December 23, 2009

6.3-kg Monkfish (Angler Fish)/6.3キロのアンコウ(鮟鱇、あんこう)

This winter, I sent my parents a whole 6.3-kg monkfish (dissected into parts for use in nabe (one-pot dish)) and other seafoods as an oseibo (year-end gift).
In Japan, unlike in other countries, almost all parts of a whole monkfish are eaten.

In Japan, we often talk about "anko no nanatsu dogu" (seven tools of a monkfish), which are:
1. Flesh
2. Skin
3. Stomach
4. Liver
5. Ovaries
6. Gills
7. Fins
Of course, they are all edible.

You can see how a whole monkfish is dissected from here in the Japan Forum on eGullet.
This way of preparing a monkfish is called tsurushi giri (lit. hanging and cutting).
You can also see how Masaharu Morimoto, one of Iron Chefs, dissected his monkfish, using this technique, at Starchefs International Chefs Congress 2008.

You may be interested to view this episode of Iron Chef, where angler fish is the theme ingredient.

The fish dealer, located in Iwate prefecture, kindly sent me some photos of the monkfish they had sent to my parents. They said that the liver (called ankimo in Japanese) was excellent. Looking at the photos, I can't deny that!

This fish dealer is the one that I previously ordered fresh uni and other seafoods from.




今年の冬は、両親にお歳暮として6.3キロのアンコウ(鍋用にさばいたもの)などの魚介類を送りました。
他の国と異なり、日本では、一匹のアンコウの殆ど全ての部分を食用にします。

日本では、よく「アンコウの七つ道具」と言います。それは、
1. 身
2. 皮
3. 胃袋
4. 肝(きも)
5. 卵巣
6. えら
7. ひれ
です。もちろん、すべて食べれます。

一匹のアンコウをどのように解体するかは、eGulletのJapan Forumのここで分かります。
このようなアンコウの処理方法を吊るし切りといいます。
また、料理の鉄人、森本正治がStarchefs International Chefs Congress 2008でどのようにこの方法でアンコウを解体したかも分かります。

アンコウがテーマだった料理の鉄人のこのエピソードも見ると興味深いです。

岩手県にある魚屋さんが、両親に送ったアンコウの写真を送ってくれました。肝が素晴らしいと言っていました。写真を見ると、納得します!

この魚屋さんは、前に生ウニなどの海産物を注文した魚屋さんです。

5 comments:

Mama said...

Wow, those are amazing pictures! I love ankimo (アンキモ)!

Hiroyuki said...

pink: Do you? My father loves ankimo, too. That's why I sent him such an expenseive anko (more than 10,000 yen!).
Note that I didn't ordered all of the fish in the photos. I ordered the anko, yaki uni, and mentaiko (spicy cod roe).

fabergreen said...

All these fish look so delicious! My family and I are now living in Ohio, USA and we hardly see fresh fish in the supermarket here. Thanks so much for posting this interesting article!

Hiroyuki said...

fabergreen: Oh, you live in the United States? I had assumed that you lived somewhere in Asia!

fabergreen said...

Well, my family and I just moved here from Singapore in June this year. My mother-in-law was Japanese. My husband and I have been to Japane several times and we love to eat Japanese food. We miss eating sashimi the most. Just can't find any fresh fish here!