Home & Lifestyle, Food

Mushimono: Steamed Rockfish

Lesson time 21:08 min

A light, steamed dish offers a heartwarming lift in the middle of a meal. Niki prepares steamed rockfish with potato purée and ankake sauce.

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Topics include: Ankake Sauce · Steaming

Niki Nakayama

Teaches Modern Japanese Cooking

Niki Nakayama of two-Michelin-starred n/naka teaches you how to honor fresh ingredients with her innovative take on Japanese home cooking techniques.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] NIKI: Our next presentation is the mushimono, which is the same dish and we are going to use the remaining parts of our rockfish and steam that up with a little bit of potato puree, and of course dashi, and there's going to be some bell pepper and green onions or scallions, and a little bit of lemon zest. One of the things that we always enjoy having in a Japanese meal is a steam dish, because the steam dish always feels like it brings everything together halfway through the meal. It's very heartwarming and very hardy, on some level, without being overwhelmingly strong or powerful or too rich. And one of the things that we always think about when we're steaming things is the selection of ingredients that we're steaming. We would never choose something that is incredibly fishy or very strong if we're looking for it to do something light. That's why we're going to go ahead and use this rockfish instead of tuna. So the rockfish is really ideal for steaming as well because it has such a mild flavor, and the texture is tender, and it doesn't have the flavor of fish oil that is overwhelming. It's a perfect product for steaming. So Carol and I are going to start this demo with Carol pureeing the potatoes, and I am going to pre steam the rockfish a little bit with-- I'm going to season just a bit with sake to sort of help alleviate any leftover aromas of unwanted fishyness. And then I'm going to put a little bit of soy sauce, too, because it's really nice to impart a little bit of soy sauce flavor with the fish. CAROL: So just a note, the soy sauce that Niki just used in this was the regular dark soy sauce, the standard one you're seeing at the store. And then there's what we like to call light soy sauce, or usukuchi. And that's very different from the low sodium soy sauce that you probably are used to seeing at the markets. The low sodium that you typically see will just be the regular soy sauce minus some of the salt. Whereas in usukuchi, it's more about the color, and also the saltiness will actually be a bit more than regular soy sauce. So that's a clear distinction that we just want to make available, because I think it can be very confusing, because they do look very similar, but they have different applications in the Japanese kitchen. NIKI: And go ahead and finish pre seasoning this fish just a bit with some salt before we steam it. So this steaming is actually a two step process, in that we're going to actually steam the fish first. And the reason why we do that is, although we can steam it all together, we like to do it separately because it helps us sort of purify the fish a bit and make sure that none of the albumin that sometimes seeps out through fish translates onto the finished product, because we want it to make it as clean and as polished as possible. So we'll steam this for four minutes and then finish the steam with another four minutes. One of the things that we want to remind you ...

About the Instructor

The chef and owner of two-Michelin-starred restaurant n/naka in Los Angeles, Niki Nakayama is celebrated for her modern interpretation of kaiseki, a traditional Japanese cuisine. With her partner and sous chef, Carole, Niki will teach you techniques for preparing sashimi, tempura, perfect rice, and more. Learn how to make dishes that honor fresh ingredients as Niki shows you how to cook with care and gratitude.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Niki Nakayama

Niki Nakayama of two-Michelin-starred n/naka teaches you how to honor fresh ingredients with her innovative take on Japanese home cooking techniques.

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