4 servings

3 ayu fish, rinsed

Sea salt

2 1/4 cups short-grain polished rice (When using a rice cooker measure rice with a cup which comes with a rice cooker and have 3 cups of rice)

3 cups dashi stock (When using a rice cooker use the water line suggested by the rice cooker company)

1 1/2 tablespoons mirin

1 1/2 tablespoons usukuchi shoyu (light color shoyu)

1 tablespoon sake

1/4 cup finely julienned ginger, blanched

Some bitter green

Gently press the belly of the ayu fish towards anus to remove innards.  Lightly salt the fish and place it on a fish grill.  Cook the fish over open flame until both sides are lightly golden.

Rinse the rice and soak it in new water for 15 minutes, and drain it for 30 miunutes.  Place the rice in a rice cooking pot and add the dashi, mirin, shoyu and sake.  Place the fish over the rice and cover it with a heavy pot.

Place the pot over high heat and cook until it comes to a boil.  Turn the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.  Turn the heat to very low and cook it for 5 to 6 minutes.

After the rice is cooked let it stand, covered and undisturbed, for 5 minutes.  Take out the fish from the pot and remove the head and bones.  Return the fish to the pot and toss it gently with the rice along with the ginger and bitter herbs.  Serve the rice hot.

Starting March the fry (2nd photo), which has reached to about 2 inch lengths, begins to swim up the stream to mate and have fun in the river.  While they are staying in the river, one of their principal diets is moss on the rocks.  The fish then returns to the river for laying eggs and then finish their one year life cycle.  In order to keep the population of ayu at good numbers, Japanese government regulates and sets a date for lifting a ban of catching ayu fish.  It is called ayu no kaikin-bi, and starts at the beginning of June (each local has different date across Japan).  Fishermen, both commercial and avocational, rush to the river and catch the fish.

Every year once the ban of catching ayu is lifeted restaurants both in the city and country, where the fish is caught just nearby their river, beings to feature a special abyu meals.  It starts with soup with ayu, salt grilled, fried, braised and richly flavored and ayu cooked with rice.  Every Japanese wait for this once a year delicacy.

Among several ayu dishes, salt grilling is the best preparation in which we can enjoy fish’s natural flavor.  Unlike other small-size, whole grilled fish preparation, ayu is cooked whole with its intestine.  The bitterness of its liver is not a negative taste sensation, but it is an important element to enjoy this refined, sweet-tasting fish.  Before grilling, fish is put on a skewer in a way so that fish looks like swimming in the stream when it is served on a plate. 

This technique is called uneri-gushi (3rd photo) and you can see it in the photo below.  Skewered fish is then sprinkled with sea salt.  As you can see in the fourth photo the tail and fins of the fish is heavily salted.  Salting these fragile parts with additional sea salt prevents them from burning during the cooking over open flame.  The best heat sauce for grilling ayu is bincho-tan (refer the previous bincho-tan blog).  Grilled ayu is traditionally served with tade-zu (tade herb mixed with vinegar and sake).  Tade plant grows near the water at the time where ayu is caught.  It is known having very bitter to taste (a sharp burning sensation on your taste buds but does not hit your nostril), but its compliments to the bitterness of fish liver.  Also, this plant, like other bitter herbs, aids digestion and stimulate appetite.  Tade has also antiseptic property.  I will post the delicious ayu rice - ayu cooked with rice in a traditional rice cooking pot - in the following post.

Top: Ayu fish sauce (made from ayu fish), bottom: ishiru (made from squid intestines)

Seeing the garum production facility and thinking about it calls to mind a story about Japanese fermented fish sauce.  The most representative Japanese fish sauce is shottsuru made in the northern part of Japan, Akita Prefecture.  Shottsuru fish sauce is traditionally produced by fermenting hatahata (Japanese sand fish; take a look at the fish at http://www.tsukijiexpress.com/detail?id=01t30000001zY22AAE), salt, rice, koji (aspergillus oryzae; the starter mold for fermenting rice to make sake, miso,…), kelp, carrot and yuzu citrus fruit.  The process takes at least two years.  Koji breaks down protein into many amino acids and carbohydrates into various sugars and organic acids, creating a flavorful, aromatic and nutrisious fish sauce.  Locals use this traditional sauce to flavor their hot pot dishes.  Another famous fish sauce, ishiru, is made from fermenting squid intestines with salt for about one year.  It has distinctive flavor, aroma and lots of umami.  The popularity of ordinary soy sauce, shoyu, made from fermenting soybeans and wheat, has to some extent prevented for these fish sauces from coming onto the main stage of Japanese cooking.  And so until quite recently they have remained as local regional favorites.  Today some producers have found a broader market for this fish sauce that is growing and attractive because cooks have begun to recognize the umami rich character of the sauce.  Maruhara Company in Ohita Prefecture, a business that has been producing shoyu and miso for hundred of years, came up with the idea of producing fish sauce using local ayu sweet fish, ten years ago.  Ayu is a river fish that is said to have a “watermelon like”, refined flavor.  Today, using ayu the company produces one of the most tasty fish sauces in Japan, and this fish sauce is available in USA (for commercial order, contact Yuji at haraguchi@trueworldsfoos.com or call him at 646-212-1358).  The story of Japanese fish sauce continues to my next post, and I will also have more to say about ayu.  For those who are interested in discover moreTsukiji fish, visit at www.tsukijiexpress.com.

After moving to New York City the story was different.  There are no ume trees on the East Coast.  Ume plums grown and harvested in California are sold only at Mitsuwa Marketplace, one of the largest Japanese supermarkets in New York area, in Edgewater New Jersey across the Hudson from New York.  And they are only available for one or two weeks sometime during May.  Since I do not go to the Mitsuwa Marketplace for shopping every week, in the past 5 years I kept missing the chance to purchase the plums when they came in the store. 

This year Andrew and Kelly, two of my students reminded me about this narrow window for making umeshu.   They e-mailed me with a note: Mitsuwa has ume plums this week.  I immediately sent Buzz to fetch them.  Buzz purchased 12 pounds of plums along with 6 pounds of rock sugar.  For the distilled alcohol we went to the Wine & Liquor Warhouse, a great discount wine store in our neighborhood, to purchase the most economical vodka for a source of alcohol.  We found 80 proof (40% alcohol) vodka made in Ukraine for $14 for a 1.75 litter bottle.  Not so bad.

Plum wine production is very simple.  First carefully rinse the plums several times under the cold tap water.  With a tooghpick remove the stem from each fruit.  Drain and dry the fruit and transfer them to a glass jar, alternating with rock sugar in 8 layers - plum, sugar, plum, sugaer, plum, sugar, plum and sugar.

Then pour the alcohol over the plums and sugar, and cover the jar tightly with a lid.  In the photo you see the newly made batch and the 5 years aged liquor standing next each other. 

Store the jar in a dark, cool place.  Once or twice every month for the first three months, shake the jar gently to dissolve the sugar in the liquid.  After one year, when you are ready to prepare a new batch of plum wine for the next year, you can filter the previous year’s matured wine and remove the plums.  You can enjoy it then or let it age even longer with the plums as I have done for us 5 years old stock.  After the filtration you have delicious drunken plums left in the jar.  Transfer them to a small, clean jar and store them in the refrigerator.  They are absolutely delicious to nibble just as they are (I remember diligently assisting my mother who filtered her yearly home-made umeshu, knowing that I could pop some of the delicious drunken plums into my mouth as a reward), so they disappear very quickly.

Thank you very much Dick, having my service at you exciting Event.   I will post the dishes which he and his clients enjoyed in my next post.  I told him (standing next to him) that I felt very small.  Dick’s answer was he feels tall next to anyone, but I am sure that this was the tallest experience for him……………..

In America today pure yuzu juice packed in a bottle is available at many Japanese food stores.  So, you can enjoy using it in the preparation of yuzu granita, yuzu ice cream, yuzu dressing, yuzu mousse, yuzu chocolate, yuzu coctails and other yuzu juice flavored dessert creations. 

Today Japanese companies are bringing higher quality Japanese products to America, and yuzu juice is a part of that trend.  When I was in California at the beginning of March, I was introduced to a “this is it” yuzu juice.  The name of the brand is Yuzu Passion and it is produced by Kitomura Company in Kito Village, Tokushima Prefecture.  The company uses a traditional wood press to extract juice.  This prevents the bitter flavors of the fruit from being overly extracted into the juice.  To produce 500ml of yuzu juice, they press 50 to 60 fruits, against using 10 to 20% fewer fruits and more harsh pressing method used at other factories.  Check-out www.yuzupassion.com for more product information.

When you taste Yuzu Passion you will be amazed by its robust fragrance and pure appealing flavor with a wonderful smooth touch.  In addition to the juice they also carry yuzu ginger conserve.  Wow, I cannot stop lapping them up on toast, crackers or other good bread.  So Delicious!