I spotted these beautiful slices of maguro tuna throats in the store the other day and knew I had to try them. I packed them in sake kasu to make kasuzuke and then grilled them. They were heavenly!

Nodo, literally ‘throat’, denotes innards, but maybe chin or neck might be more like it. The cut would appear to be back from the mouth and between the gills.

I wasn’t sure what this would be like. Would it be sinewy and gross, or over the top rich and creamy? We were not disappointed!!

Maguro Tuna Throat

This is yakizakana (grilled fish) that has been marinated in sake kasu for several days.

Steps

• Wipe fish clean
• Rub with salt
• Pack in sake kasu (sake kasu may need sake or cooking sake added to increase liquidity)
• Wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours (we waited 4 days, quite long)
• Wipe sake kasu from fish with fingers and/or paper towel
• Grill slowly (the fish has a lot of sugar in it now from the kasu, so be careful not to let it burn)

1. Marinate in Sake Kasu

Maguro Tuna Throat: Packing in Sake Kasu

Maguro Tuna Throat: Packing in Sake Kasu

Maguro Tuna Throat: Packing in Sake Kasu

2. Wipe and Prepare for Grilling
Japanese say that the fish should be wiped clean, but not washed with water. A very small amount of sake kasu will remain.

Maguro Tuna Throat: Ready for Grilling

Maguro Tuna Throat: Ready for Grilling

3. Grilling
The key is to not let it burn which easily happens with kasuzuke and misozuke, teriyaki for that matter too, as there is a good deal of sugar content in and on the fish.

Maguro Tuna Throat: Grilled and Ready to Eat

Maguro Tuna Throat: Grilled and Ready to Eat

Maguro Tuna Throat: Grilled and Ready to Eat

How did it taste?
As mentioned above, this is very rich, fatty and creamy — like toro. The kasu fragrance is very ‘fruity’ and that remained even after grilling. This kasu is hand pressed so the amount of alcohol left in the kasu is fairly high. I marinated this tuna for several days so the alcohol also permeated the fish. Kasu has quite a bit of sugar as well.

After grilling, the sake (alcohol) taste and the fruitiness of the kasu is not cooked out, it is obvious. The sugar content reacts nicely with the richness of the fish as it grills.

It is quite an amalgamation of flavors: alcohol, fruity, sweet and fatty grilled fish. It is rich and luxurious and not something to make an entire meal of. This should be one part of a larger meal accompanied by rice, maybe some tsukemono or veggies and some alcohol or strong tea to wash it down.

Kasu Chinmi: Ikura is hard to beat, but salmon roe marinated in sake kasu for about a week beats ikura! This is a rather rare dish in Japan. The first time I recall having it was this January at Kichisen. After one bite, I knew that I had to try making it! Winter is the season for both sake kasu and salmon roe. It of course tastes of salmon roe and in addition has a wonderful flavor combination of sake and the fruity fragrance of fermenting sake mash.

What is Sujiko?
Sujiko, unlike ikura is still in the egg sac, ikura is individual eggs. Ikura can be cured with either salt or shoyu and the slightly sinewy egg sac is removed. Once sujiko is cured, the taste is identical to ikura and the texture is not very different.

I just packed the sujiko sacs in sake kasu and refrigerated for about 1 week. It of course keeps longer than that.

Sujiko Kasuzuke can be enjoyed as is and goes very well with sake or wine. With food it is usually served on rice, we used it to make a luxurious onigiri rice ball (see photo below).

Preparation

Kasuzuke: Sake Kasu

Kasuzuke: Sake Kasu – detail

Sujiko (Salted Salmon Egg Sac)

Sujiko on Sake Kasu

Next step is to gently cover it with kasu.

Done

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko Kasuzuke

I am trying to figure out what to do with all this orange stained sake kasu now. We are certainly not going to throw it out! I am hoping that it will make excellent salmon kasu soup, we will let you know if we are able to come up with anything yummy.

Served

Sujiko Kasuzuke – served

Sujiko Kasuzuke – served

How Did it Taste?
Sujiko cured in sake kasu has a definite taste of sake and the flowery sweetness of the mash. This kasu we used this year was teshibori (hand-pressed) so the alcohol content is higher than mechanically pressed kasu. Also, I mixed in some fine ryorishu (cooking sake) to increase the liquidity of the kasu, making it better for marinading.

I have been making onigiri (rice balls) with it and eating it as chinmi on or along side rice at dinner. It is really nice! It is very easy to make and doesn’t even cost that much, but if you do the preparation you are rewarded with a very luxurious and special taste.

A friend that doesn’t drink much was over for dinner recently and was a bit surprised at the alcohol content in the sujiko! I guess she got a bit of a ‘buzz’ from it! That’s what I like, food that gets you drunk!

Sujiko Season
By the way, sujiko is in season in late autumn and early winter. I bought this in February but had to hunt around for it. I found it at the food court at Fuji Daimaru Department Store in Kyoto. I bought 6 roe sacs for about 1,800 yen. A pretty reasonable price, I thought. If it had been proper ikura, I think that it would have cost about 3-4 times that for the same amount.

Sujiko Kasuzuke Onigiri

This is from our Uri Nukazuke Onigiri article.

Tataki: Tataki is half well done, half sashimi. I did some tuna cheek tataki. Back in Minnesota, when I was a kid, we used to freeze the cheeks from all the walleye we caught in an entire year to have a single ‘cheek’ dinner. Walleye cheeks aren’t very big, maybe about the size of a baby scallop. An average sized, single maguro tuna cheek on the other hand makes about half a meal!

Seared Tuna Cheek Tataki
This winter at the food court at Fuji Daimaru Department Store in Kyoto, I have often seen maguro cheek for sale in the sashimi section and had wanted to try it. I think I had maguro cheek at a barbecue once fairly soon after I washed up in Japan. And, once a chef friend of mine grilled an entire maguro head for me, as an appetizer — this is a gargantuan meal in itself! But, I really wanted to try some maguro cheek at home. At Fuji Daimaru I noticed that they also offered these tuna cheeks as tataki. Tataki is sashimi on the inside, but seared, cooked well done on the outside. I finally got a torch (just for this article) and put the beautiful sake kasu in my refrigerator to use on this one.

The steps I used are as follows:
1. Rub cheek with salt.
2. Pack in sake kasu and marinade for about 24 hours. (Add sake add needed to increase liquidity.)
3. Lightly wipe sake kasu off.
4. Grill lightly in fish grill (for super fresh tuna this might not be necessary).
5. Sear with torch (you need some high power flame for this).
6. Submerge in ice water.
7. Slice and serve.

Raw Maguro Tuna Cheek

(Sorry, no beagle for scale today.)

Marinading Maguro Tuna Cheek in Sake Kasu

Marinading Maguro Tuna Cheek in Sake Kasu

Kasuzuke: Maguro Tuna Cheek Marinaded in Sake Kasu

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Searing Tuna Cheek with Torch

At this point, the cheek has already been grilled in the fish grill for about 2 minutes per side.

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Searing Tuna Cheek with Torch

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Plunging in Ice Water

The idea here is to ‘stop’ the cooking completely even after the direct heat is removed. (Fish keeps cooking.)

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Plunging in Ice Water

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Plunging in Ice Water

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Sliced

Seared Maguro Cheek Tataki – Served

How Did it Taste?
Even while still raw, I was struck by the sweet fragrance combined with the rich and fatty ‘meatyness’ of the tuna. After it was grilled and seared, this was even more pronounced. The sweetness of the sake kasu and the rich oiliness of the tuna, combined with the seared fragrance was just a little too much, the center is still raw, of course. I had considered squeezing some yuzu, sudachi or daidai orange juice on it, but decided that it wasn’t needed. Even soy sauce was not needed. The sweetness of the kasu was seared onto the surface and the still raw flesh on the inside had more than a hint of sake (This is hand pressed sake kasu so there is quite a bit of alcohol left in it. Also, I marinated this for 48 hours, not 24 and that might have been a bit too long.)

About Tataki and Yakizakana
Usually the tataki preparation is with fresh, sashimi grade fish, and also fine wagyu beef. Kasuzuke fish for grilling is usually cooked all the way, like normal yakizakana. I am not sure about kazuzuke tataki though, it might be a bit nouveau. I did cook it a bit for than normal tataki as it had been marinaded for 48 hours.