Photo by Lars Ranek

Yellow Tail Upside Down Sashimi

Japanese food is often paired with Peruvian, Brazilian and Mexican ingredients. It’s really no wonder: the passion and fire of South American food is the perfect compliment to the controlled nature of Japanese food. This style of Japanese cuisine is often called Nikkei and has evolved rapidly over the last 2 decades most famously with international restaurants like Nobu, Roka and SushiSamba.

This is my micro contribution to this evolution and this recipe was first included in Simple Japanese to became a classic dish on our restaurant menu, and even more so after we started collaborating with Cleansea from Australia. They farm the most beautiful kings fish in the pristine waters of the Spencer Gulf in Southern Australia. Cleansea were originally farming yellow tail, but since moved to the Southern Hemisphere native species of hiamasa and have recently achieved the ASC accreditation. Hiramasa freezes particular well making it suitable for global export.

I turned this idea ‘upside down’ to ensure that the fish would not over marinate in its dressing which effectively would turn it into a ceviche. This is the ballerina of sashimi. It takes balance skills to stack, but the result is stunning for perfect mouthfuls of sashimi samba. I recommend to use a sashimi knife for the preparation or a very sharp cooks knife.

Served 4 as a starter or in combination with a sushi meal

1/2 hiramasa fillet, about 600 grams untrimmed

1/2 bunch fresh coriander

1 cucumber

1 large ripe hass avocado

2 fresh jalapeno

5 grams dried wakame seaweed

For the kimchee dressing

2 tablespoons yuzu (or lemon juice)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon kimchee base

Defrost the yellow tail fillet in shallow tray lines with paper towel overnight.

Place the wakame in a bowl, cover with ice cold water and set aside to bloom. Wash the coriander and leave to drip dry in a colander. Wash and then slice the jalapeno chili in disks of a few millimetres, removing any seeds from its core. Wash and cut the cucumbers into 20 disks of 1/2 a centimetre each. Pick perfect pieces of coriander and leave on a piece of kitchen towel.

Quarter. stone and peel avocado. Trim and discard (or snack on) each end from each quarter, then cut each piece diagonally into 5 slim pieces. Drain the dehydrated wakame in a sieve for a few minutes, then roughly chop.

To make the kimchee dressing mix yuzu, honey, soy sauce and kimchee base in a small mixing bowl, Have a quick taste and adjust with any 4 of the ingredients if needed.

To prepare the hiramasa first remove the color from the fillet and set aside. Now cut the fillet into 2 halves and pick the thicker side of the fish, this side is leaner than the belly side and often named the sashimi side. Trim the skin of the loin just a few millimetres below the skin as the red part of the loin is revered as part of the sashimi. Now trim into a saku block trimming either side on the length of the fish. Cut straight down on the saku starting from the heal of the knife cutting forward yourself and cut into 20 pieces about 4 millimetre thick each.

Assemble the sashimi: place cucumber disks on a serving platter, then a piece of hiramasa on top followed by a slice of avocado, Now add the chopped wakame, drizzle dressing on top, add a slice of jalapeno and finish with a coriander leave. The sashimi is ready to serve.

Here are some useful tips: for the belly side this part is great for nigiri or cevishe style dishes. The color I recommend rubbing a kimchee, honey and miso (equal parts of 2 teaspoons each), marinate for 2 hours, rinse and grill for 5-8 minutes until just crisp. Any other off cuts are great in sushi rolls.

Here is a great YouTube video on how to fillet a yellow tail, the chef here is working on the fillet about 3 minutes in to the video.