One weekend A was on his business trip and I was seriously bored. Weather was nasty and I had nothing exciting coming up for that particular weekend. My friend couple saved me from going completely mad or starting hating this country: they invited me to join in their short trip for a nice English Afternoon Tea and suggested me to cook Japanese dinner afterwords.
They wanted some 'new' fish recipes so I have decided to take a risk (hoping that they are brave enough to try?) and cook something very new to them - sweet and very Japanese- Nitsuka, stewed fish.
BTW, I totally understand why they asked me a new recipes- I also struggle to decide how I cook fish in this country even I am from the country where we eat fish/seafood almost everyday. Yes, Brits eat fish (Fish & Chips, Fish Pie, Fish Cake and Smoked Salmon) relatively a lot but nothing like we do in Japan....Sashimi, Sushi, Teriyaki, Nitsuke (stewed), Zuke (marinated)....and Karaage (deep-fried). For obvious reasons, we cannot easily find Sashimi/Sushi or ready made Zuke-ed fish here. You have to start from going to a fish monger and cook from scratch if you are looking for something decent. Thus, my everyday fish recipes are also very limited in this country. So it was a perfect call, they wanted something new/ Japanese fish meal and I was craving for it. Unless otherwise, I would never thought of cooking such meal (the reason why).
Ingredients (serves 3)
3 fillets of Red fish
450cc water
4-5 tbsp Soy source
4-5 tbsp Japanese cooking sake (or rice wine)
1 tbsp Mirin
1 tbsp Sugar
Salt (to taste)
Preparation
Slice each fillet in 2-3 pieces and slashes the skin across (like as writing ♯on skin)
Put fish into a large sieve (skin side up) and pour boiling water (*out of ingredients) on top.
This is to clean all remaining scales and prevent meats to be soggy/falling into pieces in a stew while cooking.
Direction
1. Put water, soy source, Sake, Mirin and sugar in a large shallow pan and bring it to boil.
2. Once the soup is boiled, place fish in a pan and put one smaller sized lid on top of fish. Cook for 5-7 mins.
3. Take a lid off and pour source on top the fish several times while cooking more 5-7 mins.
4. Remove from the heat and leave it to cool. (ideally 20-30 mins)
5. Put it back to the law heat, bring it boil then serve.
If you prefer strong taste, stewed source can be served as gravy, but the fish is amazingly plump and full of delicate flavor so try it without source first. As it was a 'Japanese dinner', I served with pea rice. I think baguette also goes really well with this slightly sweet dish.
The weekend thus turned out a very nice collaboration of British (Afternoon tea) and Japanese!
They wanted some 'new' fish recipes so I have decided to take a risk (hoping that they are brave enough to try?) and cook something very new to them - sweet and very Japanese- Nitsuka, stewed fish.
BTW, I totally understand why they asked me a new recipes- I also struggle to decide how I cook fish in this country even I am from the country where we eat fish/seafood almost everyday. Yes, Brits eat fish (Fish & Chips, Fish Pie, Fish Cake and Smoked Salmon) relatively a lot but nothing like we do in Japan....Sashimi, Sushi, Teriyaki, Nitsuke (stewed), Zuke (marinated)....and Karaage (deep-fried). For obvious reasons, we cannot easily find Sashimi/Sushi or ready made Zuke-ed fish here. You have to start from going to a fish monger and cook from scratch if you are looking for something decent. Thus, my everyday fish recipes are also very limited in this country. So it was a perfect call, they wanted something new/ Japanese fish meal and I was craving for it. Unless otherwise, I would never thought of cooking such meal (the reason why).
Ingredients (serves 3)
3 fillets of Red fish
450cc water
4-5 tbsp Soy source
4-5 tbsp Japanese cooking sake (or rice wine)
1 tbsp Mirin
1 tbsp Sugar
Salt (to taste)
Preparation
Slice each fillet in 2-3 pieces and slashes the skin across (like as writing ♯on skin)
Put fish into a large sieve (skin side up) and pour boiling water (*out of ingredients) on top.
This is to clean all remaining scales and prevent meats to be soggy/falling into pieces in a stew while cooking.
Direction
1. Put water, soy source, Sake, Mirin and sugar in a large shallow pan and bring it to boil.
2. Once the soup is boiled, place fish in a pan and put one smaller sized lid on top of fish. Cook for 5-7 mins.
3. Take a lid off and pour source on top the fish several times while cooking more 5-7 mins.
4. Remove from the heat and leave it to cool. (ideally 20-30 mins)
5. Put it back to the law heat, bring it boil then serve.
If you prefer strong taste, stewed source can be served as gravy, but the fish is amazingly plump and full of delicate flavor so try it without source first. As it was a 'Japanese dinner', I served with pea rice. I think baguette also goes really well with this slightly sweet dish.
The weekend thus turned out a very nice collaboration of British (Afternoon tea) and Japanese!