Let's Prepare a Fish! How to Make Amberjack Sashimi
- 1 fish Amberjack (a young "inada" stage one this time)
- The inada-stage amberjack I used this time was 54 cm long.
- My cutting board was too small!
- !
- I borrowed the kitchen of a tea ceremony venue.
- If you get an amberjack in the mature "buri" stage, even this big cutting board will be too small.
- Take the back fin off before removing the scales!
- Pull it with your hand while cutting with a knife.
- I think kitchen scissors would work well for this.
- It's off!
- Take off the side fin close to the back fin in the same way!
- The fin near the head is very bony and hard to remove.
- Again, I recommend using kitchen scissors.
- Fish like amberjack, which have rather soft flesh, are hard to skin and de-scale at the same time.
- You need to lay your knife on its side and kind of shave off the skin, but it's not as easy as it sounds.
- (HAHA) The white part of the fish has scales too, so remove them all off carefully!
- Oh my, it looks so messy!
- Just practice several times and you'll get better, so be patient, ok?
- The key is to use a knife with a sharp blade!
- Lay the fish on its back with the belly facing up, and put your knife in from the bottom of the fin!
- Don't put your blade in too deep or you'll damage the guts!
- From the Step 9 position, run your knife along the side of the fin towards the head of the fish.
- The guts will be pulled out attached to the head, so don't pierce or cut them now!
- Make a cut from the stomach to the head in the same way as Step 10.
- Once that's done, open up the belly.
- Make a cut from the anal vent towards the head!
- Pull out the intestines with your hands.
- They are still attached to the head at this point.
- Just pull them out of the body, understand?
- When the intestines have been pulled out, cut the back bone and cut off the head.
- If you pull the head all the guts should come out in one go.
- You should constantly clean your cutting board and knife as you work, but you need to wash the fish itself at this point too!
- Wash out all the bloody parts (the veins) near the bone!
- OK!
- So let's start filleting it at least!
- Make a cut into the tail part.
- Since this is a big fish, I'll show you how to cut it into 5 pieces (as opposed to the 3-piece filleting method used for smaller fish).
- Cut straight through the fish from the tail towards the head down the center.
- Make this cut on both sides of the fish.
- Do this carefully, making sure that the tip of your knife is scraping along the main bone.
- Next, make a cut along the back of the fish, with the front side facing up!
- Insert your knife deep enough so that you are cutting the flesh away from the main bone.
- If the fish is so big that your knife won't reach far enough, do this in several passes!
- Cut along the belly side (the bottom side) in the same way!
- The key to filleting the fish neatly is to try to put your knife blade in at the same angle every time.
- Keep going!
- !
- Do the same on the other side.
- Well done!
- It's so hard to cut up a fish with soft flesh.... hahaha
- This is the first time I've broken down an amberjack at the "inada" stage... there's way too much of the flesh left on the bones.
- The poor inada won't be able to go to heaven if I treat it so badly.
- I'll eat it all up cleanly though, so please forgive me!
- Try marinating the harami (the belly part of the fish) in wasabi soy sauce, and have it with rice.
- It will make you very happy.
- Soooo tasty!!!
- I'll cut it up more neatly next time.
- An extravagant zuke-don (marinated raw fish and rice bowl)!
- Soooo good!
amberjack
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/169871-lets-prepare-a-fish-how-to-make-amberjack-sashimi (may not work)