Videos: Japanese Fish 101, Plus Three Techniques

Learn the art of Japanese fish cooking with Chef Hiroki Abe and Reika Yo at EN Japanese Brasserie. From shioyaki to Nanbanzuke, get ready to master a dozen delicious techniques that any home cook can handle. Discover the recipes, ingredients, and video clips in this step-by-step guide.

Okay, get ready for some serious how-to video. Last weekend I moderated an incredible Japanese fish cooking class at EN Japanese Brasserie featuring Chef Hiroki Abe and owner Reika Yo. We stepped through a dozen delicious techniques that any home cook can master -- and videotaped them. In the following bunch of posts, I'm going to share ingredients lists and proportions for each technique, and the associated video clips. Let's start with a bit of Japanese fish 101, then follow with shioyaki, or salt grilling, simmering and vinegaring (nanbanzuke). Ingredients for shioyaki are, simply, salt and fish. If you have any questions about the techniques, please add them to the comments and I'll do my best to answer. Please note that Chef Abe lists all his proportions in metric. Finally, thanks to Jesse Alexander, partner of EN, for sharing his fantastic photos from the class! (I'm sorry the first couple of clips are a little grainy, it took me a while to figure out the right compression!)

Click on "read more" below for the simmering and nanbanzuke videos:

Nitsuke (simmered fish)
1 whole red perch
400 cc dashi
70 cc usukuchi shoyu (thin or "light" (colored) soy sauce)
70 cc mirin
28 grams sugar

Nanbanzuke (vinegared, deep-fried fish)
320 grams striped bass (4 fillets, 80 grams each)
400 cc dashi
150 cc Japanese rice vinegar
200 cc mirin
100 cc usukuchi shoyu
50 grams flour
3 whole Japanese dried red chilies