Kibinago no nanban-zuke (fishbait in sour marinade)

Second visit of kibinago fish bait.

南蛮づけ nanban zuke. It’s fried fish, then marinated in a sour sauce. The result is very light on the stomach.

kibinago (silver stripe round herring) are these small mini-fish, often to small to cut them. Perfect for frying.
Wash the fish and drain well water. Sprinkle black pepper and chili pepper or other spices (optional).

Heat frying oil. Pass the fish in potato starch, fry them.

The fried fish, onion, carrot, ginger (grated) a chili pepper.

For the sauce : 1/2 cup water, 2 tbs mirin, 1 tbs soy sauce, 2 tbs sake brought to a boil. Then add 4 tbs of black rice vinegar. Pour on fish and veggies. Cover. Let 30 minutes minimum. I prefer overnight.

The next day.

Renkon (lotus root) in black vinegar with ginger. Green beans and edamame in yuzu citrus juice.

Genmai (brown rice) and miso soup with wakame seaweed.

Aonori kibinago no kara-age

kibinago (silver stripe round herring) are these small mini-fish, often to small to cut them. So frying is the way to go. I’ve seen addition of aonori seaweed for frying and retained the idea.

Kara-age :
Rinse the fish. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Heat frying oil. Mix flour, potato starch and aonori (seaweed flakes).
Pass the fish in the mix of flours and fry. Add a little more aonori on top.

Eat them whole, so you intake all the calcium in the bones.

Sides : lettuce with black rice vinegar, sesame carrots, salted goya (bitter squash) and polished germinated rice.

Jeunes épinards aux civelles

Young spinach with eel bait (ikanago, angulas). Oh, I know those fish lost their shape. Remember I had a lot.

Ten times this quantity. So I poached and froze some. The problem is they get scrambled. But they are still very good.

I fried garlic slices, rings of chili pepper, then heated the stalks of spinach and young onion, added in the fish. I put it on the leaves and added garlic.
Delicious.

Angulas okonomiyaki, free style

Another okonomiyaki… totally different in taste and texture. Ingredients variation gives a new dish.
It’s not classic at all. You can see this little fish. It’s ikanago (small Japanese eel). Yes, I have a big stock…

Cabbage, with a little onion, carrot and ginger. Lots of those fish. An egg is added to the batter. That’s why it gets this golden color.

Sauce is Worcester sauce reheated with tomato paste. Toppings are shredded shiso leaves, flat beans and shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix).

Spring ikanago in Spring rolls, with gomadare sauce

Japanese fresh fish bait, with sweet and sour sesame sauce (goma-dare)…. fusion with Southern rice-paper raw Spring rolls. That’s a very fresh and tasty combo.

Ikanago are small Japanese eels. It’s the season and they were sold raw. These are “produced in Osaka”, so it seems they farm them. I rinsed them in water and boiled quickly in salty water. It is said the water has to have 4% of salt like seawater. Well…roughly, I did that.

Mungo bean sprouts, slightly crushed sesame seeds.

Saya ingen beans, steamed kabocha pumpkin.

All that is rolled inside rice-paper.

Gomadare : The sauce is made by pounding sesame seeds, garlic, dried chili pepper. Then rice vinegar, white miso and brown sugar are mixed in.