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30 results for "fish"
Ikejime: The Japanese Way to Butcher Fish
At my recent workshop at Saveur, I taxied over a live fish for Chef Sono to butcher the traditional way, a method called ikejime. Why share a cab with a flopping fish? I've been fascinated by this killing process since I first witnessed it in Japan, and Sono-san was kind enough to demonstrate it and explain the technique. This week I learned even more, thanks to an outstanding presentation organized by the Gohan Society and featuring the revered chef Suzuki-san of Sushi Zen restaurant.
December 17, 2009
Videos: Miso Curing Fish & Yuan Yaki Marinating
Miso is such a versatile ingredient (hey, we did a whole class on it). In this installment of our recent fish workshop at EN Japanese Brasserie, Chef Abe, owner Reika Yo and I walk through how to miso-cure fish, plus how to marinate fish for grilling yuan yaki style, a traditional, and incredibly easy, Japanese technique.
November 19, 2010
Video: Breaking a Fish, Japanese-style
Before that stunning black cod in the picture above was a dish, it was a fish. How did it get from there to here? I asked my man Chef Abe-san at En Japanese Brasserie to demonstrate how to break a fish the Japanese way, a technique called sanmai oroshi -- three part filleting.
November 26, 2009
sakekasu-cured grilled fish
I became interested in sakekasu (or sake kasu) at Matsuri, the restaurant where I volunteer as a cook. Chef Ono prepares his delicious version of glazed black cod by first marinating the fish for several days in a mixture that includes sakekasu. I wondered about the effect of this ingredient. But before I get into this, let me pause for a quick definition:
December 27, 2007
Japanese Fish
At 4:30 am on a Tuesday morning, Tadashi and I stepped into a cavernous hall almost three football fields long, filled with hundreds of busy people and stacks of styrofoam boxes, thousands of them, each coddling a pristine fish.
November 17, 2008
Fastest Fish Teriyaki Yet
I've written about teriyaki before, the real teriyaki, that is -- the thin glaze brushed on while sautéing or grilling that instantly adds tremendous flavor and a beckoning sheen to foods. There are bunch of ways to prepare teriyaki; here's one I just tried that works amazingly well for fish, and is super easy:
February 24, 2011
Videos: Japanese Fish 101, Plus Three Techniques
Okay, get ready for some serious how-to video. Last weekend I moderated an incredible Japanese fish cooking class at EN Japanese Brasserie featuring Chef Hiroki Abe and owner Reika Yo. We stepped through a dozen delicious techniques that any home cook can master -- and videotaped them.
November 19, 2010
Video: The Japanese Approach to Fish
What makes the Japanese way of preparing fish so special?
May 13, 2010
kyoto fish market
November 17, 2007
Video: Foil-Grilled Fish
From our EN Japanese Brasserie workshop, here is what's called hoiru yaki in Japanese -- "hoiru" is Japanglish for "foil." This is a super simple technique but the results are amazing.
November 19, 2010
Videos: Fish Tempura & Oroshini
Making tempura is tricky, but if you understand the underlying fundamentals, you can definitely get the hang of it at home, and impress family and friends! (Not to mention cook a super delicious meal.)
November 19, 2010
Video: Sharpening Knives and Cleaning Fish
May 25, 2009
Video: Fish Teriyaki
Check out how Chef Abe demonstrates how to make the real-deal teriyaki, not the gummy goopy excuse for this technique we find too often here.
November 19, 2010
Laurent Gras' Japanese fish
March 12, 2009
Japanese Cooking Workshop with Sono-san
Oh, where to begin. Last week chef Chikara Sono of Kyo Ya restaurant led a remarkable workshop at the Saveur magazine test kitchen. In the kitchen: a Tasmanian sea trout, a wild black cod, a live striped bass and thirty curious participants. On the agenda: all fish, all the time. Here's some of what we learned:
December 14, 2009
Sake and Salt Poached Flounder
At the farmers market, Atsushi and I spotted local Long Island Sound flounder, in peak season right now. I asked him how to prepare this delicately fish and he suggested poaching it in sake and salt, a simple method to subtly and elegantly express its flavors. We picked up a bunch, iced them down, and brought them over to Chef Tadashi Ono's house to prepare for his family (hey, I wan't the only enjoying Atsushi's cooking!).
August 6, 2008
Roasted Tuna Collar
Here's why you need to befriend your local fishmonger, and fast: Tuna collar. Chef Ono of Matsuri and I donned hair nets and white smocks to visit a fish wholesaler located beside Newark Airport yesterday.
October 8, 2008
Steamed Sea Bass, Japanese Style
Here's a method for steaming fish that Chef Tadashi Ono explained to me the other day at Matsuri. I had brought a beautiful, freshly caught whole sea bass to the restaurant from the Union Square farmers market, and Chef Ono graciously showed me how to clean and portion it the Japanese way. (I'm going to soon post a video on the subject, which is fascinating.)
July 6, 2008
Grilled Mackerel
Melissa Clark's excellent article on cooking bluefish that appeared recently in the N.Y. Times got me thinking about preparing oily fish, Japanese-style.
August 19, 2009
Morimoto's Monkfish
Monkfish are huge, ugly and incredibly tasty. I first came face to face with one in Akita Prefecture last year (more on that below). Today I got to watch Chef Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef fame dramatically offer this fish as the sacrificial lamb of his demonstration at the annual StarChefs Congress.
September 15, 2008
New Class! Register for Workshop and Tasting at Saveur Magazine
The Japanese way of expressing raw fish is, of course, unparalleled. But doing raw right -- that is, sushi and sashimi -- is a function of deft knife skills, which is a function of years of chef training. So what about the rest of us?
November 10, 2009
Deep-fried smelts
Nobuko called me into the kitchen to gut these smelts -- why did I have to do the dirty work? Actually, I like gutting fish, and these were nice, fresh smelts.
December 25, 2010
Original Teriyaki
Okay, time for teriyaki, but I mean the real thing, not the ho-hum dish we typically see here in America, the one with a gummy, starch-thickened sauce that drowns chicken or fish.
August 16, 2010
Simmered Sardines and Umeboshi
Here's another amazing dish I cooked during my recent session with Chef Isao Yamada. I asked him to teach me a method for sardines, a delicious (and sustainable) fish that I feel more of us should be eating.
March 2, 2010
Dinner Party: Chef Abe Cooks Staff Meal-Inspired Dishes
My friends at EN Japanese Brasserie are planning a very special dinner party on Saturday, January 16th. The theme: "fish heads, eel bones and beer" -- in other words, food (and drink) inspired by traditional Japanese restaurant staff meal cooking. The host: yours truly. I hope you can join us. Here's the blurb on the event:
January 5, 2010
Kurama Mixed Rice
The amazing chestnut rice I cooked in the last post must have put me in a serious rice kind of mood, because here's another incredible rice dish, this one mixed with soy sauce-infused chirimen jako (dried, tiny fish, a fantastic ingredient we'll get to in a minute) and sansho (intensely aromatic, seductive accent, ditto about getting into in a minute).
December 10, 2009
mixed rice of the mountains
Train your eye to the top right hand corner of this amazing dinner. Overlook the thick slices of super fresh hamachi. Skip past the delicious udon noodles with oysters and fish cake. Forget the kiriboshi daikon, air-dried strips of daikon. Focus on the mixed rice -- we'll get to it in a minute.
February 28, 2008
Iriko Dashi & Daikon Miso Soup
On his last morning at my apartment, Atsushi explained this dish to me. First, let's talk about iriko dashi, a traditional dashi prepared from small dried fish. While konbu and katsuobushi dashi is intricate and involved, iriko dashi is the opposite: Totally simple to make.
August 25, 2008
Vinegared Sardines (Tosazu)
Here's another method for sardines, thanks to Chef Isao Yamada: Marinate them in vinegar. In my last post I mentioned I wanted to learn more Japanese sardine preparations, to give me some options for this flavorful but underappreciated fish (at least in America).
March 9, 2010
The Right Temperature To Serve Sake: A Guide
I remember the first time I tasted sake, and sushi for that matter, back when I was in college in the 80s. A friend who studied in Japan took me to a sushi bar on Irving Place in Manhattan, where he introduced me to raw fish on rice and sake served as hot as a steaming mug of coffee.
February 7, 2010