How to cut fish for sushi

I want to make 2 posts in the very near future: One about how to make a nice fish soup and the other about how to make sushi.

These two recipes depend on each other because for sushi you need the best parts of the fish and you need the leftovers for the fish soup. Therefore, when you buy a fish to make sushi or for any other fish dish, you can cut it according to these directions and put the remains in refrigerator bags and freeze them to use later.

One important note though: For sushi I strongly recommend you to find really fresh fish. Daily if you can. You can use salmon, tuna, mackerel, seabass or any other fish according to the sushi you want to make or whichever is available fresh to you. The techniques here are simple and applicable to almost any fish you choose.

In Istanbul you can go to a fish market, a supermarket or a fish shop to buy fish and fresh fish is available everyday. When you buy a fish you can ask the salesman to prep it for you. However if you are going to make sushi you need to learn to clean and cut your own fish. I usually buy the fish as a whole (except for Salmon, which I usually take one third) and ask them to pack in ice and not to clean it. I do all the cleaning at home. The reason: to keep the skin intact so that the fish will keep fresh and covered in sea water till the last minute. Fresh tap water is not really good for the fish.

Anyway, the fist thing you need to do is to remove the scales. You can do it with a fish scaler or the back of your knife. In both ways you will need to do it inside your sink or inside a nylon bag. Especially if you are new to it be careful because scales fly around and stick to everything and since they are transparent you may find fish scales around your kitchen even days later.

The second thing is to take the fishes guts out. If you have never seen how it is done I suggest you to watch your local fish salesman do it first. You need to make a perfect cut from the bottom fin to the jaw and hold the jaw and pull downwards until the whole digestive system is removed. I warn you that it is not a nice sight. Throw away whatever comes out and wash the inner sides until you see no more organs and scrub using an old toothbrush.

Here I put the photos of steps for cutting a seabass after that:



You should have a nice big cutting board in your kitchen (no matter if it is plastic or wooden) and a very sharp knife. I do not suggest laser knives and a sushi knife is the best but any big sharp knife will do.

First, lay the fish flat on the board. Hold the body with one hand and cut through one side under the first fin on the side. Turn around and do the same thing from the other side. Push to cut the main bone and you will have the head removed. You don't need the head for sushi so this part will go in the fish soup.

Second step is to insert the knife over the bone and cut from the missing head to the tail. This will remove the upper flesh from the main bone. Turn the fish around (this time the main bone will touch the board) and insert the knife once again over the bone and cut towards the tail. This will give you the second part of the flesh.

Now you can take the bone, remove the fins with a kitchen scissors or the knife. Then cut from the center into half. This nice center bone will also be used in the fish soup. Place the head and the center bone in a refrigerator bag and put in your freezer.

Till here, the steps are almost the same for every fish I wrote above. From here onwards there will be differences depending on the kind of fish you use and the type of sushi or sashimi you want to make. For example in seabass the only part with the bones is on the side of the flesh so you can insert the knife cut that part out and then remove the skin to get your perfectly ready fish parts without any bones in it.

I will refer to this post for the fish soup and the sushi/sashimi recipes but you can also bookmark it for most of dishes you will make with fish.

Angler Fish Skewer

Wow, it has really been some time since my last post. Partly, it has to do with the fact that we started a new blog about our baby daughter. The second reason is that we have been busy with work and school and travelling so there was less time to cook. The third reason is that I was diagnosed with high cholestrol but don't panic. It is not because of the food I cook or eat, it is inherited. Now I will consume even more healthy food and write more healthy food.

Anyway, this is enough chit-chat. Now on with the recipe of Angler Fish Skewer.



Here we used 850g of Angler Fish. This is really a nice fish, since there are no bones in its flesh and it tastes great. You first fillet the fish, remove the skin, the center bone is easy to take out. Cut each fillet in half lenghtwise, and then chop each part into 5-6 pieces so you will have big dices to go on a skewer.

Ingredients:

- 850g angler fish, diced skewer size as above
- 1 tomato
- 2 green peppers
- olive oil
- salt
- sumac syrup (can be replaced by a lemon)

Method:

- Cut the fish as above.
- Dice the tomato
- Cut the peppers in half, get the seeds out and cut the same size with the fish
- On a bamboo skewer, place a piece of fish, then a tomato, a fish, pepper, fish, pepper, fish and tomato.
- Repeat above step until you have all the fish on the skewers.
- Place skewers in a teflon oven tray
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius
- Pour some sumac syrup over the fish. This herb is very tasty. If it is not possible for you to find, you can use one lemon's juice instead.
- Put a pinch of salt on each skewer (can make 8)
- Place some olive oil on and around the skewers.
- Cook for 20 minutes, rotate the skewers and cook for another 10 minutes

You can serve them without removing the skewers. This is enough to be main dish for 2 people or appetizers for 8 people.

Enjoy ;)

Fish Soup (and Broth)

If you like to buy whole fish as I do, you will end up lots of parts of fish left after cleaning. I use the best parts of fish for making sushi. I also use the skin of salmon to make "salmon skin rolls". Other parts can be used to eat. I will give some recipes how to cook fish my way, too. Then you have the head, the center bone and tail... Parts that are not very fleshy and hard or impossible to eat. I use these parts to make fish broth or soup. It is very healthy and delicious. Nothing goes to waste. Let's remember how we cut the fish and saved these parts. Now we can use them.



Ingredients:

- Leftovers of fish: Head, bones, tails
- 2 small potatoes
- 2-3 slices of ginger
- Bay leaf
- Black pepper seeds
- 2 tea spoons salt
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 onion
- Parsley
- 1/2 celery
- 1 carrot
- 1 bell pepper

Method:

- Clean and cut all vegetables into big chunks.
- Wash the fish parts, place all in a deep soucepan.
- Fill up with cold water, bring to boil.
- Once it boils, let is keep boiling over a small fire for 45 minutes.
- Filter it, and you have your fish broth. You can let this cool down and then freeze to use later.



The Soup:

- To make fish soup, after filtering, take out the vegetables, and the fish parts.
- Put some olive oil into the pan.
- Take all the vegetables out, wash them and put half of onion, carrot, potatoes, celery back into the pot
- There are some meat parts left on the bone, you can take them out and put back into the bowl. Alternatively, you can place a fillet of 150g into the bowl.
- Pour the fish broth over the vegetables
- Put 2 teaspoons of salt and a pinch of pepper
- Bring everything to boil, and using a hand-blender, get a smooth texture.
- Add a table spoon of cream and mix well.
- Serve with parsley leaves.

I like to add none or little spices to it, the simpler the better. Enjoy ;)

Topped Rice Sushi (Nigiri Sushi)

Nigiri in Japanese means "squeeze" and it is the kind of sushi I enjoy making and eating the most. Each one is bite-size and usually has one ingredient pressed over a ball of rice.

The size of the rice ball should be big enough to hold a piece of fish or food on top of it and small enough to fit into your mouth. If you use a piece of fish as the topping, you don't need a piece of nori to stick it, but usually for other toppings like prawns or crabmeat a thin piece of nori is used to wrap around the ingredients.



I recommend you to use a dab of wasabi for fish toppings, but none or a small dab for the other (usually cooked or seasoned) toppings.

First you need to prepare the rice as I explained before. To prevent sushi rice to stick to your hands, you need to prepare a bowl of water and rice vinegar mixture and keep your hands damp with this water everytime you touch rice.

Ingredients:
- Sushi rice
- Nori (cut into finger size strips)
- Wasabi
- Soy souce

Toppings:
(You can really use what you want, I will give 4 types here)
- Salmon (really fresh, cut into thin slices)
- Seabass (really fresh, cut into thin slices)
- Prawns
- Shiitake mushrooms

Method:
1) Wet your hands, get a golf-ball size of rice in your hand.
2) Squeeze gently to form a solid block
3) Press with index and middle fingers of your other hand from the top to squeeze more
4) Rotate and squeeze until you have a slightly oval shape like a rugby ball
5) Take a piece of fish with your free hand, spread a piece of wasabi on the fish
6) Press the (wasabi containing) side against the ball of rice. Gently press from the front, back and then left and right. You should have the fish stick to the rice.
7) You can do this with salmon, seabass, tuna, and whatever fish you like.
(This may take some excersize to do it properly, though)



Shiitake Mushrooms:
1) Cut the stem.
2) Boil some water with soy souce
3) Place the mushrooms in it, cook slightly, take from water and cool.
4) If mushroom tops are small, you can place one mushroom on the ball of rice, then wrap around with a piece of nori. The nori will stick to the rice.
5) If you are using a bigger mushroom, you can cut them into sheets that are slightly wider and longer then your rice balls.



Prawns:
1) Remove the head of the prawn, do not remove the other shells
2) Wash under cold water.
3) Insert a stick (like a long toothpick) under the shell from the (missing) head to tail without touching the flesh. They will look like shrimp-kebabs on a stick.
4) Bring water and soy souce to boil.
5) Insert shrimps into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes
6) Place the shrimps in ice water to cool fast. Remove when they are cold.
7) Remove the toothpicks, remove the shells (maybe except the last one, leaving the tail for decoration)
8) Cut the shrimp from (missing) head to tail along its belly without cutting the back skin. You should be able to open into two without breaking. You can remove the vein from the back of the shrimp.
9) Place them on the ball of rice and tie around with a sheet of nori.

There are many other things you can put as topping, I only listed four. You can use crabmeat sticks, all other kinds of fish and one of my favorites: omlette. I will tell about how to make sushi omlette in another post. Enjoy ;)

Pan-Fried Fish (with a side-dish)

Here is a fish recipe that you can prepare in 20 minutes. Very fast, very delicious. Method is below, if you want everything to cook at the same time, start with potatoes, then the fish.



Ingredients (4 servings):
- 4 pieces of fillet of fish (with skin, no bones)
- 1 kg potatoes (a thin skin variety will be perfect)
- 200g of peas (frozen or canned)
- 2 onions
- 2 lemons
- dills
- parsley
- pickled capers
- 3 or 4 pickled gherkins
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- butter, olive oil, sunflower oil
- salt & pepper

Method:

1. The Fish:
In a big pan, pour some sunflower oil, heat up. On the skin of the fish, smear some butter, add salt & pepper. Put the skin side on the pan first. Let fry for around 15 mins. Season the other side as well with salt & pepper. Flip carefully and cook the other side for about 5 minutes on lower heat. That simple.

2. The Side-Dish:
Wash the potatoes, cut bigger ones in half. Put in boiling water and let cook for about 17-18 minutes. In a separate pot, melt a big slice of butter. Cut 4-5 very thin slices of lemon. Dice the onions and add lemons and onions to the butter. Mix until onions turn golden. Then add the peas and turn off the heat (we don't want to overcook the peas, just heat them). When potatoes are cooked, mix these two pots, add some dills and parsley, salt & pepper, butter and olive oil to taste. Smash all together, but do not smash too much, we want some greens to be visible.

3. The Sauce:
Real simple. Put capers, gherkins and some dills together and dice them, put them in a bowl. Add the cream, some olive oil, juice of half a lemon and some salt. Mix well.

4. Serving:
Put about 2 spoons of the side dish on the plate. Place the fish on top, with the (now crusty) skin facing up. Put some sauce on the top. Decorate with some dills.

Enjoy ;)

Fish Sandwich

What do you do when you cannot consume all the fish you cook for lunch? We use them for a nice sandwich for the supper or the next day.


When I was a student, our university's cafeteria offered cheap fish sandwich (called "balik-ekmek" in Turkish). That was one of my favourite lunches. Simple recipe, a slice of fish, mixed with few spices and lemon juice.

Later, when I moved to Istanbul, I discovered the real "balik-ekmek" served on fisherman boats on the bosphorus. A few years ago, these were banned due to security reasons (ending an era in Istanbul's fish cuisine).

It all came back when I cooked some seabass in the oven, definitely more than we could finish. Some stayed in the fridge for a day. On Sunday evening, hungry for a quick supper and a nice movie, we made a quick sandwich and side-salad.

Ingredients:

- Previously cooked, sliced seabass (no bones please)
- salt
- 1 small bread (2 paninies would have been perfect)
- spices to taste: a pinch of pepper, red pepper, thyme are must.
- lime juice

Method:

- Simply cut the bread in two halves, open each half.
- Place the slice of fish
- Use a knife to cut the slice into small pieces
- Put a pinch of salt and other spices inside
- Put some lime juice
- Close the bread, put in a toaster until warm and flat

Simple and fast, no need to heat the fish beforehand, since it will heat up in the toaster.

Enjoy ;)

Fish soup for whole family

I found fish head in our freezer:)
so what I could do with it? Soup!
Another fish soup recepie in our blog.
This time very easy one for whole family. Melis ate with relish!



Ingredients:

- fish head
- carrot
- parsley
- potato
- peas
- onion
- garlic
- celery
- allspice
- bay leaf
- vegetable broth
- salt, pepper
- dill
- cream

Preparation:

To the pot of water put fish head, add bay leaf, allspice, onion (half) and one clove of garlic. Boil. Take head and dirt from fish out. Then add all chopped vegetables and vegetable broth, also salt and perrer.
Cook on low heat. In the end add a dill and some cream.

Easy and very tasty!

Baked Anchovy (Hamsi)

For the people living around the Black Sea this fish is sacret. It has similar names in all the neighbouring countries: Hamsi in Turkish, hamsia in Georgian, hamsiya in Bulgarian, hamsie in Romanian and hamsa in Russian.
The people living on the Black Sea shore makes everything with this fish. They eat it raw (while it is still fresh), they cook with rice, fry, bake, make some fish soup, dessert, pickles and more.



Here I will give a simple recipe for baking it. It is fast, tasty and very very healthy.

Ingredients:

- 1.5 kg anchovy (center bone and head removed)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 4 cloves of garlic (pressed)
- 1/2 lemon
- Parsley
- 1/2 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 230 degrees celcius
2) Cut the tomatoes in half and slice.
3) Cut the onions in half, then slice them thin
4) Deshell the garlic, press with knife
5) Put the fish in an oven tray. Put the salt and pepper.
6) Place the onions and pour the lemon juice.
7) Cut a big bunch of parsley in chunks and add to the tray contents.
8) Pour half of the olive oil. Mix everything in the tray and spread evenly.
9) Place the tomatoes on top of the contents and pour over the remaining of oil.
10) Cover the tray (I put the tray in a big owen bag and close)
11) Cook in the owen for 20 minutes
12) You can decorate with radish and rockets.

Please remember to eat the fish when it is fresh and any leftovers should be placed in the refrigerator as soon as they are cool. If you put in refrigerator bags they will not lose their moisture. If you don't eat the following day throw away.

Pan-fried anchovy is also very tasty and you get to eat the fish together with the head and the bones. Yummy :) I will give a recipe about that soon ;)

Fish salad/ Sałatka z ryby

                               Made by Cato. Easy, very tasty and very good for hot evenings.

Materials:

fish

salad

cucumber

tomato

carrots

parsley

chive

olive oil

salt, pepper, spices

lemon

Preparation:

Clean and wash a fish, then fry in olive oil. To the bowls put washed, peeled and chopped all the vegetables. Add fish and seasonings, and lemon essential. Is there anything more easy?

Polski

Materiały:

ryba

sałatka

ogórek

pomidor

marchew

pietruszka

szczypiorek

oliwa z oliwek

sól, pieprz, przyprawy

cytryna

Przygotowanie:

Oczyścić i umyć ryby, następnie zeszklić na oliwie z oliwek. Do miski włożyć umyte, obrane i posiekane warzywa. Dodać rybę, przyprawy i cytrynę. Czy jest coś bardziej prostrzego?
                                                                      Smacznego!!!

Ryba po grecku / Greek fish salad

 

Składniki:

filet z ryby morskiej (dorszcz)
marchew
seler
cebula
jabłko
maka
olej/oliwa z oliwek
czosnek
koncentrat pomidorowy
sok z cytryny
sól, pieprz, bazylia, oregano
przyprawa warzywana (vegeta)

Przygotowanie:

Rybę opłukać, posolić i obtoczyć w mące. Smażyć na rozgrzanym oleju lub oliwie z oliwek.
Włoszczyznę obrać, zetrzeć na tarce, cebulę drobno posiekać. Dusić do miękkości, na oliwie z oliwek.  Dodać zioła i przyprawy. Na koniec dodać koncentrat pomidorowy i sok z cytryny. Przestudzonymi warzywami obłożyć usmażone filety rybne. Podawać zimne.

English

 

Ingredients:

fish fillet
carrots
celery
onion
apple
flour
oil / olive oil
garlic
tomato paste
lemon juice
salt, pepper, basil, oregano
spice vegetables (vegeta)

Preparation:

Rinse the fish, season with salt and coat with flour. Fry in hot oil or olive oil.
Greens peel, grate, chop the onion. Simmer until tender in olive oil. Add herbs and spices. Finally add the tomato paste and lemon juice. With warm vegetables cover fried fish. Serve cold.

 

My Turkish Christmas

Last week in Ewa Wojciechowska page I wrote about my Christmas in Turkey.

Everybody who was born in a family of catholic roots and celebrate Christmas know how hard it is to be in this time abroad and far from the family. It is of course hard for me too but I try with all my heart to celebrate Christmas with my fusion family like I celebrated it with my Polish family before.

There is no Christmas in Turkey. Turks celebrate New Year similar like Christmas. They decorate the Christmas tree, buy gifts, prepare a sumptuous dinner. The main dish is turkey. The streets of Istanbul are decorated with beautiful new year decorations.

 

 

 

You can buy at that time Atatürk çiçeği (Atatürk flower), which is our "star of Bethlehem" in the original comely spurge (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and Yılbaşı çiçeği (flower of New Year) and it is Kokin (Ruccus aculeatus) as the flowers of the season.

In our house we retains Polish traditions. We decorate the Christmas tree, prepare the Christmas Eve dinner, Santa brings gifts, and Santa Claus visited us also on December 6, in his name day, listen and sing carols. All catholics in Istanbul can participate the Midnight Mass in the Church of the Holy Anthony in Taksim, on the European side of the city, the ceremony is conducted in English-Italian-Turkish. Another possibility is Midnight Mass in Polish - Turkish language in "village" called Adampol or Polonezköy.

Before December 24 we meet with Polish friends on Mikołajki Day, organized by the General Consulate Republic of Poland in Istanbul. It is a children's event , but also a time to meet with the Polish living in Istanbul. Nativity play are staged with the participation of adults, children and students living in Istanbul for Erasmus . The whole program and the singing of Christmas carols ensure our Polish missionary p Arleta . Every year there is also a Christmas concert .

To Istanbul come Polish organists , choirs, opera singers , with a repertoire of Christmas carols.

This year it was a Chorus Magisterium of Stanisław Wiechowicz from Ostrow Wielkopolski.

Here is one of the song from that day.

We are spending Christmas at home with friends, mix families not only Polish -Turkish . Two years ago we celebrated with Estonian- Turkish family. And last year our Turkish friends with children who know Christmas from Germany and wanted also to know the Polish tradition. This year, Christmas Eve will be the Polish- Turkish- Cyprus. On our Christmas table, I try to prepare twelve dishes. These are meatless dishes . Me and Çağatay, we love to cook. My kitchen is simple and healthy. Cato experimental and even tasty. His are fish dishes and soups, mine vegetables, pies and sweets. Our special is pumpkin soup.

There is also borsch or fish soup, but pumpkin is excellent. We prepare grilled or fried and "Greek" fish. Carp is not a popular fish here. We have to get by without herring or buy marinated fillet only.

 I try to look for substitutes, or cook something new that fits the Christmas Eve menu.

I will also prepare kutia. I like it a lot and reminds me of my Polish family. 

My mom makes the best one!

 

More of Christmas Food recipies here.

 

As you can see we also spend Christmas in Turkey with Polish tradition.
Merry Christmas to the Polish people in Turkey and all over the World!

How to cook sushi rice.

There are two difficulties in making a good sushi: Chosing and cutting the fish and cooking the rice. I talked about cutting the fish in an earlier post. Today I will talk about preparing the rice.



The rice that is good for making sushi is a short-grain rice. In many shops selling Japanese or Asian food, you can find the packs of rice titled "sushi rice". I suggest you to use those. However, if it is hard to find you can use "Baldo" type rice of any brand. In Turkey, I have seen that "Osmancik" rice does the job even better. Please do not try use "Jasmin" type or any other long-grain rice with the confusion of sushi rice with other asian food.

Ingredients:

- 1 kg rice
- 150 ml rice vinegar
- 250 ml mirin (alternatively you can use sweet white wine and a spoon of sugar)

Method:

Washing:
0) Measure the rice. 1 kg is around 1200ml.
1) Wash the rice with cold water and wash the rice again, and again in a deep bowl.
2) Do it around 5-6 times until the water you wash it does not get white anymore.
3) After every wash, strain the rice.
4) Finally, fill the bowl with water and let the rice rest there for 45minutes.
5) Strain, and it is ready to be cooked.

Cooking:
6) Put the rice in a deep soucepan. Teflon is better.
7) Pour the same amount of cold water you measured in step0. (1200ml)
8) Cover the pan, cook slowly on small fire until the rice takes in all the water.

Cooling and souce:
9) Mix the rice vinegar and mirin in a shaker.
9) Put the rice in a flat container. An oven tray will work fine.
10) With a wooden paddle, mix the rice. Pour in the souce slowly while mixing.
11) Do not smash the rice.
12) Cover the tray with a clean humid cloth.

Tips:
- The rice should be cool before preparing the sushi, otherwise the fish will cook in it.
- You can insert a chopsick into the soucepan to see if all water is gone and the rice is cooked well.
- When you handle the cooked rice, it is good to mix some rice vingegar with water in a bowl and wet your hands with it (will keep your hands clean so rice won't stick).

I will write about different types of sushi and sashimi here later. Keep following ;)

Fish soup / Zupa rybna

Ingredients:

- fish

- carrot

- parsley

- potato

- green peas

- onion

- garlic

- celery

- allspice

- bay leaf

- salt, pepper

- vegetable spice

Preparation:

To the pot of water put fis, bay leaf, allspice. Boil. Clean water from dirt. Add onion and one clove of garlic. Still boil. Take fish out, clean it and add back to water. Then add all chopped vegetables and spices.  Cook on low heat until vegetable will be soft.

Easy and very tasty! My children love it!

Polski

 

Składniki:

- ryba

- marchew

- pietruszka

- ziemniaki

- groszek zielony

- cebula

- czosnek

- seler

- ziele angielskie

- liść laurowy

- sól, pieprz

- przyprawa warzywna

Przygotowanie:

W garnku z wodą umieścić rybę, liść laurowy, ziele angielskie. Gotować. Oczyścić  wodę z zanieczyszczen. Wyciągnąć  rybę, oczyścić i dodać z powrotem do wody. Dodać cebulę i ząbek czosnku. Nadal gotować.. Następnie dodać wszystkie pokrojone warzywa i przyprawy. Gotować na małym ogniu, aż warzywa będą miękkie.

Łatwe i bardzo smaczne! Moje dzieci ją uwielbiają!

 

 

 

 

Chinese Risotto

That's something that will make both the Chinese and the Italians unhappy, but I have to tell you that this food came out great. We started off by cooking some vegetables in a wok, then this great idea for food came when we found that the expiry date of a can of coconut cream was due.



Anyway, to cut things short, allow me to give you the ingredients:

- 1 zucchini
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 bell green pepper
- 2 large mushrooms
- 200g fish fillet
- 2 cloves of garlic
- sesame oil
- canola oil
- soy sauce
- 200g rice
- 1 tbsp coconut cream
- water

Get a wok. If you use a wok for frying and roasting things, you will know how useful it is to have one in the house. If you don't have one, get one.

Cut all the vegetables into thin slices. Dice the mushrooms and the fish. Peel the garlic and smash them.

Put some canola oil on the bottom of the pan and add about 1 tbsp of sesame oil to it. Put the garlic and the onions. Once the color of the onions start to change, add the carrots and the mushrooms. Roast until the mushrooms lose their water and that water is reduced. Add the zucchini and the fish. Add some soy sause and stir them until everything is cooked well.

Meanwhile, wash the rice and put them in a pan. Add cold water about twice the amount of the rice, add coconut cream to it. Bring the water to boil, then stir the rice with a wooden spoon until the water is totally reduced. Done correct, you will have cooked but hard rice. Similar to a risotto.

Take the rice out, and add it to the wok where the vegetables are cooking. Stir until everything is mixed well and the rice gets all the flavors and the colors in the wok. Serve while still hot. Enjoy ;)

Light fish soup / Lekka zupa rybna

Materials:

fillet of fish

carrots

leek

parsley

celery

water

salt, pepper, spices

lemon
pasta
dill

Preparation:

Prepare a broth from the fish, throw to the water allspice and bay leaf. Clean of dirt. Add washed, peeled and chopped vegetables. Cook until vegetables will be soft. In the end you can add dill, before serve lemon. Serve with pasta.
                                                                       

Polski

                                                                         Materiały:

filet z ryby
marchew

por

pietruszka

seler

woda

sól, pieprz, przyprawy

cytryna
makaron
koperek

Przygotowanie:

Przygotować wywar z ryby, wrzucić ziele angielskie i liść laurowy. Oczyścić z brudu. Dodać umyte, obrane i posiekane warzywa. Gotować aż warzywa będą miękkie. Na koniec można dodać koperek, przed spożyciem cytrynę. Podawać z makaronem.

Sushi Rolls (Maki)

This is the next step for me to write the recipes for making sushi. The rolls are the type of sushi that are consumed the most. They can be made in 3 basic types: Thick rolls, thin rolls and inside-out.

If you make sushi at home, I suggest you make thick rolls and inside-out and skip the thin rolls. You will have to do half the work for the same amount of sushi.



Basicly, a sushi roll is made by putting a layer of rice on a sheet of nori, laying more ingredients on it (slices of salmon, crabs, prawns, seasoned vegetables, avokado, etc) and then rolling them together using a bamboo mat. I will give below a step-by-step guide for a thick roll and an inside-out roll. If you manage to cut your fish, cook your rice and make the nigiri, you can easily make these babies.

Ingredients:
- Sushi rice, cooked
- Sheets of nori
- 1 cucumber, cut into thin stips and marinated in boiled water with soy souce.
- 1 avocado, peeled and sliced
- 1 cucumber, the seedy middle removed, sliced thin
- A slice of salmon
- Sesame seads, slightly roasted
- One teaspoon of salmon roe
- 2 Crab sticks
- 4 eggs, mixed with a tsp of soy souce and cooked as sushi omlette*
- Wasabi
- Soy souce
- Rice vinegar

Method:

(A) Thick Sushi Roll:
1) Place a sheet of nori on the center of the bamboo sushi mat
2) Wet your hands with a 1:1 mixture of water and rice vinegar
3) Take around 2 handful of cooked rice and spread evenly on the nori leaving an empty strip of 2cm thick on the side away from you.
4) Place a dab of wasabi on the rice as a thin strip along 2cm away from the side close to you.
5) Put a piece of salmon on the wasabi stip.
6) Place pieces of carrot along the salmon
7) Put a piece of omlette along the contents
8) Using both hands, roll the mat slowly around the nori. Here is how: open your thumbs and place under the mat, with your fingers hold the contents still, roll and let the nori stick to the rice. Then roll one more step further and roll again. God, I need to place a video how. I will do it, promise.
9) Take the roll and cut into half, then cut each piece into half and once more so you will have 8 pieces.



(B) Inside-out Sushi Roll:
1) Shrink wrap the bamboo mat, so the rice won't stick when you turn it inside out.
2) Repeat steps 2 and 3 above
3) Spread a pinch of sesame and a spoon of salmon roe over the rice
4) Turn the sheet over, the rice won't fall down. The empty strip of nori should be close to you this time, instead of far from you.
5) Place the crab sticks along the back, 3cm far from the nori side close to you.
6) Place the avocado and cucumber slices along the crab.
7) Roll the sushi mat, similar to step 8 above.
8) Cut with the same principle. First into half, then repeat and repeat again until you have 8 equal pieces.

You can put all kinds of fish, prawns, vegetables in the same way and make many different kinds of rolls. The limit is your imagination only.

Enjoy them with soy souce and wasabi dip ;)

Prawn Casserole

I love everything about the sea: swimming, sailing, diving and living on the seaside. I definitely love seafood. That may be because I am a pisces or because I spent my early childhood in Gokceada, an island in the Aegean Sea.
Therefore I cook seafood at least once a week. I make the shopping mostly from a local fish shop or from a fish market. I usually make a lot of side dishes, which is a Turkish tradition to do so and enjoy some white wine or raki with it.


This is one of my favorite side dishes: Prawn casserole. There are very few ingredients and it is very simple and easy to cook.

Ingredients:

- 12 king prawns
- 3 table spoons of butter
- 1 table spoon of olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon of thyme
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- Juice of 1/2 lemon and zest

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 230 degrees celcius.
- Deshell and clean the king prawns.
(Here is the method how: First take the head out. Then hold between the legs and lift the shell upwards. It will easily move out. Cut the back of the prawn half a centimeter deep from head to tail and open. You will see a black line that goes like a spine. That is the digestive system, take it out. Wash under cold water)
- Press the garlic cloves with the side of a knife (don't smash)
- Put all ingredients in an earthenware casserole. If you don't have a such a casserole then a tempered glass casserole for owen will serve the purpose.
- Mix the ingredients.
- Cook in the owen for 20 minutes, serve when it is still very hot.

It will be a very good hot sidedish to serve before the main dish. You can complete with slightly toasted slices of bread (to dip in the oil).

Tasty and fast. What more would anyone want ;)

Crab Salad

We love crab surimi. Every trip to the local supermarket ends with us getting one pack of these. They can be used for many purposes: use it in sushi, eat from the pack like snacks, use them in fish soup, or make a nice salad.



Ingredients:
- Crab fingers (crab surimi)
- cornichons
- red bell-pepper
- spring onions
- dills
- lettuce
- salt & pepper
- ketchup
- mayonese
- lemon
- garlic (powder or 1 clove smashed)
- olive oil

Method:
- Wash all the vegetables
- Slice the lettuce
- Dice the red bell-peppers
- Cut dills thin
- Slice the crab fingers
- In a cup, mix 3 tablespoons of ketchup and mayonese, add juice of half lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper, garlic and a drop of olive oil. This will be the salad sauce.
- This is all: Put all vegetables in a bowl, mix them well, add the sauce on top.

Enjoy;)

my lovely FOOD

I love to eat! It is amazing pleasure for me to have nice breakfast, then lunch and dinner. I love good food: nice, new, and healthy recipes. No Fast Food...anymore :)

 

 Here is my favorite food list and recipes from Fusion Passion in the links:

 

 Sushi 

 

 

Pasta

 

Rosół

 

Pierogi

 

Çiğköfte

Avocado 

 

 

Fish

 

 

Bon Appetit!

Salad with tuna and avocado

We didn't ate something green and healthy for sometime. I decided that I make salad.
At home I had the avocado and tuna, they super-fit to eatch other.The problem is that now I can not eat fish from the can. So I made tuna...next to salad:)

Ingredients:

- salad
- avocado
- tuna
- red pepper
- corn
- cucumber
- cherry tomatoes
- chives
- garlic
- capers
- dill
- spices to salads
- olive oil
- balsamic sauce
- salt and pepper
- parmesan

Preparation:

Wash all vegetables thoroughly, cut into cubes, move up to the salad bowl.
Prepare the sauce and tuna, separately. To tuna add a little olive oil (unless it is already in oil), dill and capers, salt and pepper. Sauce do with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and spices to salads, add garlic. Pour the sauce to the vegetables and mix all ingredients. At the end sprinkle with parmesan cheese of the salad!

Enjoy!