Top Japanese sashimi dishes

Sashimi is one of the most famous Japanese dishes. In the past, when fishermen in Hokkaido, Japan served sashimi, it was not easy to recognize the type of fish after skinning, so they would often take the skin of the fish and put a bamboo stick on it to make it easier for people to recognize. This bamboo stick and fish skin on the fish fillet was called "sashimi" at first, and although this method was not used later, the name "sashimi" was still retained.

Because Japan is an island country surrounded by the sea, fishing is easy and the culture of sashimi is well developed. Most Japanese sashimi is a raw food dish in which fresh fish, shellfish, and other ingredients are processed according to the appropriate knife skills and served with a sauce made from soy sauce and wasabi paste. Thank you for reading, more exciting content please follow the public number: Kitchen Shadow Food. Generally speaking, Kanto prefers sashimi made from red-fleshed fish such as tuna, while Kansai prefers sashimi made from white-fleshed fish such as snapper. Japanese sashimi is popular for its fresh selection of ingredients, beautiful shape, and delicious flavor.

The first thing you need to pay attention to in sashimi cooking is the selection of ingredients, only the best and freshest ingredients can make delicious sashimi dishes. In Japan, not only fish ingredients can be used to make sashimi, all kinds of shrimp, crab and shellfish, and even chicken, beef, horse meat and so on have become the raw materials for sashimi.

Tuna

Tuna is known as the "king of sashimi", and its meat is tender and flavorful, rich in fat, and known as the top raw material for sashimi. In Japan, 90% of tuna is consumed as sashimi and sushi, and only the remaining 10% is sold as canned goods.

According to the different parts of the body, tuna can be mainly categorized into large toro, medium toro, and red body. The large toro is the part of the belly with the most fat, and is also the most expensive part of the tuna, the meat is smooth and with a strong characteristic flavor, melt in the mouth. Nakatoro is the fatty part of the belly and back, which contains a moderate amount of fat, and when balanced with the akasu portion, it has a unique sweet and savory taste; the akasu portion is the least fatty and cheapest portion of the back, which has a firm and chewy texture, and is synonymous with tuna in general sushi restaurants. Jiro Ono, the god of sushi, said, "Tuna with a lot of fat has a simple and clear flavor, but it is the lean meat that is the essence of tuna flavor." Overall, each of these parts has its own flavor, and diners can choose according to their tastes.

Salmon

The gourmet Mr. Lan Cai once said, "An orthodox Japanese store will never sell salmon sashimi, because they know from old times that it is extremely wormy, and it can only be eaten after it has been salted and broiled." Because of this statement, there are rumors that "Japanese people do not eat salmon sashimi". In fact, this is a misunderstanding. Today, most of the raw materials for salmon sashimi in Japan are imported from Northern European countries, and these salmon are farmed, and the safety of the fish can be guaranteed through strict control of the salmon feed. Salmon is usually bright orange-red, intermuscular fat layer is clear, fat, tender and fatty taste, in Japan's various rotary sushi and Japanese supermarkets are sold salmon sushi, eaters can rest assured.

Yellowtail

Yellowtail, called yellowtail in Chinese, is a top ingredient in Japanese cuisine. Yellowtail is a migratory fish, in the migratory way through the sea in the fall and winter environment is extremely harsh, in order to resist the cold, so the body has accumulated a lot of fat, at this time the yellowtail is known as "cold yellowtail", the meat is firm, rich in fat paste, tender and sweet, is a high-grade raw material for sashimi. Thank you for reading. For more exciting content, please follow the public number: Kitchen Shadow Food. Himi Kanburi" from Himi City, Toyama, Japan, is one of the best. Yellowtail restaurants all over Japan sell yellowtail under the banner of "Himi Kanburi".

Snapper

Snapper is also one of the most popular sashimi ingredients in Japan. The Japanese pronunciation of snapper harmonizes with the word "festive", so it is very popular, and snapper is always on the table at New Year's Eve, and it is even called the "King of Fish", which is a very high style. As a white-bodied fish, snapper's flesh is white, light, sweet, and firm, and many of our friends who eat snapper sashimi for the first time appreciate its deliciousness.

There are many types of snapper, and the common ones are true snapper, alfonsino snapper, yellow snapper, black snapper, and so on. Mako snapper, also known as red snapper, is most highly prized by the Japanese. Spring when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom caught called "Sakura snapper" or "Hanami snapper", the color is as delicate as cherry blossoms, the meat is delicious, many Japanese restaurants will launch the cherry blossom snapper sashimi, in order to spring scenery. Autumn snapper is called "red leaf snapper" and is also very tasty with rich fat.

Halibut

Halibut from November to February is known as "cold flounder," and is considered by Jiro Ono to be the best `white-bodied' fish, as it accumulates a lot of fat in preparation for spawning and is the fattest time of year. The perfect cold flounder has a snow-white belly and maltose-colored flesh with a soft texture. Halibut is usually "cooked" after being caught, i.e., it is processed and left at a constant temperature and humidity for about one day, and then lightly marinated in lightly seasoned soy sauce to make it more flavorful. The cooked halibut for sashimi is softer and more tender, with more flavor and aroma, and better flavor.

Onyx

Gourmets know that for sashimi, summer onyx is the best choice. Late summer and early fall are the most delicious times for onyx, when it has firm fat, tender meat, creamy white flesh with a light amber hue, and a smooth, sweet taste, with a distinctive light aroma of dried straw, making it one of the highest-ranking ingredients in sashimi cuisine.

White tuna

White tuna is also known as oily tuna. Compared to red tuna, white tuna has a more delicate flavor, with firm, smooth and tender meat that is fragrant but not greasy, and is mainly used for sashimi. However, white tuna has a high oil content and contains a kind of wax fat that cannot be digested and absorbed by humans, which may cause diarrhea if eaten more than once, so it is usually limited in supply in Japanese restaurants.

Katsuobushi

Katsuobushi, also known as shiba, is a reddish colored fish. Bonito has a looser flesh and is usually lightly grilled in the outer layer before being served as sashimi. Bonito has a moderate fat content and has a rich flavor that is characteristic of ahi, and it can also be smoked and sliced with straw and lightly marinated in soy sauce to make sushi.

Fugu (blowfish)

The Japanese are crazy about blowfish, and there are 1,500 restaurants in Tokyo alone that serve it. "Eating blowfish to the death" is not an empty phrase in Japan. Fugu sashimi is said to be the best Japanese food. The chef's handling of the blowfish is so skillful that a round blowfish is transformed into snow-white sashimi in just ten minutes. The meat is so thin that you can almost see through the pattern on the bottom of the plate.

The sashimi of the puffer fish is also very carefully plated, and can be categorized into four types, namely "tsuru-mori", "chrysanthemum-mori", "peacock-mori", and "oyster-mori", which are very pleasing to the eye and are almost like works of art. The texture of the blowfish is sweet, smooth, and elastic, and the skin, in particular, is very chewy. Overall the blowfish is recognized for its deliciousness, and it is completely understandable that the Japanese are fanatical about it.

Vinegared mackerel

Vinegared mackerel is also known as mackerel that has been salted with salt and rice vinegar to remove the fishy odor. The mackerel is fatty during the cold season, and the marinade makes the meat softer and more flavorful.

Mackerel

Mackerel, also known as anchovies, is one of the most widely caught fish species in Japan. Mackerel is popular among Japanese families because of its large production and low price. It is said that the Japanese eat as many as 400 million of them a year. In summer, mackerel is rich in oil and has a sweet but mild flavor that screams when made into sushi ingredients. When it comes to fresh mackerel, sashimi is the best way to eat it. When handling mackerel, the chef must soak his hands in ice water with salt so that they are the same temperature as the fish. This shrinks the fish and its fat, resulting in firmer meat and a sharper, clearer flavor. The onyx jacks mentioned earlier are also known as "big mackerel", but they are not related to each other except that they are jacks.

Japanese seabass

Japanese seabass, also known as Hanabi, is considered to be the best in the Seto Inland Sea in the Kansai region. The sea bass is most delicious in summer. Before serving, you can make a bowl of "Tamasu" with sake and natural mineral water, and leave the sea bass sashimi in the sake for 5 minutes to get rid of the fishy smell and enjoy the light flavor of the sea bass.

Akihabi

Akihabi is one of the most representative ingredients of the fall season. For the Japanese, autumn is not over until you have eaten it. Swordfish is extremely perishable, usually only used for salt grill, dare to use for sashimi of the swordfish, must be extremely fresh, usually only high-class cuisine restaurant dare to challenge. It is said that the best sashimi is found in the Sanriku region of Hokkaido, where one side of the processed fish is a fresh cherry blossom pink color, while the other side has a silvery glow. When dipped in a little sauce made from currants, grated daikon radish, grated ginger, and fresh wasabi, the meat is soft and sweet, and the taste is as good as that of the tuna or kajikawa that is usually eaten.

Sardines

Sardines are a very common fish, and in Japan they are also known as "weak fish" because they are very perishable, and require a high degree of freshness, and are only sold in restaurants that are confident in their supply and freshness. It is also more difficult to cut and pull out the thorns than normal fish, but if you cook it properly, the unique flavor will make you feel that it is worth it~