Hiramasa Kingfish Usuzukuri

It's about time that I posted about this dish from our Christmas Eve Degustation


but I'm sort of running ahead of myself as this wasn't the first time I made it so it differs from the recipe that I'll be presenting.

I first saw the recipe for Leatherjacket Usuzukuri in the latest Travel & Leisure Magazine (if you follow that magazine link, it will take you to the article). The article was all about Tetsuya Wakuda's visit of Japan (how brilliant would it be to visit Japan with him) and included several recipes of which this is one. As soon as I saw it, I just wanted to make it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any leatherjacket available at my fishmonger so I used Hiramasa Kingfish


An interesting part of this dish is the garnish - in the first version I've used a mixture of micro herbs





while the Christmas eve version added micro leaves to the equation. Micro leaves are a mix of tiny salad leaves. If you can't find micro herbs, just pick out the smallest herb leaves you can find and use them.

Don't be tempted to omit the garnish as it brings a lovely vibrancy of colour, flavour and texture to the whole dish.

Hiramasa Kingfish "Usuzukuri"

hiramasa kingfish fillet

Dressing:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
pickled ginger, sliced finely
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of caster sugar and white pepper

Garnish:
a mix of micro herbs and micro leaves
chives, sliced into batons
spring onion, sliced into batons, white part only
sea salt flakes
extra virgin olive oil

Make the dressing:
Do use the quantities only as a guide - make it to suit your taste preference be. I've used pickled ginger but you may like to follow the original recipe and use fresh grated ginger - feel free to experiment.

Place the dressing ingredients into a bowl and whisk, taste and adjust to suit. Remember that it should be balanced with no flavour dominating.

Prepare the fish:
Carefully slice the kinfgish into fine slivers. Arrange these to cover the base of your serving dish - it is best to use a recessed dish so that when you pour the dressing over you won't lose any.

Complete the dish:

Give the dressing a final whisk and pour over the arranged kingfish. Drizzle over with a little extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle over with the chive batons followed by the spring onions. Finish with the micro herbs and leaves and a little sea salt, if desired.



In the Christmas Eve version, shown at the top of the post, I've used a mix of Hapuka and Hiramasa Kingfish, decreased the amount of soy and added Salmon roe for an extra treat.