Temting Arts: Food Presentation

Ingredients:

Cutting and arranging for convenience and beauty

Horaku-yaki platter featuring plenty of seafood and vegetables all steamed and grilled together, on a plate made of unglazed pottery. Garnished with autumn leaves to savor the season.

So how about preparing the food? Murata says the first rule of thumb is: “Cut the ingredients so chopsticks can handle them easily. At the traditional table you won't use a knife, so the food is cut up beforehand in the kitchen. The standard for length, the norm you generally aim for, is 1 sun (about 3 cm). It is said that an ingredient sliced to about 3 × 2 × 1 cm gives the best eating experience. These dimensions are standard for sashimi (sliced raw fish). But there are exceptions, of course. For example, the distinctive flavor and texture of bamboo shoots are best enjoyed by biting into the fibers and chewing off half a piece—so we cut them into lengths of 2 sun (about 6 cm), not the general standard of 1 sun. This makes for two mouthfuls per piece.”

Kaiseki ryori traditional cuisine for guests sets the standard (it is served as part of the tea ceremony). The sashimi arrives nicely arranged on a plate called mukozuke. Odd numbers were customarily thought to be lucky, and it is still standard to serve an odd number of pieces of sashimi, perhaps five, so the size of the mukozuke plate takes this into account. The soy sauce dip comes in a flat dish big enough, but not too big, for one sashimi piece at a time.

Murata says, “It might seem that there are too many different sizes of tableware, but each piece is made for a certain purpose, and that decides the size.”

Tataki duck steak. The outside of the pieces of meat are quickly grilled, then removed from the heat and cut into lengths of about 1 sun (3 cm) to make each piece a convenient mouthful.

The food is arranged for convenience—the cut pieces are organized on the plate so that they can be managed easily, from right to left, with chopsticks held in the right hand. And the food is piled higher at the back of the plate than at the front, again to make it easy for chopsticks. A fish served whole will have the head on the left, with the thicker dorsal part away from you. The head can be stabilized with the left hand, giving the chopsticks in the other hand a steady plate to work on.

Another general rule is to select food that presents a combination of five colors. In nature, food ingredients tend to be greens, reds, yellows, browns and black. The chef uses combinations of these hues to present attractive color arrangements. Somehow, these combinations end up giving the meal a nutritional balance as well. Japanese cuisine offers visual beauty, and the beauty of convenience and experience.

Sea bream sashimi. Each piece is cut to dimensions of about 3 × 2 × 1 cm. The small shallow dish is just the right size for dipping the sashimi pieces in the soy sauce, one by one. This example of Kyo ryori cuisine was presented by Kikunoi restaurant (Tel: +81-75-561-0015). English-language website

Sushi and Sashimi Part 2

How to clean and de-bone a sea bream

The phrase san-mai ni orosu is often used in association with preparing fish. It means to cut the fish into three pieces: two fillets of flesh and one piece with the backbone.
Before filleting, be sure to clean the fish well. First, remove the scales, then slit right through to the inside of the belly and remove the guts. Use plenty of running water to wash out the blood, any remaining scales and small bones. Drain off the water quickly, then wipe well with a dry cloth.

1 After gutting the fish, use a brush to clean out any remaining slime, etc.

2 Slit the underside by drawing the knife toward you.

3 Insert the tip of the blade first, and cut along the backbone joints to remove the backbone.

4 Use the tip of the blade to carefully cut down as far as the tail.

5 Finally, cut right through to the top of the fish.

Preserving fish the old-fashioned way Wasabi (Japanese horseradish) is an essential part of the sushi or sashimi eating experience. Its spicy taste brings out the flavor of the ingredients, and it acts as an antibacterial agent as well. Even in the old days before electric refrigeration, there were ways to slow down the deterioration of raw fish. Here are two ways. 1. Beta-jio: Place fillets in a container that contains plenty of salt. Make sure the fillets are completely surrounded by salt. Leave in a cool place (about 10°C). After the salt has absorbed the moisture from the fish, wash it off. Su-arai: Next, soak in vinegar. You can improve the fragrance by adding slices of a citrus fruit to the vinegar. For this example our chef used a mackerel. This and other fish with shiny bluish backs may cause a bad reaction when eaten raw, but you can prevent this by reducing the bacteria through long periods of salting and soaking in vinegar. 2. Kobu-jime: Measure out salt weighing about 2% of the filleted fish weight, and sprinkle it over the fillets. Leave for 5 to 6 hours. Moisten kombu seaweed with vinegar or saké then wrap it around the fillets.

Eat It Raw: How to Prepare Sushi and Sashimi

Some of the seafood displayed on this plate of sushi and sashimi: prawn, sea urchin, herring roe, tuna, sea bream, horse mackerel, squid. Chefs need a good eye for freshness and ingredients, and a skilled hand for cutting. That is the key to delicious and attractive servings. Japan is an archipelago in East Asia, surrounded by water where many varieties of fish thrive. It would be hard to talk about Japanese cuisine without mentioning fish, including, of course, the art of preparing it raw for the table. Fish has long been an important part of Japan's culinary culture, and this culture offers a treasure house of seafood knowledge to learn from. Raw fish—not an old tradition It was only about 150 years ago in Japan that it became common to eat fish that could be considered truly raw. Before then, fish was sometimes eaten uncooked, but it was salted and/or treated with vinegar to prevent deterioration through bacterial action. After soy sauce became available around the middle of the 16th century, some people would cut up raw fish, dip pieces in the sauce and eat it, but this practice spread to the common folk only around the middle of the 19th century. And actually, eating raw fish only became widespread after World War II, thanks to advances in electrical refrigeration, trucking, and urban sanitation, including garbage removal. The Japanese had always eaten seafood, however, and had developed a wide repertoire of culinary techniques, and this knowledge was adapted to preparing raw fish. One technique, ikejime, is an unusual way to kill the fish and ensure the ultimate in freshness and taste. A few years ago I showed this method to the famous French chef, Alain Ducasse, whom I am lucky enough to count among my friends. I used a sea bass caught off the Bretagne coast. Knives: Tools for the expert Japanese cuisine calls for a wide variety of knives, each one designed for a specific job and a certain type of ingredient. Here are just a few examples. From top right, down: hamo-giri bocho (blade 36 cm long; for cutting fish with many small bones); yanagi-ba bocho (for sashimi—the long blade is drawn toward you when cutting, so as not to crush the fish fibers); maguro-hiki bocho (for cutting fish that has little fiber—cut straight down); fugu-hiki bocho (for cutting very thin slices); deba bocho (thick heavy blade for filleting large fish); and usuba bocho (mainly for chopping vegetables up fine). In ikejime, as soon as the fish is taken out of the sea, a special hooked tool is used to crush its hindbrain. The heart keeps beating and pumping blood. The idea is to get the fish to pump out its own blood by cutting arteries in the gills and tail. You have to remove the blood because otherwise the fish will retain an unpleasant fishy smell. And you have to restrain the fish because otherwise it will flap about, making the flesh less tasty. A fish restrained the ikejime way is only half dead—it is so fresh that the muscles still move a little. That is the time to eat it. Monsieur Ducasse was amazed, and seemed very pleased with the taste. Sashimi and sushi Sashimi and sushi are the best known ways to serve raw fish. The word “sashimi” used to mean any sliced up food, including vegetables and tofu. The food is cut into bite-size pieces, either with the grain or against it, always with the aim of getting the best taste. Sashimi is cuisine made with knives. We have a saying, kasshu hoju (cutting is the most important, cooking comes second). We could interpret this to mean that sashimi is superior to cooked food. Because cutting is so important, we have a wide variety of knives to choose from. They are our most important tools, and I sharpen mine until I could shave with them. One of my daily routines is sharpening knives. Sushi is now popular worldwide. Hand-molded sushi consists of two parts—an easy-to-handle clump of rice seasoned with vinegar, and a topping of raw or cooked seafood. Years ago, sushi developed as a food that was treated to keep it fresh, but today the hand-molded version is rice with some topping. The vinegar is a preservative and helps prevent the ingredients from deteriorating. The photo shows some types of seafood ideal to be eaten raw: sea bream, prawns, horse mackerel, squid, turban shell, saury and abalone. Other types not shown here include: tuna, bonito, flatfish (flounder), yellowtail and sea bass. Choosing the fish, and preparation method It is hard to say which fish are best for your sushi because your country may not have the types I mention. One quick rule of thumb: larger fish like tuna are generally good to eat raw. Tuna blood is rich in iron and its amino acids break down slowly during the fermentation process, so tuna is ideal for eating raw. Small fish, especially those with shiny bluish backs, like sardines, tend to bruise easily, and even the Japanese will not eat them raw unless they are super fresh. Keep fish at about 0°C because the protein fibers are shorter than in meat, making it easier for microorganisms to propagate. Carefully remove all of the scales and inner organs. Cleaning the fish properly is even more important than true freshness. When cutting and cleaning the fish, keep your knives, the knife handles, the cutting board and your hands as clean as possible. Seafood suitable for sushi can be prepared in three ways: ·raw ·sprinkled with salt and/or allowed to sit in vinegar for a while ·cooked by simmering or grilling. Here are some examples of seafood eaten raw: tuna, sea bream, prawn, squid, sea bass, young yellowtail, and flatfish (flounder). Fish with shiny, bluish backs may cause an unpleasant or allergic reaction, so if you want to serve them, place them in salt first for a while to inhibit bacterial action. Again: your hands touch the raw fish at every step until the sushi reaches the table, so cleanliness is absolutely essential, even more than for sashimi. This is true not only for your hands but for the entire kitchen as well. Cleanliness is the law for the sushi chef. After all, the food we eat must be safe to eat. I hope people all over the world will come to truly appreciate the fine flavor of Japanese cuisine, especially the wealth of knowledge found in our many fish recipes. And I certainly hope readers will experience the profound enjoyment that comes from eating fish in its natural state. How to make sure the fish is fresh: Above left: Touch beside a gill lightly. It should be soft. Above center: The underside of the gills should be reddish in color. Above right: The eyes should be clear.