Looks Like Beef, Brad Commented

Posted on Sep 15, 2013 in Hiroko's Blog

whole jackhead offzenbu oroshi2 backs 2 bellysjacka shioyakiuroko tori

shioyaki jack

When I filleted the fish, I found its flesh as bright red as a piece of beef. Here in the photo you see the attractive beefy color of the flesh of Crevalle Jack. Filleting produced good portion size of two back fillets and two belly fillets. I decided to cook the back fillet part first using a traditional Japanese Shioyaki (salt grilling), since this method brings out the best flavor of the fish. While the fish cooks in the broiler melting oil from underneath the skin lubricates the surface of the fish and add sweet flavor. The skin also crisps up as it achieves light golden color.

Here is the cooked fish served with height-of-the-season lama beans, and nagori (the end of the season) corn. The flavor of fish was in-between skipjack tuna and tuna. Very satisfying.

For successful Shioyaki grilling, please review some guidelines below:

1. After removing the head and intestine from the fish, make sure that you clean the blood clogged to the center bone under cold running water. Use an old toothbrush for this task.

2. Please make sure to remove thorny scale at the tail part of the fish (see photo).

2. Twenty minutes or so before you are going to cook the fish, evenly sprinkle sea salt over both surface of the fish (2% salt to the weight of the fish) and leave it for 15 minutes. This cleans the fish.

4. Rinse the salted fish under cold running water to remove salt. Wipe the fish with paper towel and put it on skewers.

5. Salt the fish and cook the fish in the heated broiler. Keep the heat of the broiler medium high to high depending on the thickness of the fish. The distance between fish and the flame should be about 4 inches.

Next day, I cooked belly side. Belly part is always richer than the back fillet, so I marinated in shoyu and mirin mixture, dusted with corn flour and cooked in the skillet.

jack belly side dinner plate