← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 2 yellowtail (buri) or kingfish fillets (about 250 g)
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp plain flour or potato starch
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp Sake
• 2 tbsp Mirin
• 2 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• ½ Japanese long onion or leek (white part), cut into 4 cm lengths (optional)
• 4 shishito peppers (optional)
• 4 tbsp grated daikon, lightly squeezed (optional)

Method

1. Sprinkle the fish with the salt and leave for 15 min. Pat away the liquid that beads on the surface; it carries the fishy smell with it.
2. Mix the sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar in a cup. Dust the fish lightly with flour.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Lay the fillets in skin side down and fry for 3 min until golden, adding the leek and shishito around them. Flip the fish and cook for 2 min more.
4. Wipe out the excess fat with kitchen paper, keeping the fish in the pan. Pour in the sauce and let it bubble for 1–2 min, spooning it over the fish until it turns thick and glossy.
5. Serve with the vegetables, a mound of grated daikon and any sauce left in the pan.

Tips

• Salmon, mackerel or swordfish work the same way if yellowtail is hard to find.
• Take the pan off the heat as soon as the sauce coats a spoon: it thickens fast and can burn.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles Japanese Cooking 101