April 23, 2013

Aji Sashimi and Ara Jiru/アジの刺身と、あら汁

Today, I went to the A-COOP store again, hoping to get some interesting mushrooms and other foodstuffs. I found numeri sugitake again. This time, the bag has a lable that clearly indicates the variety on it.
今日は、面白いきのこや他の食材があるかなあ、と思い、またA-COOPに行って来ました。また「ぬめりすぎたけ」がありました。今度は、はっきり品種が書かれたラベルが貼ってありました。
I also bought a bag of brown enoki and a pack of "miso pea" (= peanuts).
ブラウンえのき1袋と「みそピー」を1パック買いました。
Closeup of brown enoki:
ブラウンえのきのクローズアップ写真:
I found sashimi-grade aji sold for 78 yen each! I bought four of them.
刺身用のアジが78円で売ってました!4尾買いました。
Before I went to the A-COOP store, I went to the 100-yen shop, where I bought these:
A-COOPに行く前に、100円ショップに行き、こんなのを買いました。
Inaka (lit. country) soba, a pair of chopsticks for my son, spicy takana (a type of green), and mulukhiya seeds.
田舎そば、息子用の箸一膳、ピリ辛高菜、モロヘイヤの種。

I should have selected aji more carefully! The second one from the top was rather small.
もっと注意してアジを選ぶべきでした!上から2番目のが小さめです。
I'm not very good at making sashimi, and managed to fillet the aji and made them into sashimi. Sorry for the poor presentation. The sashimi tasted very good.
私は刺身を作るのはあまり上手ではないです。どうにか3枚におろし、刺身にしました。見栄えが悪くて、すみません。刺身はとても美味しかったです。
I also made ara jiru (soup with fish trimmings). Sorry, a photo of the leftovers.
あら汁も作りました。残りの写真ですみません。


6 comments:

muskratbyte said...

I had fresh aji sashimi at a restaurant recently and was very impressed! They also deep fried the bones for me as the 'second course', which were very tasty!

Sissi said...

Aji! It's one of my favourite fish varieties since you made me discover it! (I don't remember if I told you but I have access to it all year round practically only because there are many Portuguese people or people with Portugese origins in Switzerland and apparently they love aji too! In France for example it's considered as "lower grade" fish and very rarely sold (most people have no idea what it looks like or tastes).
I once had it as sushi too (in Tokyo!) and loved it.
Fish trimmings soup... what a wonderful idea...
I prepare chicken trimmings soup all the time. Here I buy a whole free-range chicken practically for the price of... two chicken breasts, so I spend maybe ten minutes, cut it at home, but I have wings and legs and trimmings as a bonus!. If more people did it, whole chickens would be more expensive I think.

Fräulein Trude said...

Peanuts glazed with miso made me wonder and therefore I found a recipe from Chiba prefecture. I have to buy some peanuts quickly. As always you are a very skilled bargain hunter. The fish looks so very good (mushrooms too).

Hiroyuki said...

muskratbyte: Yes, aji アジ, 鯵 is tasty. One theory has it that aji is so called because it tastes good (aji ga ii).
aji 味 = taste, flavor

Sissi: In Japan, aji is considered a lower grade fish, too. It's a taishuu gyo (大衆魚), a fish for common people.

Ara jiru is a wonderful idea, but it's not my invention (laugh)!

Kiki: Miso pea is also called peanuts miso, etc. I'm been familiar with it since childhood. Believe it or not, it's often eaten as an okazu (side dish) for rice, as well as a snack.
Last year, I found a blogger in Niigata write that he didn't know anything about miso pea.
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tachibanasangyo/e/053921ca717781fe3896bb40fac0e88d#comment-list
(Japanese only)
(I posted a comment immediately!)

Have you found a good recipe?
This one sounds good to me:
http://cookpad.com/recipe/1352619
This and other recipes call for sugar and honey.

Yangsze said...

Ooh, aji is one of my favourite types of sashimi! I can buy sashimi-ready aji here at the Japanese supermarket and I like to serve it with a little grated fresh ginger, minced green scallions, and shoyu.

It is quite expensive here (perhaps because it's airflown from Japan) but very delicious. As an added plus, it's a fish that's low on the food chain.

Hiroyuki said...

Yangsze: Yes, your way of serving it is very popular here in Japan.
A pack of aji sashimi often comes with a packet of grated ginger, instad of wasabi, as you can see here:
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2011/07/aji-sashimi-etc.html

>low on the food chain
Yes, you are absolutely right. And, that's also the reason why aji are usually cheap!