buying and preparing fish/seafood

[Hiroyuki]

Sorry, I can't think of any Japanese salmon dish that matches your description.

Was it a meuniere by any chance?

Which of the following resembles your favoriate dish?:

http://gourmet.goo.ne.jp/recipes/258.html

http://www1.fbs.co.jp/cgi-bin/mentai_recip...de=show&no=1763

http://kodawari.lin.go.jp/ryori/karada/mm2136.htm

[yunnermeier]

Hmmm, none of them actually!

The dish I have in mind is a piece of salmon with some chunky wettish sauce (egg yellow) heaped on top of the salmon. It's been 3+ years since I had it but I think it had cream and probably eggs (that explains the chunky part I suppose) . My host families all called it salmon with butter sauce... The sauce was rich and creamy..really good.

It's strange- I thought it was really popular in Japan because all my host families cooked it !

[Hiroyuki]

I can't find any dish that exactly matches your description. I did find a recipe for scallop shiro miso yaki:

http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~hiroko/recipe_j/j_m19.html

Ingredients of white miso sauce:

6 tbsp white miso

1 tsp sesame seed paste

2 tsp sugar

Adequate amount of dashi

1 tsp mayonnaise

Small amount of yuzu peelings

Put white miso, sesame seed paste, and sugar in a pan (and put it on stove?), mix well, add dashi little by little, and mix well until soft like mayonnaise.

Turn off heat and add mayonnaise and yuzu peelings.

Put the sauce on scallops and grill in an oven (toaster oven?) for 5 to 6 min.

***

Maybe you can replace the mayo with butter to get the desired result.

Sorry, I must go to bed now.

[Hiroyuki]

Just curious, how did your dish come out?

Because of the use of white miso, your dish may be popular in Kansai, especially Kyoto, but I still have no clues. I'm a Kanto man!

[torakris]

Hmmm, none of them actually!

The dish I have in mind is a piece of salmon with some chunky wettish sauce  (egg yellow) heaped on top of the salmon. It's been 3+ years since I had it but I think it had cream and probably eggs (that explains the chunky part I suppose) . My host families all called it salmon with butter sauce...  The sauce was rich and creamy..really good.

It's strange- I thought it was really popular in Japan because all my host families cooked it !

←

I have never eaten (or seen) this dish either. Could it have been a tartar sauce on top? most Japanese mae their tartar sauce very chunky with eggs.

I found this very simple recipe of salmon being sauteed in butter and topped with a tartar sauce.

[yunnermeier]

Hello! Thanks Hiroyuki for the recipe (I didn't use it though because I only had red miso) .

I made simple butteryaki with jacket potatos (my host mum scooped everything out and threw away the best part- the skin ! ) and honey-glazed carrots + brocolli. Oh and we had miso soup again after a long, long time . Great dinner:D

Maybe it was the tartare sauce egg combo (egg mayo) after all, I'm going to try that on Friday. Thanks!

[kevfoodvan]

Hi,

I just came to the conclusion that I really don't eat that much fish anymore. Since I live in Iowa, miles and miles away from the coast, seafood in here just wasn't the same. Well it looks like this midwest is finally catching on to the benefits and tastiness of seafood so the supply here while laughable by Asian standards is getting better and better. Since I seem to have a much better supply at the asian market and even my local supermarket I thought I'd try to put fish back to where it belong in my diet, i.e. at least 3-4 times a week if not more.

It seems though the only recipe I really know how to do anymore is miso salmon which while good tends to get boring after awhile. I don't ever remember getting bored eating fish in Thailand. Since my diet is more Japanese than anything I'd really like to get some good Japanese fish recipes. Tasukete kudasai.

I will eat anything but what's usually easiest to find  here is cod, haddock, tilapia, salmon. Anyone know some good recipes I can use for these types of fish? I do have a pretty good Asian markets where I can get a more diverse types of fish but the problem I run into often is I really don't know what the heck I"m looking at in the freezer cases and they usually aren't labeled.

Thanks in advance.

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We just did a recipe on Halibut that might interest you:

http://www.foodvancouver.com/halibut-recipe.php

[larrylee]

Some more information:

http://www.american.edu/TED/urchine.htm

The uni season in Japan appears to be during the summer, but it's year-round in California, whose supply of red uni appears to be highly regarded.

Maine appears to be an extensive provider of uni, as well.

It would be interesting to know the origin of uni in Singapore, shipped from Japan.

[GlorifiedRice]

I have frozen baby cuttlefish in my freezer.

What can I make out of them thats Japanese?

[Hiroyuki]

I'm not sure what you mean by baby cuttlefish, but if they are firefly squids (hotaru ika in Japanese) or something like them, you can find more than one hundred recipes here and here. The only problem is that all the recipes are in Japanese...

I would simply boil them for some time, put them in cold water, and remove eyeballs, and eat them with soy sauce and wasabi, just like sashimi.

Firefly squid tempura also sounds good.

[GlorifiedRice]

I'm not sure what you mean by baby cuttlefish, but if they are firefly squids (hotaru ika in Japanese) or something like them, you can find more than one hundred recipes here and here.  The only problem is that all the recipes are in Japanese...

I would simply boil them for some time, put them in cold water, and remove eyeballs, and eat them with soy sauce and wasabi, just like sashimi.

Firefly squid tempura also sounds good.

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No they arent squid. This is what they look like:

http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11295158/Fr...Cuttlefish.html

[IgnatzH]

I'm looking for information on a creature that's called Maboya in Japan, and Mideodok in Korea. The scientfic name for it is Styela clava, known as the "warty sea squirt in the English speakng world. In Korea it's used to make a dish called Mideodok-chim. I remember seeing some larger, orange sea squirts at sushi places in Japan, but not the little guys.

Sea squirts are not to be confused with sea cucumbers, which in marketplaces are a more commonly seen group of organisms.

Any information would be much appreciated. Nobody on the West Coast (where they've been introduced) of the U.S. seems to have the guts to try them!

Thanks in advance.

[torakris]

You will find it also just under the name hoya here in Japan and it is often translated as sea pineapple.

It is most commonly served with a vinegar or miso dressing in very small portions.

[prasantrin]

I read that salmon belly is supposed to be a delicacy in Japan. But at my local Coop, they sell the best part of the salmon belly as scrap! For only Y98/100 grams, I can get what I've seen called "salmon belly flaps"--the very bottom of the salmon belly (sometimes including the lower fins) that is also the fattiest (and tastiest) bit!

So what do people do with this part of the fish in Japan? I usually just sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper, and fry it in a non-stick pan (no added fat needed). But there must be something else I can do with it...

And what about the fat that renders out? Other than maybe using it in my fried rice, what else can I do with it?

Should I go post this to the general cooking forum, too?

[Domestic Goddess]

Brush with soy sauce, kalamansi juice and grill it!

[wattacetti]

Grill it with some sake and miso, serve it as donburi, if it's fresh enough, make a tartar or a temaki. Steam it. Make it as part of a chawan mushi (okay, not that traditional). Serve it in soup.

[russ parsons]

this isn't a japanese technique, but i love salmon bellies and, unbelievably, you can usually get them cheap from stateside fishmongers (they think it's trim!). i cut them into strips and broil them until they're quite brown (because they contain so much fat, they stay moist). then i toss them in salads with bitter greens, like endive or escarole.

[torakris]

this isn't a japanese technique, but i love salmon bellies and, unbelievably, you can usually get them cheap from stateside fishmongers (they think it's trim!). i cut them into strips and broil them until they're quite brown (because they contain so much fat, they stay moist). then i toss them in salads with bitter greens, like endive or escarole.

←

This is how I do them as well. Since we don't have broilers in Japan I use my fish grill.

If I am not using them in a salad I don't grill them to quite as crisp and serve them with a splash of some citrus, usually lime or sudachi.

[_john]

throw them on a well fired shichirin and sprinkle with yakishio as they grill. they are also quite good in tartare / ceviche preparations but they need more acid to create a balance because of all the fat. as for the fat I remember hearing that fish fat is very perishable, it is also quite strongly flavored and not usually in a desirable way. my favorite preparation is ceviche with lime juice cilantro and diced avocados.

[Hiroyuki]

I read that salmon belly is supposed to be a delicacy in Japan.  But at my local Coop, they sell the best part of the salmon belly as scrap!  For only Y98/100 grams, I can get what I've seen called "salmon belly flaps"--the very bottom of the salmon belly (sometimes including the lower fins) that is also the fattiest (and tastiest) bit!

So what do people do with this part of the fish in Japan?  I usually just sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper, and fry it in a non-stick pan (no added fat needed).  But there must be something else I can do with it...

And what about the fat that renders out?  Other than maybe using it in my fried rice, what else can I do with it?

Should I go post this to the general cooking forum, too?

←

I didn't know that salmon belly was a delicacy..., and I don't think I have ever had it before...

[Marc Olson]

I brine them and then cook them slowly (250 F) over a charcoal fire in my Big Green Egg. Very moist smoked salmon!

[torakris]

Make sure you read the package carefully before you add salt to your salmon belly, many of the products in Japan are already salted. I found this out the hard way..

[Luckylies]

I like to make a gravlax with them...and then eat it as an hour's douvres. Or on a bagel.

[jamietera]

could someone put up the kanji for "salmon belly"? I'd love to try this out but have no idea what to look for...

[prasantrin]

Thanks, all, for the ideas! Grilling it will be better than what I've been doing, I think, because it's quite greasy when I pan fry it. I'm going to get some sudachi, too, the next time I buy some. Gravlax...maybe that will be my next project!