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.

Iwashi no kara-age… healthy fried fish

It’s not too good to eat lots of fried food. But once in a while… And there are tricks to make it healthier.

Not many other ways to prepare those sardines tiny like fingers. They are called “komame” (small beans) on the package. Sardine is a healthy food, with the good omega and they don’t contain toxic elements like the big fish.

Kara-age. Coated in starch and fried.

Then I use paper to take out the excess of oil. And reheat them in the oven-toaster. And put them on more paper. They become really lighter and pleasantly crusty.

The second tip is to balance with raw vegetables. That makes a final dish not too caloric. Then , the raw cabbage is said to make fat easier to digest.
The dark green leaves are radish leaves. Cut and salted 15 minutes before, like the cukes.

That gives this :

A crunchy sand !
The dressing is lemon juice + water * balsamico and a little salt.
It’s really delicious and fresh at the same time.

With sweet chili sauce too.

Or just lemon.

Petits poissons dans la friture…

Swimming in the plate.

In the sea, from that page.

In the shop.

In my kitchen.

It’s called gaccho. ガッチョ
I have read that they are the most thrown away fish. And that’s true they sell them very cheap. Why do you think people don’t buy them ? They are surely less loaded in heavy metals than the big tuna or whale. The taste ? I found them excellent, fine flesh, not too firm, not too soft, delicate taste. I think that’s just ignorance. That’s not as bad as in Europe where I know so many people that would never buy fish if the fishmonger does not cuts it an prepares square shaped filets, but many young people wouldn’t buy anything but the 10 most common species of fish.

They were too small for something else, so I just fried them. I ate them with a mix of matcha (tea powder) and salt. It’s an alternative to the soy sauce for tempura.

The fried gaccho fish. Brown rice with cereal mix.
Sticks of daikon radish, which favors the digestion of fried food. A few pieces of young onion (salted and rinced).
The green lasagna is sashimi konnyaku, it is eaten with the beige sauce is miso with vinegar.

Cal 447.6 F16.5g C47.1g P37.4g

Fr :
Ces petits poissons sont des gacchos, ils ne sont pas tres prises. Ce serait un des poissons peches les plus “jetes”. Pourtant c’est tres bon, une chair de texture ideale et un gout fin.
Je les mange avec un melange de sel et de matcha (the en poudre).
Avec du radis daikon, qui favorise la digestion de friture, de l’oignon jeune degorge et rince. Ces pates vertes sont du “sashimi konnyaku”. La sauce est un melange de miso et de vinaigre de riz. Celle du commerce est sucree, pas la mienne.