My friend Yuka comes over almost every week now and we try to do a little Japanese cooking when we are not studying together. So we decided to do fish!
I did a simple, grilled and salted saba... And she did a Kabayaki Saba which is sweet and equally as delicious! Here is our little cook-off:
We started by cleaning and cutting our fishes. I cut mine in half (right) and she cut hers in quarters (left). Here's how I made my Grilled Saba:
First, I salted it with sea salt and set it aside for 10 minutes.
Next, I grated some daikon (turnip).
It grates very easily and fast so watch your fingers!
There's a lot of water in daikon so you'll have to gently queeze it out.
Now I'm ready to grill (which I forgot to take a picture of...)
I grilled it 10 minutes on each side, skin-side down first. Oh it is hard to resist, as the smell fills the room!
Here is my grilled saba with a side a daikon and some hot green tea brewing.
I also added sauteed spinach with minced garlic that I fried in canola oil. I used spinach because I forgot to buy shiso leaves. If I had shiso, I would have rolled it up and chopped it.
I'm done! I had soy sauce on the side but it was so good by itself that I didnt even touch it.
Here is Yuka's Kabayaki Saba:
First, she cooked sake, soy sauce, and mirin together. Once the sauce was ready, she lightly dipped each fish in flour and fried it in the sauce.
I was out of mirin, so I had Yuka use agave instead which made it a little thick and caramelized.
Here's the Grilled Sanma next to the Kabayaki Sanma. The Kabayaki was so good that I even forgot the mirin-substitute was there. Ku-dos!
Here is a little Sam's Club salad that I added at the last minute.
"Itadakimasu!"
Shy? Do you want some?
No thanks.
