Hamo no aburi – flames on fish – la murène en flammes

Hamo (Pike Conger, Murene Japonaise) is a popular fish for Summer in Kansai, particularly in Kyoto. It’s a second rate fish for many, but in Japan, it’s considered a delicacy.

A modern way to prepare it is “aburi”. Aburi is bathed by flames. It’s between grilled and raw sashimi. See this for recipe :
Aburi-zushi (flamed)

A piece of hamo. It’s a long eel type fish, so the fishmonger opened it, took away the bones by making many parallele indentation :

That’s why it look as if it had rays.

When you cook the skin, it retracts and the fish slightly rolls on itself… OK, not a pro result. I’m working on it.

It is served simply with a little point of condiment. For instance….

Pasted umeboshi. Take one of those plums (dried and pickled), pit it and mash in a mortar. You can also buy some in tube like mustard and wasabi, which I also used, but really the whole plums are more polyvalent.

Really great… The grilled flavor and the sashimi sweetness, pinpointed by the fruity sourness of the plum.