January 28, 2014

黄金ガレイの煮付け/Simmered Yellow Sole

As part of supper tonight, I made kogane garei no nitsuke (simmered yellow sole).
今日の夕飯には黄金(こがね)ガレイの煮付けを作りました。
 
I used this junmai hon mirin.
この純米本みりんを使いました。
The raw ingredients are mochi rice (produced in Thailand), rice malt (made from rice produced in Thailand), and brewer's alcohol.
原材料は、もち米(タイ産)、米こうじ(タイ産米)、醸造アルコールです。 
I previously made men tsuyu (noodle soup) using this junmai hon mirin, and found the men tsuyu was slightly better than my usual version, made with mirin-fu chomiryo (mirin-like seasoning).
前にこの純米本みりんを使って麺つゆを作り、私のいつもの、みりん風調味料で作ったものより少しは美味しいと思いました。
 
The water + sake, mirin, and soy sauce ratio was 5:1:1.
Thus, I used
100 ml water + sake
20 ml mirin
20 ml soy sauce 
水+酒、みりん、しょう油の割合は5:1:1。
よって、
水+酒 100 ml
みりん 20 ml
しょう油 20 ml
使いました。
 
I simply rinsed each fillet with running water, made an x cut in the middle, and put in a large frying pan.
切り身をそれぞれ流水で洗って、真ん中にX字の切り込みを入れ、大きなフライパンに入れました。 
 
Shimofuri (frosting) is a common step, but I omitted it. (I once did shimofuri, but I didn't like the resulant flavor; I thought that shimofuri made the fish bland.) I added the seasonings mentioned above, brought to a boil, placed two sheets of paper towel in place of an otoshi buta, and simmered for less than 10 minutes until done.
霜降りが一般的ですが、私は省略しました(以前に霜降りをしたことがあるのですが、味が気に入りませんでした。霜降りをしたせいで、魚が味気なくなったと思いました)。上記の調味料を入れ、沸騰させ、落し蓋の代わりにキッチンペーパーを2枚載せ、火が通るまで10分未満煮ました。
 
If you like yours on the sweet side, add some sugar.
甘くしたければ、砂糖を少し足して下さい。
 

7 comments:

Fräulein Trude said...

Sounds very delicious. Sadly our chinese asian food marked stopped selling japanese products. I think it was shortly after 安倍 晋三 visited the war shrine but I don't dare to ask. The online supplier sells Hon mirin for about 14.90 Euro (1 liter). Before I payed less. Now I use a taiwanese product: Wan Ja Shan Mirin.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: That's too bad! I got mine (750 ml) at a bargain price of 200 yen. I got two of them one day, tried it, found it was good, and got another another day.

okasan said...

The use of paper towel can replace otoshi buta? I thought that the otoshi buta has to have some weight to it. I never really understand fully the use of the otoshi buta, can you explain?

Hiroyuki said...

okasan: Paper towel is a better substitute for an otoshi buta. A wooden otoshi buta can get smelly very easily, and requires a lot of care. An otoshi buta or something similar is not optional but required if the liquid level is lower than the ingredients being cooked to help the liquid circulate evenly and keep it from evaporating.

okasan said...

Regarding to the otoshi buta, if the sole purpose is to help circulate liquid and to keep it from evaporation, wouldn't a lid does the same job? Does it have anything to do with the direct contact of the food and the otoshi buta?

Hiroyuki said...

okasan: Just as you say, direct contact is the key. A lid does not do the same job. You can easily test the effectiveness of an otoshi buta for yourself by making some simmered dish with and without an otoshi buta.

I would recommend paper towel, while others use parchment paper/aluminum foil (with or without a hole at the center).

okasan said...

I will experiment next time, thanks for the explanation!