How to Buy, Cook and Eat Raw Fish

Raw fish preparations such as sashimi, gravlax and crudo may seem like something you should only trust the professionals, but if you know your business, you can actually buy, cook and enjoy raw food in the cozy comfort of your own home. …

What to look for when buying fillet fish

If you’ve been curious about eating raw finned creatures before, you’ve probably seen or heard the term “sushi variety.” It does sound like the fish you are looking for, but the term is essentially meaningless. It is commonly used in stores to mean “the highest quality food we have,” but “sort of sushi” is a completely unregulated term, meaning that fish sellers can safely impose it on whatever they want. In fact, the only FDA requirement is to freeze fish that may contain parasites (such as salmon) before eating raw.

Due to the fact that there are so few rules for raw seafood, you must constantly be vigilant when purchasing fish that will not see heat. This means asking a lot of questions and using different senses to spot any suspicious business, so to speak. Buying from a seller you know and trust is the right way to go, but if you don’t have a relationship with a local seafood merchant, here are a few things to check on your first visit:

• Find out where it came from: If your fishmonger can’t tell you right away where it came from, it’s a red flag. A good fish market needs to have close relationships with its suppliers and be able to tell you when and where it was caught, how far it got, and how it was treated.
• Make eye contact: Whole fish should still have eyes and should be “clean and slightly bulging” according to the FDA .
• Breathe in: good fresh fish shouldn’t smell too much. In fact, if it smells fishy, ​​sour, or has an ammonia-like aroma, it should be avoided entirely.
• Touch It: Remember to ask before touching the item (and use a piece of waxed paper or something else), but both whole fish and fillets should have a firm, shiny flesh that bounces off when pressed.
• Look closely at it and check for discoloration: according to the FDA , “fillets should not be discolored, darkened or dry at the edges,” and all fish should “have firm, shiny flesh and bright red gills free of milky mucus.”
• Ask for more information on salmon: As mentioned above, fish prone to parasites should be frozen beforehand, so ask how your fishmonger handles salmon intended for raw consumption.
• Look around the store: In addition to visually inspecting the fish, you should look around the store itself. A messy or messy work environment indicates a lack of attention, and cleanliness is obviously important when dealing with raw seafood.

Also, make sure your fishmonger knows that you are going to consume his fish raw. If they are hesitant or trying to talk you out of it, cross them off your list and look elsewhere for tuna. If the fish from your local supplier has passed the above inspection without damage, you are most likely fine. After purchasing, quickly bring this fish home and eat it within a day or two. (If you need some inspiration on exactly how to do this, we have a few recipes below.)

How are your goods

By purchasing super fresh and super beautiful fish, it can be cooked and eaten. Given the fact that the whole point of these dishes is to highlight a great piece of seafood, the most important part of preparation is how you cut it.

Cut it

Sashimi is just raw chunks of great fish served with soy sauce or maybe yuzu. You don’t need to cook here, but you have to do a little bit of knife work. Helen Rennie can walk you through the entire process in the video above – starting with removing the skin and dividing the fish into saku blocks, but the basic procedure is as follows:

1. Remove the skin by inserting a boning knife into the tail, taking a flap of skin and pulling the skin to the left while cutting to the right. Cut off the tail and save for cooking. (It has too much connective tissue for raw food.)
2. Cut out a white line down the center of the fish, which may be “unpleasantly chewy” when raw.
3. Set the belly aside and remove the row of pin bones by cutting the flesh on both sides.
4. Remove the pedigree from the middle piece of fish. You now have three blocks of saku, fish pieces divided into sections according to the direction of the grain.

For salmon, the process is slightly different, but the video explains the process very clearly, so be sure to watch it in its entirety. When you have saku blocks, you are ready to slice them. Start with the fish diagonally, take a very sharp knife – Rennie likes this one – and, pressing down on the left side of the fish, slide the knife through the fish, starting at the very back of the knife. It’s important to start from the back as this allows you to get clean edges by slicing the fish in one smooth motion. When working with fish with pronounced grain, be sure to cut it perpendicularly, otherwise your sashimi will turn out to be chewy. Salmon can be a little tricky – the grains in the thickest bite may warp slightly, so start with a lighter fish like tuna to build your confidence.

Dress it up

Now that all of your fish is broken down into delicious little pieces, you’re ready to eat. How much you want to dress up the fish is up to you, and there are tons of delicious options:

• Simple Sashimi: Simply place the slices on chilled bowls with a little soy sauce and wasabi paste. You can add soy sauce to the side, or sprinkle with garlic and sesame seeds, like Chawound does here .
• The popular Poke: Poke Bowl are very trendy right now, which makes sense because they are filling, customizable and delicious. Just start with the sushi and fish rice of your choice and go crazy with toppings like avocado, chopped radish, pickled ginger, or even crispy fried shallots or garlic. For extra flavor, add some soy sauce, ponzu, and green onions to the fish before serving. (If you need help making sushi rice, Bon Appetit can show you how .)
• Great Gravlax: Given the fact that gravlax is curable, it is slightly safer than untreated raw fish in terms of germs, so it might be a good place to start if you’re a little shy. It also takes a little more prep work, but the results are worth it. Daniel Gritzer has a complete guide at Serious Eats , but the wait is the hardest part. After soaking the skinned salmon fillets in a bowl of cold salted water, remove, dry and sprinkle with a mixture of salt, sugar, ground cumin, coriander seeds and white pepper on the skin of the fish. … Place it skin side down on top of the dill layer and rub the other side with more mixture. Sprinkle with dill on top, cover everything with plastic and refrigerate for a day. Remove it from the refrigerator, turn it over, cover it again, and return it to the ice box for another day or two until it heals to your liking. Whisk in delicious mustard sauce (Gritzer has a great recipe) and serve with pumpernickel.
• Cool Crudo: Unlike sashimi, crudo is more dependent on ingredients and may be a better choice if you’re diving into the world of raw fish enjoyment. There are many good recipes, and most of them start with a good amount of high quality olive oil. I am personally a fan of this one from the Washington Post which has capers, lemon, basil, shallots, and paprika flakes.

For all of the above preparations, keep everything as chilled as possible until you are ready to serve, and use chilled plates to make them even more appealing. Many people are fans of raw meat, but there is nothing attractive (or safe) about a plate of room temperature fish.

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