Wilson wrote:
> On 07/14/10 11:42 PM, sometime in the recent past Nick Cramer posted this:
>
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> OK, so I've delved in and tried a few times to prepare homemade sushi
>>> and would love to get better at it. I've got fairly simple sushi
>>> tastes - salmon rolls, tuna rollls, sometimes spicy, sometimes not. I
>>> encountered problems when preparing these rolls at home, though, in
>>> that the taste didn't come out right. After the first failure I
>>> thought it was my rice preparation technique, but I've altered the
>>> rice recipe several times and no luck - basically it comes out tasting
>>> really bland. I know tuna and salmon aren't the inherently tastiest
>>> fish in and of themselves, but at a sushi bar I always have been
>>> pleased at the taste and most times don't even need wasabi or ginger
>>> unless I want it. At home, however, it was like eating... nothing.
>>>
>>> I bought sashimi-grade salmon and tuna from a local Japanese
>>> supermarket, and even tried a different market so that wasn't it. Its
>>> almost as if the sushi bars prepare the fish in some way (in some sort
>>> of brine? vinegar?) to bring out the taste a bit more. Is there some
>>> secret to this? I would have thought these would be the easiest
>>> things to prepare at home, but I'm not having any luck and am
>>> stumped.
>>
>>
>> You might try sprinkling a mixture of Dashi and shoyu on the fish
>> (about 2
>> Tbs each for 6 oz of fish), let it marinate for 1/2 hour or so, then
>> drain
>> and pat dry.
>>
>> Also, try spreading a *little* soft, but not runny, wasabi paste on the
>> rice, just before adding the fish.
>>
> The itamae always puts a little 'smear' of wasabi paste on each piece of
> fish before putting it on the rice when making nigiri, so you might be
> right, Nick, that could be the missing part.

If you try the fish as sashimi, with soy and wasabi as you would at
a restaurant and it doesn't taste as good.. its a quality issue.

--
Dan