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.

Meet Kasu Jiru: Kasu-jiru is soup made with sake lees. The sake taste is pronounced and the sweet, fruiting bouquet of fermented sake mash is obvious as well. We made this with late winter veggies and chicken.

Winter Sake Soup
Kokabura turnips are in season through out the winter in Kyoto and nanohana (rape blossoms) signal the coming of spring. Winter is of course the time that sake is being made, so sake kasu is only available this time of year.

Late Winter Kasu Jiru: The Ingredients

From the left, kokakura (small turnip), nanohana (rape blossoms), sake kasu (sake lees) and chicken.

Kokabura is translated as ‘turnip’ in my dictionary, my experience with turnips are that they are rather dry and tough. These Japanese ‘kokabura‘ turnips are quite soft and juicy though and so much so that the first time we made this dish the inner part of the kokabura just melted with only the surface retaining its shape. This time we cooked them just 7 or 8 minutes. They were tender and intact, with some fresh veggie taste still in them.

The nanohana rape blossoms still had no yellow flowers on them, just buds. They just appeared in stores this week. They are tender and rather hefty and ‘meaty’ for greens and pleasantly bitter. These we cooked for just 3 minutes or so.

Kasu Jiru: Adding Kasu to Soup Broth

Our kasu jiru is very thick with plenty of kasu. We make a base dashi with three kinds of shaved fish (comes in a tea bag), some salt and mirin. We simmer the chicken well and then add the kokabura and kasu. With the kasu we sometimes add a little bit of miso paste, to deepen the flavor, but not enough to taste directly.

The key here is good, fresh ingredients and not too much cooking.

Kasu Jiru Served – detail

Kasu Jiru Served with Black Shichimi

Usually shichimi (seven spice) is red, but the best, in our opinion, is the more rare black shimichi.

Kasu Jiru Served with Black Shichimi – detail

My favorite thing about this wonderful dish is the taste and fragrance of the fermented sake mash. It is pronounced and unlike any soup or stew that I have ever had anywhere in the world. Maybe in the Western countries we can use beer or spirits mash in a similar way?

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.

Sake Lees: This is what is left after the sake has been pressed out of the mash. It is called ‘sake kasu’ in Japanese and it is used in home cooking in many ways to create wonderfully complex flavored dishes during the winter sake brewing season. Many traditional Japanese confection, cracker, snack companies and so on use a lot of kasu to flavor some of their products. Non-traditional things like ice cream, chocolate, bread and so on are flavored with kasu these days.

Sake kasu is a common sight in the fresh vegetable section of any grocery store in winter in Japan. The fragrance is quite fruity. Mechanically pressed sake kasu comes in ‘boards’, hard sheets of kasu, hand-pressed (teshibori) is looser and cumbly. The pictures below are of hand-pressed sake kasu. This was kasu made premium daiginjo sake and is made with Yamada Nishiki variety rice from Hyogo prefecture.

Teshibori Sake Kasu

Again, teshibori means ‘hand-pressed’.

Sake kasu can be eaten as is, the texture is quite like cheese but the taste is fruity and obviously tastes of sake. This hand-pressed kasu still has quite a bit of alcohol content in it.

Opening 2 kilos of Teshibori Sake Kasu

Kasu-jiru (kasu soup): Base for soups and stews
Kasu-zuke (kasu marinade): Marinade fish and meat before grilling
Amazake (sweet sake): Melted in hot water, served with shredded ginger

Kasu can be lightly toasted and served with honey. Narazuke is pickled dark brown neri-kasu, kasu that has been allowed to age for several months.

In the next few days we will do some recipe articles based on sake kasu. We are calling the series, Sake Kasu Zanmai. Zanmai means to be luxuriously absorbed in something. Last year we did buri zanmai, a number of ways to enjoy yellowtail.

Things in my homeland grew so bad over the last 8 years that we had to reject a real patriot who we could have chosen for president 8 years ago and bet on this newcomer with precious little experience and no resumé to be president. Well, Barack Obama delivered on his soaring rhetoric, won big and took the reigns of government with confidence and distinction. Here in Kyoto we tuned-in late night to the inaugural live stream and toasted him in and his post-partisan, post-cultural war vision with the equivalent of Japanese moonshine – doburoku!

KyotoFoodie Toasts President Obama
I was not a believer during most of the campaign, but Barack Obama really grew through out the campaign and by the time of the economic crash and first presidential debate, he looked and acted presidential. Watching him take the oath, I felt grateful to him, for at the very least, inspiring hope in people when the situation looks pretty grim.

The little foodie party that we had planned got even littler when everyone realized that the inauguration was going to be in the middle of the night in Japan. We watched the swearing in and inaugural address and toasted with bubbly ‘home-brewed’ doburoku sake. After the speech we retired to the parlor for more doburoku and some awesome roll cake that Miwa scored. And finally, incense and prayers before bed.

Omaba Inaugural Address Live Stream

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

(While humming, ‘Then I’ll get on my knees and pray, We don’t get fooled again.’)

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

The Beagle Drinks to President Obama

KyotoFoodie ‘Mini’ Inaugural Gala

Doburoku Sake and Sake Kasu Roll Cake

Doburoku ‘Home Brewed’ Sake

About the Sake: Doburoku
I had wanted to get champagne but decided on a bubbly and rather chunky doburoku that we first introduced on KyotoFoodie in this Mackerel Yuzu Pepper Nabe article last winter. This sake comes from Nagano Prefecture in north-central Japan and is called Domuroku (Domuroku is the product name).

Traditionally doburoku is home-brewed sake, in centuries past this is the sake that people drank at home, they made it themselves, the same as their tsukemono, miso and so on. Now home-brewing of sake is illegal, but in the last few years doburoku style sake is being made and sold by quality sake producers and consumers are literally drinking it up!

Doburoku ‘Home Brewed’ Sake – Bubbles

Sake Kasu Roll Cake

In the very center the sake kasu can be seen. It is flavored delicately with honey.

About the Cake: Sake Kasu Roll Cake
Roll cake is big in Japan, there are countless variations. My favs in Kyoto are maccha roll cake and Tamba black bean roll cake. This was a new one though. One of Kyoto’s big sake breweries, Kizakura got together with a pâtisserie in Kobe. Kobe is known for it’s good and very Western oriented style. This roll cake is flavored with sake kasu, or the lees that are left after pressing sake. Sake kasu is used in many popular winter dishes in Japan, this was my first experience with it in Western sweets. It was flavored with honey and the combination was just perfect. The pungent, fermented kasu contrasts so nicely with the mellow sweetness of the honey, all wrapped up in cream and sponge cake.

Sake Kasu Roll Cake – detail

The outside of the roll cake reminded me of frost or fresh-fallen snow, on cake!

The Gourmet Beagle Samples Sake Kasu Roll Cake

(and approves!)

Links

Doburoku Sake (Japanese language)
Endo Sake Brewery 遠藤酒造場
‘Domuroku’ Sake どむろく

Sake Kasu Roll Cake
Kizakura Sake Brewery (English website)
Limited Edition Sake Kasu Roll Cake 酒かすろーる

Koshogatsu, or ‘little shogatsu‘ is traditionally observed on January 15th and marks the end of the Japanese New Year celebration. Mochi that has been offered to Shinto gods for the last half month is now quite dried out and is shattered with a hammer for eating by humans. The shards are cooked in okayu rice porridge, in Kyoto this okayu is cooked with azuki beans for the ‘rice dish’ of the last O-shogatsu meal. I was invited over to Kichisen to photograph Koshogatsu cuisine and the most expensive maguro in Japan, Oma Maguro, from the port of Oma on the northern most part of the Honshu main island. If I had been told it was wagyu beef, I would have believed it!

Japan’s Finest Tuna: Oma Hon Maguro

Oma Maguro is considered the very best tuna in Japan for sushi and sashimi. It is taken in the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido via the ipponzuri, literally ‘one line catching’ method of fishing, using live bait on a single hook and line. Oma Maguro weigh several hundred kilos and the largest taken on record is 440 kg! The highest price ever paid for a tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market was for an Oma Maguro that weighed 202 kgs and sold for about $200,000 USD in 2001. Oma Maguro is famous for its fat content and exquisite marbling which looks nearly identical to Japan’s famous wagyu beef in which the cows are fed beer and apples and massaged by humans. This makes it prized for the best sushi and sashimi.

Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Master Tanigawa selected the most choice part of the tuna for this toro sashimi. It comes from the kama, or collar of the maguro. (More about kama at the links below.) If you like toro, you have to try the kama section of the fish.

If you go to a fine wagyu restaurant in Japan, wagyu sushi and wagyu sashimi will often be on the menu, this tuna looks identical!

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Koshogatsu Ryori: Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Is it wagyu, or is it tuna?

Traditional Koshogatsu Dinner: Azukigayu (Azuki Bean and Mochi Rice Porridge)

After photographing the toro sashimi, Master Tanigawa invited me to try some Koshogatsu azuki bean okayu rice porridge and two slices of toro. Of course I was only too happy to accept!

The okayu, though including azuki beans was not sweet, it was almost bland. The kagami mochi inside was well cooked and soft enough to eat but still I could tell that it had been dried out. While eating it in a dimly lit, chilly room, I could easily imagine what shogatsu was like a thousand years ago in Kyoto. The toro sashimi, or course a very new addition to the culinary scene in Kyoto, and it was pretty incredible. I have had some pretty fine toro but this was different. It did just melt on my tongue. (I won’t torment you with the details on this one.)

Koshogatsu is not regularly celebrated by most Japanese now, though a fair number of people observe it in Kyoto. This was my first time to eat Koshogatsu food such as kagami mochi. Thank you Master Tanigawa!

Kichisen Ikebana Decoration and Otoso

The silver pot is filled with otoso: New Year’s sake.

Shogatsu Decoration: Kagami Mochi

Do you remember this offering from this article? Today is the last day of O-shogatsu and the kagami mochi in the shogatsu offerings is broken apart and in Kyoto eaten with azukigayu (azuki bean rice porridge).

Koshogatsu Ryori: Azukigayu and Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi

Oma Maguro Toro Sashimi – detail

The master said that these two pieces would set you back about $100 USD.

Koshogatsu Ryori: Sujiko Kasuzuke

Sujiko is ikura still in the egg sac. I love ikura but had never had it flavored with sake kasu (sake mash lees), it was astounding!

Koshogatsu Ryori: Eating Azukigayu and Mochi

This is a detailed article about Oma Maguro:
Japan’s love affair with Oma’s tuna | The Japan Times Online

KyotoFoodie Burikama articles:
Buri kama Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Yellowtail Collar)
Buri-zanmai: Buri Kama Shioyaki (Salt Grilled Fatty Yellowtail Collar)

Fushimi, Kyoto still has some beautiful places and offers a glimpse into what Fushimi must have been like before industrialization. I took my camera around the neighborhood and visited Okinaya, a small shop run by Kitagawa Honke. Okinaya sells Kitagawa’s Tomio brand sake as well as very nice rice and some other interesting goodies.

This is part 5 of our sake series.

Fushimi, Kyoto an Historic Town

Remember, Fushimi is synonymous with sake and water. Water for transportation of goods (rivers) and for making great sake (groundwater). Fushimi is also a beautiful and historic town. Many of the largest breweries still have beautiful, historic buildings. Fushimi is a great place to spend a day exploring, taking in scenes of old Japan and trying sake.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

This brewery is the postcard image from Fushimi. The contrast of the traditional Japanese brewery architecture with the red brick (Western) smokestack and boiler room is quite compelling and speaks to it’s era, a time when Japan adopted necessary Western technology but retained it’s own character. This is on a riverbank so in the spring it is covered in verdant nanohana with yellow flowers.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Sign and entrance. Matsumoto Sake Brewery’s two famous brands are shown on the bottom of the sign, Hi-no-dezakari (日出盛) and Momo-no-shizuku (桃の滴).
Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the riverbank. The old brewery can still be seen.

Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the roof.

Traditional Japanese House

This house is beautifully maintained. The taller part on the right is the kura, or storehouse for the family treasures. Kyoto houses are made of wood — and burn. The kura have very thick earthen walls to withstand fire.

Old and New

A Japanese house with a bad neighbor. Japanese have yet to modernize their cities like Kyoto and retain harmony with the past.

Late Winter in Fushimi

This beautiful old house celebrates the approach of spring with flowers.

Late Winter in Fushimi

The pink blossoms are probably plum or peach.

Late Winter in Fushimi

These are probably Japanese quince and daffodils.

Late Winter in Fushimi

Camellia

Okinaya (おきな屋): Sake, Shochu, Rice and Other Goodies

Okinaya sells Kitagawa Honke Tomio brand sake, Hannari brand shochu and umeshu and some new and interesting creations. There is habanero shochu, shoyu and hard candies. Japanese food is not spicy hot but recently habanero peppers are being grown in one of the agricultural districts of Kyoto prefecture. Kitagawa Honke teamed up with some of the farmers out there to make these three products. One my favorite winter delicacies is sake kasu, this is the lees leftover after pressing. Sake kasu is used for all kinds of things; from soup stock to marinade for grilled fish to flavorings for wagashi. It is also enjoyed as amazake (甘酒), or sweet sake. Sake kasu is dissolved in hot water and grated ginger is added. It has little alcohol content and even children drink it at New Year’s.

Sake breweries ought to know all about rice, so this the place to get some great rice. Purchasing is quite fun because there are 8 wooden barrels full of brown rice. The customer selects the rice (by breed and region) and specifies the amount to be purchased. The clerk weighs out the rice and then mills it, making it white rice! Now that is fresh!

Many of Kitagawa Honke’s sake can be sampled at Okinaya.

Neighborhood Sign

Several of these handwritten signs on the walls and fences of the brewery tell the neighborhood about the latest sake available at Okinaya.

Okinaya Storefront

The storefront, facing Otesuji-dori Street.

Okinaya and the River

Okinaya and the river

Sake Kasu

A shot from the production process.

Okinaya Interior

In the foreground are the wooden barrels with brown rice. In the background sake and shochu can be seen.

Okinaya Rice Milling Machine

This is where the rice is milled.

Okinaya Rice Packaging

After the rice is milled it is packaged.

English:
English website: none
Service/Staff: friendly (no English)
Location and Access: Okinaya can be accessed from the Keihan Railway Keihan Honsen Line which is about 10 minutes from the center of Kyoto (Sanjo/Shijo). Just get off at Fushimi Momoyama Station and walk west through the shopping arcade. Walk a for more minutes after exiting the shopping arcade. Okinaya will be on the left side, if you cross the river, you have gone too far.
Address: 612-8369 Kyoto-shi Fushimi-ku Murakami-cho 370-6 (京都市伏見区村上町370-6)
Telephone: 075-601-0783
Near Sightseeing Spot: Fushimi Inari Shrine, Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Jyukkokubune/Sanjukkokubune (boat tours of Fushimi canals).
Map:

View Larger Map

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5