Salmon & Hamachi Nigira Sushi

Salmon & Hamachi Nigiri Sushi

We made the sushi rice by adding in salt, sugar, and vinegar. We halved the recipe, but we still yielded 22 pieces of nigiri sushi, 8 pieces of hamachi and 14 pieces of salmon. We picked up the sushi-grade fish from Nijiya in San Mateo. On the packages, the hamachi said, "Previously Frozen," while the salmon said, "Fresh." At the time of purchase, we didn't know how different this would be. The "Frozen" one is a bit cheaper. As we were cutting the fish, we noticed the hamachi tasted a little fishy, whereas the salmon was very good. We're not sure if this had anything to do with the "Frozen" vs "Fresh" packaging, since we had two different types of fish. But, next time, we'd opt for the "Fresh."

We placed the cut fish on top of the balled up rice with a dab of Japanese mustard (we didn't have wasabi on hand) in between. When eating the hamachi with the sushi rice, you don't notice the fishy taste as much. One thing we noticed was that we used too much rice per fish cut. A fish pieces could easily make you full. We learned how important the rice to fish ratio is. Next time we'll monitor the ratio to get a better balance. Also, for presentation, a good rule-of-thumb is to have the fish slightly larger than the rice so that is drapes over a bit. Also, in slicing the fish, cut on a diagonal to yield lengthier cuts to get a more rectangle shape.

Overall, the nigiri tasted good, and it was easy to prepare and assemble. The key is to have fresh fish, make good sushi rice, and to balance out the ratio between the two.

Sushi Rice Dressing: Vinegar, Sea Salt, Sugar.

Rice with Kombu.

Fish.

Slicing the Hamachi.

Assembling the Hamchi Nigiri.

Plated Hamachi Nigiri Sushi.

Cutting the Salmon.

Assembling the Salmon Nigiri.

Plated Salmon Nigiri Sushi.

Steak au Poivre: Saucy!

Eating Steak with Herbed Frites.

We picked up a few New York steaks from Costco in preparation for this dish. While the steaks were being made, I was focused on making the fries, which I have already made a post about.

This post... is about steak! Anyway, prior to our trial, we had seen Andrew and Yurah's posting and I noticed in their photos, their sauce was yellowish. We had very different results.

As per the recipe, we tried tor crush whole peppercorns. We didn't get the green ones, but instead used mixed black and white peppercorns. I think here, we didn't really know how fine to crush them. Since crushing was fairly difficult without a mortar and pestal (or without a vice!), we left them fairly rough.

Then the mustard was added to one side of the steaks while the cast iron was heating up. We weren't sure which side went down, the mustard side or the bottom side. But we figured, it must be the mustard side to get it into the pan. As the mustard touched down on the fiery black metal, the mustard seems to burn up. We let it cook for 3 minutes, then flipped it. We questioned whether we should have added mustard to both sides, and after some discussion, we added mustard on the bare side, now facing the top. Then, into the oven the cast iron went with its temporary inhabitants.

Once done, the steaks were put out on plates to rest, and the cut shallots were tossed into the pan with the remnants of seared meat crust, crispened mustard, and near whole, but somewhat softened peppercorns. Then the wine was poured in. Anything's better with wine. Especially red wine.

The wine reduced a bit and an interesting sauce was born. We scooped the red-gray concoction onto the steak, and we were done. But our sauce didn't look too appetizing. The mixture of mustard yellow with maroon-red wine resulted in a muddy looking sauce that sat between us and our medium-rare protein.

Frites dropped by, on a plate asking to accompany our steaks. We obliged and dug in. However unappealing the sauce looked, it actually tasted pretty good. I would eat this again, but maybe figure out how to make it look better. In fact, I thought, it'll look better with some fries on top... and voila... Steak Frites!! Anyway, Kirk and Ei-lun's photos of the steaks looked awesome, and inspired us to step up our presentation. So check out our Scallop and Endives photo! =P

New York steaks from Costco.

Crushing peppercorns and prepping the herbs for the fries.

Putting Dijon on the steaks.

Steaks are ready to go into the cast iron.

Let the searing begins.

Shallots with wine. Where'd the mustard go?

Adding the red wine/mustard sauce on top of the steaks.

Steak with sauce.

Frites + Steak = Steak Frites!