Seared Sashimi with Ponzu Sauce

This recipe has been one of my favorite ways to prepare fish that are on the "delicate" side as far as firmness of the meat. It works very well with bonita and albacore. I have also used yellowtail and recently amberjack, which is also good.

Today I used some King Mackeral.(which was excellent and one of the best fish I have ever used with this recipe) I noticed that when I was processing the fish how soft the meat was. I recently shot my first one one and was very excited to be trying something new. My first though as I was cutting the fish, was sashimi. The King Mackeral meat has extremely similar qualities to the Pacific Bonito.

This recipe is very simple, however processing the fish is the key element; as it is with any fish. Care must be taken to gill, gut and bleed the fish immediately after subduing. Letting it sit in the icebox for a "few hours" until you get back to the dock, does not cut it! Get the guts and gills out as soon as you get the fish out of the water. Bury the fish in the ice box and also stuff the gut cavity with ice to maintain the best quality. Removing the kidney also helps tremendously. This is the dark red stuff you see along the spine after you get the guts out of the fish. Use your dive knife to scape it out.

After filletling the fish, cut any dark portions out of the meat. The meat should all be a uniform color. To make this recipe, Cut the fish in a 1-1.5" block( like a speargun stock:D). the top shoulder works the best for this.

Heat up a pan to a very high temperature. Put a bit of oil in the bottom. I like to use extra light olive oil. Watch the end of the fish and wait for about 1/4" of the meat to turn white. flip until all 4 sides are done in this manner. Remove from the pan and let cool. Cut into 1/4" wide pieces. Drizzle ponzu sauce over it and put it back in the fridge for 3-5 minutes.

I like to mince scallions and pickled ginger and place sparingly across the the fish before serving.

Ponzu can be purchased or you can make your own. There are many recipes, but the simplest one is 1 part soy sauce, 1 part seasoned rice vingear, and 1/2 part citrus juice (lime or lemon or both) I prefer lime juice.:thumbsup2:

Dan,

the first time I tried this was in a Sushi restaurant in Southern California. It was made with Albacore. It has been a favorite of mine ever since.

Sashimi is often served on a bed of some type of stringy radish. I can't for the life of me rember what it is called nor find anyone that does. However. grabbing a bit of the radish along with the fish is pure culinary delight! Wish I could find it...it was hard enough finding the ingredients I needed here in MS.

By the way, on the subject...soy sauce. Kikoman is repulsive! You'ld be better off pouring a 5lb bag of salt down your throat! Yuck!!!! Tamari is one of the better brands that I have used from a chain market. The best stuff comes from the Asian Markets. There are a lot of Vietnamese in this area, so I found a market and tried some new stuff. Marca Pina Soy Sauce, which is very good. I also discovered Hoisin Sauce from Lee Kum Lee, which is a sweet and spicy sauce. I added a bit of this to my home made Ponzu...very good stuff!

Quote from Fletch

Dynomiiite!

I wonder how good this would be with striped bass? I'm going to try this with my first bass of the season.
Is there a particular part of the fillet that is better for the sashimi?

The softest and smallest grained portion of the fish is the belly. The meat between the rib bones and the skin is very good. However, this can be risky with some species as this where most of the fat is stored and closest to the organs, and is suscpetable to parasites or toxins.

The tail is the muscle part of the fish and often has the toughest meat. Lots of fibres and tendons. The best(safest) protion of the fish is usually the top loin (shoulder of the fish) forward of the mid-section.

Mike I think that is it, but can't be sure. The only way I would recognize it, is to see it. The way it is served in the restaurants, looks like a ball of wadded up monofilament. Translucent in color, almost white. very mild "red radish" flavor.

Quote from ladvr

Shredded Daikon. It looks like a white carrot in the Asian markets. You could probably grow um in our back yard.

:thumbsup2: looks like I have a misson this weekend:cool2:

looks good Mike! Wish I could find some pickled ginger around here. I had a hard enough time just finding rice vinegar:rolleyes1: