Raw fish from the sea

"It turns out that sushi made with hot mustard tastes mostly of raw fish and hot mustard. Who could have predicted that?" Chris Worfolk's Blog

Raw fish - very expensive if you do as they say and only buy sashimi grade - and also probably not what most of us would nominate as a favourite food. Japanese sushi lovers apart I guess.

But one thing that bothered me slightly as I was researching this post was what is the difference between sashimi and sushi?

Well this picture shows the basic difference. On the left is pure sashimi - raw fish of supreme quality, sliced exactly and served as is - with some wasabi or soy sauce in which to dip it. Mystique par excellence. And probably what our opening quote was referring to.

Indeed my author of today - Nick Fisher - whom I shall come to shortly - says of nigiri - next in the line in the Japanese raw fish world:

"It's arguably a lot easier to throw a whole head-on-guts-out one a barbecue than to render it into elegant boneless, uncooked bite-sized pieces."

This is a picture of his nigiri - I'm not sure whether this is sashimi nigiri or sushi niguri - I've seen both. At it's most perfect it is the exquisitely placed slice of raw fish balanced on top of some cooked rice with vinegar in a curved shape - as in the above photograph at the right. It's that shape because it's designed to be eaten in the hands. This also can be dipped in wasabi or soy sauce. The less exquisite version shown above here is Nick Fisher's which sort of proves his point.

Sushi is a term that covers a whole range of different genres but generally involves things rolled around or stuffed inside that vinegary rice. Sushi is everywhere. And it's not always fish either. I went to our nearby shopping mall today which is in an area with a high proportion of Asian origin citizens and so there are masses of Asian food stores - including about half a dozen sushi specialists. I meant to take a photograph but didn't, so this one grabbed from the net will have to do.

Not my kind of thing really - but that's just me.

However, this is not a post about sushi and sashimi.

It's a first recipe post from the next book in the River Cottage handbooks - Sea Fishing - by Nick Fisher.

And as, with all of these books it's not primarily a cookbook and is very British. Really it's all about recreational sea fishing - the kind you do for fun with your friends on a day when the sea is calm and the sun is shining. Not battling the sea and the elements on a daily basis for your living. That said there is a very comprehensive rundown of how to get yourself equipped, and how to do it as well as a fish by fish description of how best to catch them, and what to do with them if you are lucky enough to catch any. And you don't have to be on a boat of course, for this kind of fishing, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, in his introduction, talks about fishing with a small net in rockpools as a child - because that's where it begins. Then you can fish from a pier, the beach or from a rock - much more dangerous - the rocks that is. So I didn't read any of that because it doesn't appeal, but very useful for those who are passionate about such pastimes - and as they say - as pastimes go it's a good one because - if you are lucky - there is something to eat at the end of it all.

Unlike the other handbooks I have covered so far, there are not really many actual recipes here - it's more a run down of the different ways of preparing fish, with perhaps one recipe to illustrate each method.

So today it's the first section - raw fish - with begins with the sashimi and sushi, covers gravlax - which to my mind is not really raw and neither is pickled mackerel. But there is also ceviche?

I think I first came across ceviche somewhere in the South Pacific and therefore assumed that it was a South Pacific dish. But apparently not. It's actually from Peru - and I may well have talked about it before. This kind of dish is never restricted to one country however, and throughout Latin America there are other versions. And elsewhere in the world there are similar things.

This is Nick Fisher's version, for which he uses fish such as black bream, sea bass, gurnard, pouting and pollock - not all of which we have here, but we do have similar ones of course. You fillet your fish and then either slice or chop it into chunks, before soaking in citrus - he has a mixture of lemon, lime and orange - and adding flavours such as chilli, garlic, sugar, red onion, celery and salt and pepper.

Felicity Cloake goes through her usual quest for perfection, with Ceviche describing it as:

"the perfect zingy dish for a warm autumn day. American chef Rick Moonen describes it as a "citrus cocktail", which sounds about right."

And Jamie Oliver also joins in with his Peruvian ceviche. Which sort of proves how fashionable Peruvian ceviche (and other food) is in Britain these days.

I'm pretty sure that this kind of thing is what I ate all those years ago in the South Pacific but it seems that the islanders of that vast ocean have a different approach which includes coconut milk as well. The Tongans call it 'Ota ika - apparently those islands' national dish as descibed by Sela Atiola in The Guardian. I also found a YouTube short video by Phil Meets Food, showing you how to do it. Other islands have different names and slightly different ingredients, but always including the coconut milk, as in a possibly not quite authentic Tahitian poisson cru - from Donna Heiderstadt/The Spruce Eats; and even Ottolenghi puts his spin on it with his Chilled coconut broth with salmon crudo and sesame-aleppo oil 

The Europeans do not seem to be quite as devoted to absolutely raw fish from their own cuisines, although they are devotees of the Japanese sushi and very much into pickling, curing and smoking fish.

The Italians however do crudo - of which this

Tuna crudo from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook is an example. Same technique as ceviche but slightly different flavourings. A kind of fish carpaccio.

There are many, many other world dishes of raw fish, and Wikipedia has a list of many of them. So if you feel like doing this, just make sure that your fish is very fresh, and if you can afford it, sashimi grade.

YEARS GONE BY

May 25

2025 - Choose a colour, make a sauce

2024 - Making cheese at home

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Devilled eggs

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - A new very old wine - Picpoul de pinet

2018 - Sumptuous but light

2017 - Nothing