Buri-zanmai Series (Part 2): Winter is the time for buri, or yellowtail. The meat is laden with oil and rich flavor. Here we make a classic, Buri Daikon.

Buri-daikon is a much loved winter dish in Japan. It combines chopped yellowtail (buri) heads with daikon radish and ginger, slowly simmered in water, sugar, sake and shoyu. Simmering the buri heads produces an unbelievably gelatinous saucy dashi. Everything is covered in this delectable sauce and the chunks of slow simmered buri meat that is teased away from the bone is creamy soft and sweet and the daikon is impregnated through-and-through with buri-dashi.

About Buri-daikon
Actually, this dish isn’t gross. There is lots of meat in there and it is very tender and tasty. It is a lot of fun to make, serve and eat. This dish could be the life of a foodie dinner party. If you can obtain buri head and yuzu, definitely give this dish a try. This dish might change how you think about food.

Buri-no-ara (chunks of yellowtail head), like tai-no-ara (chunks of red snapper head) is popular among Japanese for simmering in sweetened sake-shoyu broth. We procure ours down at Nishiki Market. Hon-buri (wild yellowtail) is the real deal.

The density and rich taste of the gelatin produced from the fish heads is astounding.

This is a classic Japanese dish, a few seasonal and fresh ingredients are combined in a novel way producing a juxtaposition of flavors for not just the palette, but the eyes too. Even the mind!

You’ve got to try this dish!

Ingredients:

• buri (yellowtail) heads chopped into large chunks. About two heads, one head should yield 6 to 8 chunks. (Similar large fish head may be substituted. Salmon will work too. Consult your fish monger.)
• daikon radish (big one)
• shoga (ginger)
• sugar 3 tablespoons
• sake 1 cup
• mirin 3 tablespoons
• shoyu (soy sauce) 1/2 – 3/4 cup
• yuzu

＊As with all home cooking recipes here on KyotoFoodie, we trust that our readers are fellow foodies and will be able to ‘wing’ the recipe and even alter and improve it.

Preparation:
Buri: If you cannot obtain buri-no-ara you can easily chop the some yellowtail heads yourself, or better yet, ask your fish monger to do it for you. It does take a great, big knife! ＊BE CAREFUL!!＊

Scald: Take the chunks and give them a good rinsing down in a colander then pour on a large pot of boiled water. In Japan, where fish is usually extremely fresh, buri-no-ara sometimes isn’t quite as fresh, so this scalding washes away any yucky bits and fishiness.

Veggies: This is all going to be simmered for an hour or so, at least. So the daikon and ginger have to hold up to a lot of cooking, so chop the pieces accordingly. The ginger should be about 5mm thick and the daikon about 3cm.

Simmer: Places the scalded buri-no-ara chunks, daikon slices and chopped ginger in a large pot, cover with water and begin to heat. Bring to a brisk boil and after 15 minutes reduce to simmer and add sugar, mirin and sake.

Cover and gently simmer for about 45 minutes. If you have a otoshibuta (wooden cover/weight) as seen in the photo below, place that over the ingredients to keep them covered in the soup.

Add the shoyu. Shoyu varies in strength and thickness. Adjust amount accordingly and to your taste.

After adding shoyu, cook for approximately 15 minutes more. Test daikon to be sure that it is cooked thoroughly. This can be done by piercing with a chopstick or slicing open with a knife.

Again, you are all foodies, so cook according to your taste and judgment.

Note: ‘Modern vs. Traditional’
Peko says that Japanese cook vegetables ‘to death’ and thinks that in this recipe the center half of daikon chunks should be cook thoroughly, but not yet be impregnated with dashi. The outer half is well steeped in shoyu-based dashi (brown), yet the center is still ‘daikon‘ (white). Paku now says that she agrees that this is also really good, but she had to be convinced. Japanese love daikon to have completely absorbed the dashi stock, like a sponge. Daikon also releases it’s own juices that further flavor dashi. The more you cook, the more daikon flavor into the dashi. You decide and tell us what you think!

Serving: Another Dilema Cold or Hot?
Like any stewed dish, buri-daikon tastes even better the next day. You may want to make this dish the day before you are going to serve it.

Buri-daikon can be served cold or hot. At about room temperature though the dashi-sauce ‘melts’ loosing it’s wonderful gelatinous quality. Served hot or warm, the dashi is a wonderful soup. Served a bit cold, or just below room temperature, it is thick and jelly-like. We both like the thick gelatinous quality of the dashi-sauce, but if it is served too cold, the full flavor of the fish doesn’t come out. Kyoto houses are cold and we are on celicius here, but in the US probably about 55-60° F might be about right.
This recipe yields leftovers so you can surely try both.

When we have cooked this dish for guests, we prepare it the day before and let it sit in a unheated room in the house until about an hour or two before serving. Then, bring it into the kitchen to take the chill off. (Don’t set it on the stove though if you are cooking other dishes as the radiant heat may completely melt the dashi.)

Add the yuzu peel and serve (see photo below). Lemon zest is a fine substitute. Peko likes to add some yuzu peel to the broth AFTER it has cooled down and let it ‘stew’ with the ingredients then add some fresh peel to garnish when serving. Lemon peel is probably too bitter to add to the broth.

Enjoy!
Buri-no-ara (roughly chopped yellowtail heads)

Start with chopped yellowtail heads (buri-no-ara), we procure ours down at Nishiki Market. Hon-buri (wild yellowtail) is the real deal.

Step 1: Pour on Boiled Water

Pour boiled water over the buri-no-ara.

Step 1: Pour on Boiled Water

This step washes away the clots of blood and any other yucky stuff.

Step 2: Simmer

Place buri-no-ara in a large pot with water and add rough sliced ginger and hit the gas.

Step 2: Simmer

Peel and cut the daikon radish into large pieces.

Step 2: Simmer

After the buri has started to boil, reduce heat a bit and add the daikon radish.

Step 2: Simmer

After the daikon radish has begun to cook and soften-up add sugar.

Step 2: Simmer — The Wooden Cover Dilemma
Paku: “Need wooden cover to keep everything submerged in the broth.”
Peko: “Oh, come on! Just put the cover on the pot. It will cook down just fine. ”

Step 2: Simmer

Simmer 20 to 30 minutes. The water content of the daikon radish is drawn out and deepens and complexifies flavor for the broth.

Then, add the shoyu mixture (sorry, not photo from cooking process).

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

This is the gelatinous broth after cooling. It is jelly when cool.

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

If you can obtain yuzu, thinly slice the mildly flavored peel from the fruit.

＊Actually, this photo is bad reference. There is too much white pith remaining. Slice it in narrower strips and a bit thinner. Unlike lemon peel, yuzu peel is very mild. If well cooked, the full thickness of the peel is fine, however we like it sprinkled on after being removed from the heat, so it is about half cooked, so you might prefer more thinly sliced yuzu peel.

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

The dashi has melted in this picture due to the bright lights.

Step 4: Eat and Enjoy!

This is a dish probably most efficiently enjoyed with chopsticks (o-hashi). The tender bits of sweet buri meat are gently removed, bit-by-bit and enjoyed with well stewed chucks of daikon radish. The ginger chucks are well cooked and can be eaten too.

Step 4: Eat and Enjoy!

There is actually much more meat here than you might expect! And very tasty!

We didn’t eat the skin and did remove the eyes from the cooked buri before serving. Large fish eyes are highly nutritious and enjoyed by some, mostly older Japanese. Paku and Peko love Japanese food, and some of the more challenging dishes, but we think that we will never eat fish eyes.

The cartilage (even the lips) is melted away into the broth — hence the gelatin. Yum! Super yummy, actually!

What do you think, foodies? Gross?

Buri-zanmai Series (Part 3): Winter is the time for buri, or yellowtail. The meat is laden with oil and rich flavor. Here we make a quick and simple rice dish, Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi.

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi:
Donburi is a popular ‘rice bowl’ dish in Japan. Here we make a decidedly nouveau, winter-themed donburi. Just fresh buri sashimi, finely chopped shiso leaves, shoyu, wasabi and a squeeze of sudachi all on a bed of warm rice makes this a quick and healthy meal!

Ingredients:

• buri (yellowtail) sashimi
• shiso leaf (10-15 per serving)
• shoyu
• wasabi
• sudachi

＊As with all home cooking recipes here on KyotoFoodie, we trust that our readers are fellow foodies and will be able to ‘wing’ the recipe and even alter and improve it.

Rice: Cook as usual for white rice. For a serving of two, use about one and a half cups of rice. Try to use Japanese-style short grain rice, ‘California rice’ is just fine.

Add dried kombu or sake for additional flavor.

We like mugi-gohan for this dish too. Add half a cup of pressed oats (oshi-mugi) if you like.

Preparation:
Preparation for this dish is quite simple. While the rice is cooking, the other ingredients can easily be prepared.

Shiso: Wash the shiso leaves and chop finely.
Wasabi and Shoyu: Grind fresh wasabi root if available. If not, use preserved wasabi paste. Mix wasabi paste with shoyu.
Sudachi: If fresh sudachi is available, simply cut in half and remove seeds.

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl and allow to cool somewhat for 1 to 2 minutes. Place the chopped shiso atop the rice. On the bed of shiso, place the sliced buri sashimi. Spoon on about 2 tablespoons of wasabi-shoyu over to the sashimi. Next squeeze on half a sudachi. If not obtainable, lime or lemon is a fine substitute. Bottled sudachi juice is also fine.

Enjoy!

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi — Served

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi — chopping Shiso

This is a rendition of the ever popular Uni-Ikura Donburi, here we serve it on soba-gohan (rice with soba kernels).

Uni is the roe of sea urchin and ikura the roe of salmon. Combined and served on rice, this delectable combination makes Uni-Ikura Donburi. Our rendition here uses soba-gohan and makes this donburi dish decidedly nouveau. Soba is buckwheat, the same that is used to make soba noodles.

Main Ingredients: uni, ikura, rice (1 1/2 cups short grain white rice, 10 – 20% *soba kernels), *dried kombu or sake
(*optional)

Rice: If you can obtain soba kernels try making soba-gohan. Cook as usual for white rice. Add dried kombu or sake for additional flavor. (White rice is fine too, try to use Japanese-style short grain rice, ‘California rice’ is just fine.)

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl with generous portions of uni and ikura. A splash of high quality shoyu on the uni is recommended. Ikuradon is often served with chopped shiso leaves, add shiso leaves if you like.

The Ingredients

ikura, uni, rice, soba and sake

Tsukemono

nukazuke – before

Tsukemono

nukazuke – after (washed and cut)

Nakazuke is tsukemono pickled in rice bran and salt. We had scarlet turnip nukazuke and it was amazing. Nukazuke tsukemono retains the crispness of fresh vegetables and has the pungent qualities of something fermented.

Buri-daikon with Yuzu

buri (yellowtail) simmered with daikon

Soba Gohan

buckwheat (soba) kernels cooked with short grain white rice

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi with Buri-daikon and Nukazuke Tsukemono

With champagne, this makes quite a New Year’s breakfast!