Kabayaki

Steamed before it is grilled, then dipped and grilled three times to build the lacquer.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

the fish

• 4 eel fillets, butterflied
• 2 tablespoons sake

tare

• 150 ml soy sauce
• 150 ml mirin
• 60 ml sake
• 30 g sugar

to serve

• 4 portions hot rice
• sansho pepper

Method

1. STEAMED BEFORE IT IS GRILLED, which is the step that makes it soft. Eel is fatty and tough-skinned, and grilling alone gives something chewy. Twenty minutes of steaming renders the fat and collapses the connective tissue, and only then does it meet fire.
2. DIPPED AND GRILLED THREE TIMES. The tare is sugar and soy and burns in a minute over direct heat, so it goes on in thin coats, each set by a short return to the grill. One thick coat gives a black bitter surface over raw sauce.
3. Rinse the fillets and pat dry. Sprinkle with sake and leave 10 minutes -- it takes the muddiness off.
4. Steam skin side up, 20 minutes, until the flesh is pale and yields completely.
5. Handle it carefully from here. Steamed eel falls apart; support the whole length with a spatula.
6. Tare: simmer all four together 10 minutes until lightly syrupy. It should coat a spoon thinly, not thickly.
7. GRILL SKIN SIDE FIRST over a high heat, 2 minutes, until it blisters.
8. Turn, 2 minutes. Then brush with tare, grill 45 seconds, and repeat twice more, finishing flesh side up.
9. The surface should be dark, glossy and slightly tacky, with no wet sauce left on it.
10. Over hot rice with a little more tare, and sansho pepper at the table -- its numbing citrus is what cuts the fat.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes