cook it with a true wine or cider cork.

Other add coke when cooking

Others freeze it for couple days before cooking

and finally what Spaniards call mazalo which literally mean beat the octopus to break off the muscles which is also the Greek method.

Edited February 9, 2006 by piazzola (log)

[helenjp]

Torakris, no, I never see fresh octopus for sale here - so I never needed to use that information on tenderizing it until I was back in New Zealand, where octopus is a favorite of many Pacific Islanders.

I have a feeling that the various octopus tempura recipes use boiled octopus too...

[_john]

Torakris, I have only seen fresh octopus in the korean area of town where they have big tanks of it. They have it frozen at some super markets as well.

I watched a spanish show that showed them putting octopus in what looked like a laundrymat dryer with large rocks and running it for 2 hours. They showed how tender the finished product was by cutting it with a fork. Seems like a lot of work, but then again I enjoy the chewyness.

[BarbaraY]

In Japanese Cooking a Simple Art Shizuo Tsuji calls for kneading the octopus with grated daikon before the octopus is boiled. The only way I have eaten octopus was in Sushi and a Mexican Sopa de Mariscos.

[reachej]

I recently saw pure tuna fat available for purchase. Does anyone know how this is used in cooking?

[Hiroyuki]

I've never seen such a thing. If I could get it, I would mix it with akami (lean part) of tuna to make negitoro. Cheap conveyor belt suishi restaurants actually serve negitoro made from akami and lard.

[Hiroyuki]

Helen and Hiroyuki,

Do your supermarkets sell fresh octopus? I can't find it anywhere, all they sell is the boiled stuff...

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You are right. Today I found tako for sashimi (sashimi-you) at the supermarket, and it wasn't fresh but boiled. Come to think of it, I had never thought about whether tako for sashimi was fresh or not... I should be ashamed of myself...

[puerco]

Hello, this is my first post to eGullet, and I hope this thread is an appropriate place for this question. Quite some time ago, I visited Kanazawa on a school trip, and among the many interesting dishes we were served was a cold lunch that included a small whole fish (about 15 cm or so, if I remember correctly) that appeared to have been cooked or pickled in a brown sauce. I'm not sure whether it was gutted or not, it didn't look like it to me. The Japanese kids ate it whole, head first. I don't think any of us Americans even tasted it, it didn't look the least bit appetizing to me. Sorry if it's anyone's favorite dish or anything like that. Can someone tell me what this is called? Is it a common way of preparing fish, and is it common to eat fish bones and all like that? It was the only thing I couldn't bring myself to try, most everything else I had while I was there was crazy delicious, even the not-quite-dead-yet sashimi, but after 19 years, I can still see that shriveled brown fish looking up at me from the bento box and it still doesn't look good at all. Did I miss out on a tasty treat?

[torakris]

Hello, this is my first post to eGullet, and I hope this thread is an appropriate place for this question. Quite some time ago, I visited Kanazawa on a school trip, and among the many interesting dishes we were served was a cold lunch that included a small whole fish (about 15 cm or so, if I remember correctly) that appeared to have been cooked or pickled in a brown sauce. I'm not sure whether it was gutted or not, it didn't look like it to me. The Japanese kids ate it whole, head first. I don't think any of us Americans even tasted it, it didn't look the least bit appetizing to me. Sorry if it's anyone's favorite dish or anything like that. Can someone tell me what this is called? Is it a common way of preparing fish, and is it common to eat fish bones and all like that? It was the only thing I couldn't bring myself to try, most everything else I had while I was there was crazy delicious, even the not-quite-dead-yet sashimi, but after 19 years, I can still see that shriveled brown fish looking up at me from the bento box and it still doesn't look good at all. Did I miss out on a tasty treat?

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I am not sure exactly what it was but did it look something like this?

This is one of my favorite foods!

But I must admit that if I was in high school and someone tried to serve it to me, I probably would have run...

There are many ways to cook these small fish, the picture above is dish called tsukudani; foods are simmered for a long time in a sweetened soy based sauce.

Fish bones are quite edible, they just have to be small enough or cooked enough.

Oh, and welcome to eGullet and the Japan forum!!

[Hiroyuki]

a small whole fish (about 15 cm or so, if I remember correctly) that appeared to have been cooked or pickled in a brown sauce.

How about this one?

Karei no nitsuke (simmered flatfish)

We don't ate it whole, however.

The Japanese kids ate it whole, head first.

[puerco]

It was much bigger than the little fish in Torakris's picture. If it had been little sardines like that, I don't think i would have had a problem trying it. It was closer in size to Hiroyuki's, but different looking, a bit rounder, and it was eaten whole. It took the guy sitting across from me 3 or 4 big bites to eat it, starting with the head, and everyone who ate it ate it the same way, so it wasn't just that guy's peculiar taste. I think the best answer I got to what it was was "fish". I speak no Japanese and the Japanese kids spoke very little English. There are a few foods that I really liked that i still have no idea what they were , for that same reason.

[torakris]

hhhmmm....

The only fish that I can think of that are that size (3 to 4 bites ) that are eaten head and all are shishamo. There are normally grilled but I guess they could be simmered as well.

This is proabably about their exact size.

[puerco]

hmm, i remember it being bigger than that. about the same length, but fatter. and much less appetizing to my eyes. the ones in your picture look small enough to eat whole, but the one i remember was big enough that eating it whole did not seem to be a reasonable thing to do. it was big enough that only one was served as the main portion of the lunch. maybe my memory is just not that good. maybe i have a picture of it somewhere, if i can find it i will post it. thanks for your response.

hhhmmm....

The only fish that I can think of that are that size (3 to 4 bites  ) that  are eaten head and all are shishamo. There are normally grilled but I guess they could be simmered as well.

This is proabably about their exact size.

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[torakris]

ayu?

this is sort of fun....

What month was it?

[puerco]

it may have been ayu. it was late september. on one part of the trip they took us to the mountains to catch some little fish with our bare hands and grill them by a fire. i think those were ayu, the fish i'm thinking about was about the same size. nobody ate the head and bones from the ones we caught in the stream though.

ayu?

this is sort of fun....

What month was it?

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