By Kenji Miura

Shiokara is a fantastic savory condiment to your favorite glass of shochu. This particular shiokara is made with surume ika (Japanese Common Squid or Pacific Flying Squid).

INGREDIENTS
5 fresh squid
2 tbsp salt

METHOD

1. Clean the squid. (Here’s how via Kyoto Foodie)

2. Cut the legs and ears (the triangular portion of the squid) off of the main portion of the squid. Peel the skin off.

3. You may set aside the main body portion for sashimi.

4. The legs and ears will be added to the shiokara mixture. Cut these into 1-1.5 inch long pieces. Clean off any slimy film that you may encounter.

5. Mix salt and the brown innards (liver/digestive gland) of the squid together for the shiokara mixture, into a pasty consistency. I sometimes replace the salt with anchovies, which is a good alternative.

6. Add the squid leg and ear pieces to the mixture.

7. Keep in air tight container for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Eat within 36 hours after coming out of the fridge.

To enjoy shiokara, add shichimi spice or yama wasabi (mountain wasabi, shown in the photo). I am a Hokkaido native, so I am especially fond of yama wasabi, which is used for seasonings and marinades. Yama wasabi is also a great condiment to roast beef, similar to horseradish.

Black olives are also a nice pairing to shiokara.

*Kenji Miura is a professional photographer based in Tokyo.

**Article translated from Japanese to English by Yoko Kumano.

*Nahoko Morimoto is a Tokyo-based photographer. Her work has been featured in Brutus and Vogue Japan.

Dish by Chef Scott Anderson.

Photo by Erin Gleeson

I was in Miami for Thanksgiving, listening to salsa music while eating turkey, which was great. Last Thanksgiving, I had a steak in Fort Lauderdale, but this year we had a very traditional Thanksgiving meal, with nontraditional music accompaniment. Since Thanksgiving Day’s meal looks the same no matter how fancy, or tasty it may be, I will skip it.

I’ve been wanting to go to NAOE restaurant for a while after I read about it on a blog a year ago or so. It’s in Miami, but located far up on Collins Avenue, in an area called Sunny Isle. Even though I go to Miami about twice a year, and last time I was there in May, they were closed the entire time we were there. So when we decided to go to Miami for Thanksgiving Day, the first thing I did was to make a reservation there.

According to my information, chef Kevin Cory is Miami born, his mother’s side of the family is from Ishikawa, Japan, and he went to train at his uncle’s restaurant in Toyama prefecture for six months. Upon his return, he researched, studied more, and started the restaurant with his wife. How cute of a story is this? I heard the food is very unorthodox compared to regular Japanese restaurants, yet all the flavors are just top notch. I was very curious, and was very excited to try it.

We went there the day before Thanksgiving, and since they only had 6:30 and 9:30 slots, we left the hotel around 5:45 way in time for 6:30 reservation. What we didn’t know was the traffic the day before Thanksgiving. The road was terribly packed with everyone going somewhere to eat turkey. I frantically called the restaurant, yet unfortunately no human picked up and their voice mail instructs you directions to the restaurant since they know they are located middle of nowhere. Finally we arrived close to 7pm, fearing we lost our reservation. Luckily everyone at the restaurant was very nice, and understanding.

Phew. We sat at the bar counter.

There’s no menu, and basically you eat what chef serves you. This is pretty daring for Miami, since there aren’t that many Japanese restaurants. Despite the fact the city hosts a reputable food festival every year, I think Miami is pretty weak when it comes to Japanese food. Sure, many restaurants are Japan-infused, like my dining experience at Azul in May, but generally there aren’t that many TRUE Japanese restaurant, as far as I’ve heard.

So we were in for the chef’s omakase for the evening.

From all the reviews, I knew they serve kaiseki-style bento box as an appetizer, which includes rice. Appetizer, with rice? Really? Then the dinner is followed by a bunch of nigiri sushi. Very different from how we usually have course meals at Japanese restaurants in NYC, but almost refreshing.

Then came the bento box. Nice wooden box filled with goodies. Chef Kevin explained everything in detail.

Top left: the chef put raw hamachi (yellowtail) in the bowl with yamaimo (mountain yam) and steamed it to perfection. Then, he added starch-thickened dashi on top, with ginko nuts from Japan, mitsuba stems (Japanese parsley), and a dab of fresh wasabi. The dashi was so delicate, very kaiseki-like flavor.

Top right: shirako (they called it “cod milk”, which was the least offensive way to describe it; but here at Umamimart we call it, “fish jizz” which may be a bit too offensive for their customers) simmered in sake and soy sauce, sprinkled with sansho (I think?). Left of the shirako is baigai, which is a small, conch-like clam (which seems to be a specialty of Toyama, where Chef Cory’s uncle works as a chef). It was well-flavored with sake. Next to the clam is smelt and yam tempura, and chestnut with karasumi (bottarga).

Bottom left is shiitake rice. The amount of rice was just right, not too much, and it was a good portion as an appetizer.

Bottom right: cobia sashimi. This was probably the only local fish they have, and it was very nice. Its flavor is a lighter version of yellowtail, but the texture is very chewy or what should I say, almost beef like. Very fresh, and what I like is how he cut shiso leaves into small pieces. Whenever you go to sushi restaurant, sushi or sashimi are served with a bit of daikon radish or shiso, but they are basically more for decoration. I think shiso really adds a great flavor, and sometimes, cuts the fishiness, yet no one eats them. So he had a bed of cut-up shiso underneath the cobia, which I thought was very smart–an untraditional way of serving it, which encouraged people to eat it. Of course all his wasabi is freshly grated.

We are now in for chef’s progression for nigiri sushi. He had the most non-traditional technique for making nigiri sushi. He first made a tiny rice ball, placed it on the counter, added a bit of wasabi, then placed the fish on top. You know how regular sushi chef place rice on palm, adds wasabi and fish, then squeeze them just right? Nigiri comes from the word nigiru, which means “to hold tight, or grab”, but he wasn’t grabbing his sushi whatsoever. Yet, he squeezed it at the end, just enough so that it doesn’t fall apart. Brand new way of sushi making.

First was salmon belly. As I was chewing buttery salmon nigiri, I realized I forgot to take a picture. Here is an empty plate where salmon nigiri was.

Barely cooked lobster claw. He cooked the lobster in a very interesting and different ways–claws in one way, tails in another. Simply, since their thicknesses vary, they take different times to cook.

The claw was very soft, very sweet.

Iidako (octopus) from Portugal. Not chewy whatsoever, very sweet and very good texture. He poured orange-scented pouzu on top.

I skipped this, but Nate had kumamoto oyster from the west coast.

He added a bit of shiso, plus fresh wasabi. I really like how he incorporates shiso in dishes. Nate said it was very nice.

Fresh scallop. VERY sweet.

Oh, by the way, this is the kinda place where the chef dabs each sushi with home-blended soy sauce, or orange-scented ponzu. It turns out that the chef comes from a shoyu-brewing family, in Kanazawa. No place for Kikkoman here.

Madai (sea bream). He kept the skin on, which is a traditional way of serving this sushi.

The skin added another level of texture. He really knows his fish.

Squid from Boston. He randomly slices it along the top, which was nice, and so sweet.

Aji (horse mackerel). Some of the freshest aji I’ve ever had. With grated ginger on top.

Cobia belly, with white seaweed on top. I am really digging this fish for its meat-like texture.

Uni!! Instead of wrapping it in nori, he placed a couple of pieces on top of the rice. Simple and true.

This uni was from Hokkaido. After tasting these babies, Santa Barbara uni is totally second class.

Here is his specialty. When he trained in Toyama at his uncle’s restaurant, the place featured unagi (freshwater eel), where he learned to cut up the live eel, debone them, and steam them to perfection (like in Kayoko’s post the other  week).

These fresh (not in the pack, from China) eels are extremely different from what you may think of as unagi. So soft, so clean, with no weird chemical flavor we usually taste in the pre-packed kinds. Brilliant. This was steamed, with sea salt sprinkled on top–no sauce.

Last but not at least, eel kabayaki. As we were eating and chatting about food, he kept going back to oven, dabbing kabayaki sauce on the eel, and after like 15 minutes of nicely grilling, he gave the last awesome piece of eel sushi.

Oh, on the left side, you see pickles, which is narazuke, one of my favorite pickles. Japanese melon (cucumber-like gourd) is pickled in sakekasu (sake lees). This is special since it’s been sitting in it for 2 years. Wow, so flavorful, almost boozy.

This was very good. I still don’t know if Miami diners are daring enough to keep up with chef Kevin’s style, but to us, it was so good. He said 80% of his customers are from NYC, no wonder. They have 16 seats, and when we got there, it was half full. I was like, “I thought it was so hard to make reservation here”, and he said, he only takes eight guests per seating. What a luxury. How the hell does he make money??!!

And I found out some great news from the chef. Due to the fact the landlord is bulldozing the current location, they are MOVING TO MIAMI PROPER! No longer do Miamians need to drive for 30 minutes! They will operate at the current location until the end of December, and they will reopen in Brickell, across from Mandarin Oriental Hotel (where we usually stay), sometime in February or March. I can’t wait for the next visit at the new location.

What I also found out was, Naoe is Kevin’s mom’s maiden name. He figured Kevin as Japanese restaurant name wouldn’t make any sense.

If you aren’t afraid of trying Japanese seafood little-known in the States, this is the place in Miami.

Photo by Erin Gleeson.

I visited my mom recently and she served me one of the best breakfasts I have had in a long time–tai chazuke. Chazuke is short for ochazuke, a common method of enjoying rice in Japan. A bowl of rice is topped with condiments and hot tea or dashi is poured over it. Tai chazuke is ochazuke topped with raw, marinated tai (sea bream).

My mom served the ochazuke in large bowls with sprigs of mitsuba and strips of nori (know your seaweed, please). The tai was marinated in gomadare (sesame dressing) that was salty enough to retain its flavor even with the dashi was poured over it. I lucked out and my mom sent me home with a pint of gomadare. SCORE!

Back in the Japanify kitchen, I was determined to recreate the delightful breakfast I had at my mom’s house. I remembered the tender, fresh wild suzuki (sea bass) that was available at my local fish market and decided that it would be perfect for my version of a gomadare chazuke.

It was so easy because I already had the gomadare in the fridge. But knowing I would run out soon, I asked my mom for the recipe.

GOMADARE CHAZUKE
Sashimi in Sesame Sauce + Ochazuke (Tea-Soaked Rice)

INGREDIENTS (2 servings)

1/4 pound sashimi-grade sea bream or sea bass
A few sprigs of mitsuba or a stalk of green onions (you can find mitsuba at the Japanese market)
A dab of wasabi
Dashi or tea (I recommend sencha, hojicha or genmaicha. Don’t use black tea. Make your own dashi)

Gomadare (Sesame dressing)
2/3 cup roasted sesame seeds (unhulled)
2 tbsp sake
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar

Steamed rice

METHOD

1. Grind sesame seeds well with a pestle to a powdery consistency.

2. Bring sake to a boil and let it cool.

3. Mix all of the remaining ingredients together with the sake and sesame seeds. This dressing will keep in the fridge for two weeks.

4. Cut the sashimi into thin slices.

See my post on how to slice sashimi.

5. In a mixing bowl add 3-4 tablespoons of gomadare. Combine with slices of fish. Mix very well. Make sure every nook and cranny of the fish slices are coated.

6. If you are using mitsuba, cut roughly into 1/2 inch pieces. Green onions should be sliced thin.

7. Heat the dashi or make tea.

8. Add a single serving of rice into a bowl. Top with half the fish in the mixing bowl. Garnish with mitsuba or green onions. Add a dab of wasabi to the side of the bowl. Repeat for the second serving.

9. You can enjoy the bowl of rice and fish with our without the dashi or tea. I usually like to eat some of my serving without rice…

…then at half-time I pour dashi over the rice and fish and enjoy for a different experience.

The breakfast at my mom’s house will be remembered forever because the experience extended to my own kitchen. It takes a lot for me to try something outside of my home and actually take the initiative to try and recreate it when I get home. By sending me home with a tub of her gomadare, it’s like she was giving me a boost.

Photos by Derek Dercep.

I am currently writing this post from Lake Muskoka in Canada. My friend OWNS a freaking island here. Apparently, this lake is ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for summer vacation destinations. Screw the Hamptons, this island is so much better!!! (Although I’ve never been to the Hamptons). Life is good, eating good, drinking good, the only noise I hear is a boat. Only access to the island is via boat. I feel so grown up.

Anyhow, I went to Ogunquit, Maine for July 4th weekend. This has become our tradition, and was our fourth year there.

Bowtie Night. From left: Adam, Michael, Ernie, Chris, Christian, Nate, Eric, me and Donald.

The owner of the B&B (we stay at the same place every year) knows us well enough that they let us cook up a 4th of July BBQ every year.

By the way, the pictures here were all taken by my friend Derek Dercep. He spent $2,000 on his camera, and the result is so obvious. These pictures look the way it should, unlike all the photos I take…

I recently had a program at work about Japanese grilling and I really wanted to try some recipes from the book. Technically, I could use my oven to mimic the recipes, but nothing is better than using and actual grill.

Here’s the menu for the big day:

Baby back ribs with homemade BBQ sauce
Cedar plank salmon glazed with wasabi sugar ginger sauce
Garlic-soy-olive oil-marinated pork loin
Grilled corn brushed with soy sauce and sugar
Seared Tuna steak with avocado scallion puree
Nuked potato with grill marks on them

Before starting, I grilled some watermelon to get the sugars concentrated, and put them in the fridge.

I always make my BBQ sauce. It’s very easy–mix ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, and liquid smoke.  You can adjust the taste to your liking.  If you want, you can add some honey, or chili sauce to make it spicier.

To make the potato, nuke them as Yoko did on Japanify: wash, then microwave them for about nine minutes (these are large Russets).  Slice them pretty thick, and coat with olive oil and salt. Put on the grill for get nice grill marks.

Below is me trying to get light for my cigarette from the grill. Don’t do it.

Potatoes are nicely grilled.

Unfortunately the grill never got too hot, and I was also naturally impatient to keep the lid down, so they didn’t get enough grill marks. Oh well.

Next is the corn. First, you just throw them on the grill with the husks and keep them there for about 2o minutes. Take them off, and peel them when it’s cooled down enough. Put them back on the grill, and brush with soy sugar mixture. Again, I don’t have exact measurement for this, but you mix sugar and soy sauce and boil them to dissolve the sugars.

Cedar plank salmon was from the book, The Japanese Grill (original recipe was Arctic Char, but Maine doesn’t seem to carry any of the fancy stuff).  The book is interesting. With a little attention to detail, the boring American-style barbeque can become very fancy. For this one, soak cedar plank in water overnight. Take salmon out of the fridge and bring it back to room temp. Sprinkle salt all over, and leave them for about 30 minutes. This gets rid of water inside the meat, and will concentrate the flavor.

To make the glaze, mix 2 tbsp wasabi, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp grated ginger.

Wipe salmon with paper towel then pour the glaze over.

The glaze on its own is very spicy, but don’t worry. It definitely gets milder once it’s cooked, plus the ratio of glaze and salmon meat makes it just the right balance of spicy and sweet.

Baby back baby back baby back ribs. I bought McCormick’s pork rub and rubbed (at home I make my own rub, but I didn’t want to bother bringing it on the plane), then put it in heavy duty foil, tightly sealed it, and put in 250˚F oven for about 2.5 hours until meat falls of the bones.

Oh, the pork loin. I wasn’t sure if the baby back was enough to feed nine people so I bought extra pork loins, and marinated them in soy sauce, garlic and olive oil for about two hours. I also added tuna steak in the marinade for an hour or so. What you see in the center is tuna, right is pork loins and left is of course plank salmon.

The almon cooked for about 15 minutes. As soon as the inside is pink enough, you can take it off the heat.

And the baby backs. Generously glaze over with BBQ sauce:

And flip them a couple of times to get nice color on them.

I was being shy, trying to hide the penis, but totally failed…

Is this pork porn or what?

Salmon looks fantastic.

Cut a couple of slabs each.

Tuna was just barely seared. Cut into bite size pieces. The avocado puree is: 3 avocados, lime juice from 4 limes, and 1 bunch of scallions. Process them until it’s all pureed. Then add salt to adjust taste. It’s similar to guacamole, but a little more Asian.  To finish, I drizzled soy sauce over it

This was good, like AWESOME good. I also made balsamic vinegar reduction and drizzled on top of watermelons.

After the dinner, we cleaned up and changed into our rhinestones for our big night out.

Japanese-style BBQ is something you should definitely try. The book The Japanese Grill is something you should give your dad/husband/boyfriend who think they know all about grilling–this will totally widen the variety of grilling you can try, using the same ingredients. Try it!

BBQs are definitely fun, and I wish I had that option in the city. Maine is wonderful. Writing this on a private island is even better.

When I say Liguria, I’m talking about the Ligurian coast in the Italian Riviera. Topographically different from the rest of Italy, the coastline is scattered with mountainous cliffs that drop straight down into the ocean, and hidden beaches are nestled away in unspoiled coves. Idyllic Santa Margherita and Portofino were the two stops for us in the region. Cinque Terre was also on the list but our attempt to visit the popular cluster of fishing towns embedded into the cliffside was thwarted by a train strike and no ferry service.

The Ligurian region is responsible for two particularly well-known foodstuffs: pesto and cioppino. Yeah, yeah, “Cioppino was invented in San Francisco”, but it really was the work of Italian fishermen that brought the concept over from Genova, after a long-standing tradition of using bits from the day’s leftover catch to make their lunch right on the boat.

A regional dish most of us are far less familiar with is called trofiette liguri, a hand-rolled pasta coated with Genovese pesto.

The trofiette noodle is made by pulling off a small bit of pasta dough and then rolling it along the counter once with your palm. I had this dish at a popular restaurant called Da Michele in Santa Margherita although let it be said that the town itself is very small and most of the restaurants are casual, family-run eateries.  You’ll find the same in Portofino except at a much higher price point. 

Portofino is one of the most exceptional places I have ever visited. While extremely small and private, it’s a popular getaway for the beyond-affluent.  Only a few miles away from Santa Margherita, it’s easy to catch a small ferry for a quick ride along the peninsula.

There isn’t much to do there but walk around, drink, eat, drink some more, enjoy the view, and then get back on the ferry or take a cab back to Santa Margherita. The first place we stopped to have drinks was at La Gritta where they had a small, floating platform tied to the dock. 

Notice the proximity to the water from the floating platform.

I think one of my favorite things about Italy in general is that every time you sit down to have a drink, they automatically hand you bowls of snacks like chips, olives, and nuts. The nicer the place, the better the offerings. Keep in mind, if you’re wondering what the coperto is on your check, it means a cover charge just for occupying a seat so I loosely refer to the snacks as copertos. Every time I paid the bill throughout Italy I would say “damn copertos.”

After drinks and snacks at La Gritta, we moved down further along the dock for lunch at O Magazín for the linguini con vongole (clams) because what better place could you have this?

Fresh, light, buttery and seasoned with fresh herbs, it was a perfectly executed dish. 

I did have gelato after this but dropped the entire thing on the ground like an idiot. However, while walking around gelato-less, we noticed this bag of bread outside a restaurant door.

We learned that this is the way restaurants pick up the bread they’re going to serve for the evening. The bread makers put the bread in the bags and leave it outside for restaurateurs to pick up.

During our last night in Santa Margherita, we went to L’insolita Zuppa, another small, family-owned eatery. It was packed. We started with a yellowtail appetizer because the menu led us to believe it was going to be a crudo with a hint of citrus. The fish was actually completely cured and served with blood orange and fennel. It looked completely unappetizing but was incredibly delicate and light in flavor.

The rest of the food served was good enough but had some really odd presentations, not completely unlike some places I’ve gone to in Russian River (Chez Marie’s, anyone?).  One example would be the soup served in the fishbowl. Surprisingly delicious albeit, um… avant-garde in plating.

Our time in Liguria was short, and because of the train strike and lack of ferries, our exposure to unique local specialties was limited. After walking miles and miles across the cobblestones of ancient cities throughout Italy, these sleepy port towns of Liguria were a welcome respite. Don’t plan on doing much if you ever visit, but do plan on visiting if you can.

DA MICHELE
Largo Amendola 17, 16038
Santa Margherita
T: (+39) 0185283660

LA GRITTA
Calata Marconi, 18
16034 Portofino
T: (+39) 0185 269126

O MAGAZÍN
34 Calata Marconi, Portofino
T: (+39) 0185 269 178

Frying has always been something I was afraid of. I remember my grandma frying whole fish in a huge wok of oil. It took brawn and a fearless attitude toward unpredictable flying specks of oil traveling at high speeds. I will never be half as tough as my grandma, and I still don’t have the confidence to buy a gallon of oil and plunge into the world of deep frying.

However, lightly frying and then simmering fish for taste has been a recent trend in the Japanify kitchen. I’ve been using this technique for saba (mackerel). It’s a really simple recipe, which means there is more room for error. I’ve learned little things from making this several times that avoid sogginess.

I found a Teflon pan in the back of my cupboard that works well for this recipe. Less clean up means more time to enjoy the feast.

Twice-Cooked Saba

INGREDIENTS

1 whole mackerel
1/2 cup flour
Olive oil

Sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp sake
1 tsp sugar

METHOD

1. Fillet the fish and cut into 2-inch pieces.

2. Coat each piece with flour.

3. Cover a pan liberally with extra virgin olive oil. Set the dial to “high.”

4. Once the oil is hot, fry the fish. Make sure the fish is cooked well. Remember that later the fish will be simmered with sauce so to retain the crunch factor, the fish should be fried pretty well. Fry each side.

5. After frying, remove the fish from the pan and pat dry the fish. Set aside.

6. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce.

7. Clean out the pan used for frying and put the sauce in the pan. Set the dial to “med-high.”

8. Once the sauce heats up, lay the fish pieces into the pan and simmer until the sauce reduces down to half its original amount.

9. Plate and enjoy with some hot steamed rice.

I’ll ease into the world of deep frying slowly. I must invest in a splatter screen and build up my confidence gradually, arming myself with gadgets that will reduce the intimidation. I’ll master pan frying first to build a friendly relationship with oil as well. For now, I’ve been pretty pleased with two dishes that deliver the light crisp of frying: Wakasagi Smelt in Nanban Sauce, and this saba.

Fishcakes, such as the Homo Sausage, chikuwa and kamaboko, are some of my favorite foods. It usually weirds people out in the States because of its “processed” figure; but I really enjoy its chewy, rubbery texture, and its flavor of the sea. I’ve always loved fishcake (as does Kayoko) and it’s very disappointing that there isn’t any of the good kinds here in the States. Sure, you can get cheap kamaboko with hot pink food coloring, or cheap chikuwa that taste like rubber. On top of that, they are almost always sold frozen, which I am sure kills the original flavor.

So I decided to make my own fishcake. Just like hotdogs, no one knows what’s in the store bought processed version, and it’s good to learn what’s really in it by making it yourself. After extensive research, I found out it’s actually pretty simple. All you need is a strong hand for kneading (although you can skip this entirely by using a good food processor), and fresh fish.

INGREDIENTS

1lb white fish
2 egg whites
2tsp salt
5tbsp corn starch
6tbsp sake
1tbsp mirin
2tbsp sugar

I used red snapper, which is pretty much the most premium kind of kamaboko you can make. Even in Japan, red snapper kamaboko is something you only eat on special occasions (such as New Year in Japan). But I found that this was the freshest fish at the market, and I figured, why the hell not?

If you have an access to a whole fresh fish, you can fillet it yourself. But it is a lot of work, with all the scaling, skinning and boning, etc.

METHOD
1. Cut the fish, and soak in an ice bath for a couple of minutes. This apparently gets rid of the fishy smell, plus all the small particles will come off.

2. Pat dry the fish with a paper towel. Make sure to dry it well.

3. Dump the fish in food processor and process until it is somewhat smooth.

I bought a Kitchenaid mini chopper for this. Due to NYC space issues in the average kitchen, I thought getting a full-size food processor would be a bit much, although I was a bit skeptical of how cheapy and plastic-y this mini chopper looked.

4. Once it gets pretty smooth, add half of the salt, pulse. Add the rest of the salt, pulse more. Now add the rest of the ingredients, and pulse away until the consistency is very smooth.

You can use mortar and pestle (or in Japan, suribachi, which is often times used to grind sesame) to do this, but I have a feeling that in order to reach this consistency, it would probably take more than 30 minutes. After processing the fish for a while, it was so thick that the blade started to slow down. But I didn’t stop and kept pulsing, and then just like how you see in the movies, the self-destruction system went off, which literally sounded like a small bomb went off inside the chopper (with sparks and everything), and the whole thing died..

$45 worth of absolute crap. Luckily the consistency was pretty smooth at this point. Besides, it was my first trial, and I thought this was good enough.

5. Take the fish out of the chopper, and dump it all on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape it like how kamaboko should look like. You can mount this mold on top of a piece of wood, just like how you would usually buy it. But I didn’t have any wood, and it doesn’t really matter one way or another, so I just wrapped it like this:

Rest it this way for about an hour, room temp. The resting apparently makes the final product a lot smoother, although I’m not sure why.

6. Then, steam it for about 12-15 minutes.

7. Dump the log into ice bath again to cool it down very quickly.

And it’s done. Pretty simple, don’t you think?

First trial was pretty good. Then I went to BB&B to return the processing piece of crap, and went on to look for something else. And I couldn’t resist the urge to get a real adult-sized food processor, so I went for it. Nate was super against the idea, but I cook so much, and so many people benefit from my cooking, so I justified this and rightfully bought the nice shiny gadget.

Unlike the cheap piece of crap, the base is super sturdy and heavy, and all the parts are made of nice hard plastic, not cheap shit. The best part is how the food processor “clicks” when it’s in place. I love it.

Below you can see the difference between the beginning and the end of the process.

Oh Em Gee. This investment was totally worth it! The speed, the strength, and the size are all perfect.

Looks almost like butter.

So this time, I wrapped a piece of dowel with aluminum foil, and wrapped some meat around it to make chikuwa. The difference between kamaboko and the chikuwa one is steamed, and the other is steamed and then browned on the outside.

I wrapped them in plastic wrap and steamed this for about eight minutes.

Once this is done, you must brown the outer layer. In order to do this, I have a grilling-fish-on-stove apparatus, and used it to add some nice color.  This is super quick. The purpose for this is to get color outside, and it does burn pretty quickly, so you have to keep rolling them continuously.

LOOK AT THIS! It looks like gourmet chikuwa!!!!!!!

AND THE HOLE!!!!! Let me tell you, this tastes SOOOOOOO GOOD. I mean it better, since I paid $22 for a pound of fish. Store bought chikuwa is around $2.50 for five pieces. Just like hot dogs, cheap chikuwa may use guts, brains, carcass and everything in fish and add some flavor to taste like chikuwa, but not mine. This is more like $5 a piece (at cost), and if you add my labor, it would be around $13 a piece.

I was very surprised about how “right” the texture is, and how easily you can create this at home.  Apparently it’s all about fish meat meets salt and sugar.  Some science happens when you add salt and sugar into fish, and it makes fish meat super sticky, thus creates fantastic rubber like fish product texture.

I am usually a humble Japanese, and don’t brag too much about what I do, but I have to say for this one: I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!!

I have to advise you though, try this only if you have a trustworthy food processor, or you are so obsessed with this that you are determined to do it by hand. Do not do this with your mini chopper unless you want your mini chopper to self-destruct.

Maybe I should learn the beauty of making hot dogs (not sausage) at home.