Nitsuke, Tried and Improved
03 March 2009
Fish nitsuke is a wonderful dish. It literally means something like fish "boiled and marinated" or "boiled in marinade", and it essentially fish stewed together with lots of sliced ginger in a mixture of sake, water, mirin, soy sauce and sugar. As the fish gets soaked through and through with the juice, it becomes extremely tender and takes on an intense and yet very fine taste.
We’ve eaten this dish in various places, with various kinds of fish, but I can well remember the moment we had it for the first time, which was during our first shared trip to Japan (in fact, our honeymoon). After we had been overwhelmed by 5 days of strongly tasting fish for every meal including breakfast, we were, to put it mildly, slightly fed up with fishy tastes, but as we stayed in traditional ryokans with set menus of local specialties we had no choice. We each got a plate with just a big head on it, the rest of the fish missing, and as we saw it we were not so confident we would appreciate it too much. But as we tried the fish we immediately fell for it – the flesh was so incredibly soft and juicy and aromatic and not "fishy" at all, and this remains one of our most memorable dinners during that journey.
This little episode aside, nitsuke is not only great at restaurants, but also a really convenient dish to prepare at home – you only need some good fish, the few condiments for the juice and a bit of time. I recently spotted a nitsuke recipe in Harumi Kurihara’s beautiful quarterly magazine (volume 10, the 2009 winter edition). For an even stronger taste, she suggests replacing the usual water with more sake, and I liked the idea (I very slightly altered the proportions in my version, but essentially followed the recipe, except for using a different type of fish).
I recently gave the recipe a first try, but did it in a bit of a hurry; there was no cooking time stated in the original recipe, but I think I didn’t cook the fish long enough for it to really take on the taste of the sauce, and also the bits of ginger remained somewhat chewy. Kind of yummy, but not good enough, I figured, to post the recipe quite yet – more trials required. Simon was happy to be my guinea pig again for a second go last weekend (even more so as the dish involves a lot of ginger…). This time I just left the fish simmering lightly for about 2 hours, while spending a cozy afternoon on the couch. I had to be a bit careful then lifting my tender filets of sea bream out of the juice, as they were almost falling apart (in my usual laziness, I had bought some neatly cleaned filets rather than whole fish…). The taste came out delicious! Ready to post…
Nitsuke of Sea Bream Filets
| serves 4 |
| 4 sea bream filets (about 100g each) |
| 240ml sake |
| 5 tablespoons soy sauce |
| 4 table spoons mirin |
| 2 tablespoons fine white sugar |
| 1 ginger root, preferably young and tender |
Pick a pan that is just exactly big enough to accommodate the pieces of fish without overlapping. In there, heat the sake, the soy sauce, the mirin and dissolve the fine white sugar, then add the sea bream filets (or other fish you choose). Peel the ginger, cut it into very fine slices and sprinkle them over fish and sauce. Cover with a lid and let simmer very lightly for some 2 hours or so, checking on it from time to time.
When done, cautiously lift the fish out of the saucepan (it might be so tender it tends to fall apart) onto plates or bowls and pour the juice over. Best served with a bowl of Japanese rice (personally I always prefer making it sushi rice, i.e. adding a mixture of sushi vinegar, sugar and salt, than leaving it just plain white).
| Suggestions to Combine |
|---|
