Hot Smoked Mackerel Pike Fish (Sanma or Pacific Saury Fish) with Japanese Sansho Peppercorn

Hot Smoked Mackerel Pike with Sansho Peppercorn Seasoning.Very fresh mackerel pike fish or sanma or pacific saury fish butterflied from the belly side, cured with Japanese sansho pepper then hot smoked grill using indirect smoke heat from charcoal grill. Simple method bring a cheap fish into the next level of taste.

Mackerel Pike or Sanma (Pacific Saury) is a poor man’s salmon fish, simply because it’s delicious, loaded with nutritional value and also cheap. One serving of mackerel pike or sanma (100 gr) cooked in dry heat cooking like  grilled or baked contains 1400 mg DHA, while in the same amount (100 gr) of grilled farmed atlantic salmon contains about 1500 mg DHA, So the  nutritional amino acid od sanma fish is slighly lower than salmon fish, what a great deal!!! Sanma fish is the best option for baby food for brain and nerve tissues development. Sanma fish  it’s much more cheaper than regular salmon while the DHA is slighly lower than the salmon. Sanma fish is a very good choice for feeding the adolesences and toddlers.

Making hot smoked mackerel pike fish is begin with the selection of the fish first; make sure  you choose the the fresh fish as possible. Check the fish is smells fresh, the gills is still dark red, the eyes is clear and the meat texture is bouchy (bounch back when you gently pressed it with fingers), if one of this criteria jeopredized, throw it away because it’s not good for you. Any kind of fish suitable for this hot smoking recipe, so be experimental about it and feel free using your local fish product.

Mackerel Pike is quite bony fish, so i guess it’s better be deboned before hot smoked. To filet or remove any bones from the mackerel fish, first you made insicion in the middle of the belly, remove the innard. Carefully cut the mackerel back bone from the middle of the viscera, as close as possible to the bone to save the meat then cut away the backbone and left the tail behind for presentation. You can see the instruction how to butterfly the roundfish from the belly side

The ribs bone and some of the tiny bones in the middle of the mackerel pike fish filet can be removed with plier. I like my smoked mackerel fish fillet attached with it’s tail and head because hot smoking made it crisp and delicious. Do not throw away the backbone because you can seasoned it then Deep Fried Fish Back Bone and have your extra little snack.

I love smokey flavour, one of the comforting zone for me. Smoked mackerel is one of the oldest way to preserved extra harvest in the season. A number of wood smoke compounds act as preservatives. Phenol and other phenolic compounds in wood smoke are both antioxidants alongside other formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other organic acids,, which slow rancidification of animal fats, and antimicrobials, which slow bacterial growth.

Making hot smoked fish is easy, after you clean and debones the fish fillet, seasonen and cured then dry the surface, now  you need to inisiate the fire first and let the block of dry wood turned into charcoal first.  Never let the fire had any contact with the meat you want to hot smoked, not grilled or barbequed the fish so you should keep enough distance beetween the fish fillet with the firing wood.

You want to hot smoked fish, so keep the distance beetween the fire and smoking agent to the metal rack for hanging the mackerel fish. Once the wood turend into red charcoal, you can put it in the smoking chamber or a simple grill  like me.  Put the mackerel fish fillet in a metal net with at least 25 inches from the charcoal, you want the smoke that cooked the mackerel fish, not the direct heat from the charcoal.

Now we smoking the mackerel fish fillet, once your charcoal is ready and nicely firing out, now let’s begin  to make the smoke, shall we ??? After the charcoal is firing out, you need to put smoke agent like soaked wood chips over the charcoal to let the smoke start generated. The other method to generate smoke is using fresh green leaves by laying it over the charcoal and let the smoke coming by to cooked the mackerel fish.

Hot smoking fish process is between 165 and 185 Fahrenheit (73-85C) and this temperature is definitely cooked the fish. Hot smoking exposes the foods to smoke and heat in a controlled environment. Although mackerel fish that have been hot smoked are often reheated or cooked, they are typically safe to eat without further cooking. Within this temperature range, fish are fully cooked, moist, and flavorful, if you let the temperature raised more than 185 °F (85 °C), the smoked fish will shrink excessively, buckle or even burned.

 Hot Smoked Mackerel Pike Fish (Sanma) Recipe:

• 2 large Mackerel Pike Fish, Sanma or Pacific Saury Fish, gutted, cleaned, patted dry, set aside
  
• Curing for Mackerel Pike Fish : salt, sugar, white pepper & sansho peppercorn powder
• wood block, for making charcoal (you can use charcoal )
• woodchips, soaked in water for 10 minutes for generate the smoke

How to Make Hot Smoked Mackerel Pike Fish (Sanma):

• Cut open the sanma fish stomach and take out the guts

• Wash the sanma fish under a cold  running water, rub  and clean the reddish black part in the center of the cavity  below the back bone
• Butterfly the fish from the belly and revove the pin bones with clean tweezer or pliers, you can see the instruction how to butterfly the roundfish from the belly side
• Pat dry the excess moisture using kitchen paper
• Mix the mackerel pike fish fillet with the curing ingredient, let it rest in fridge for at least 12 hours, discard the dripping liquid, patted dry.

• Once the mackerel pike fish is already cured, the texture will be firmer and the color turned darker
• Hung or exposed the meat with cured mackerel pike fish fillet, let the it the outside layer form a dry pellicle before hot smoking process
• Meanwhile, fire the wood block or charcoal until ready, put the wire netat least 45 inches above the charcoal, so the direct heat won’t too much contact the mackerel pike fish (you want the heat of the smoke touch the mackerel fillet)
• Scatter the soaked woodchips or sawdust, springkle with a little bit of water if necessary, let the smoke released
• Put the mackerel pike fish fillet above the wire net, do not overloded and kept some space beetween the meat so the heat of the smoke have a greater contact with the fish
• Keep the heat constant, let the smoke generate gently, ass more soaked wooodchips if necessary and cooked the meat until dry and the internal temperature reach 160 F (70 C), it takes above 20-30 minutes for 1 inch thickness mackerel fillet with gentle heat hot smoke

You May Also Like (Click!)

Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra) Dry Cured Whole Leg or Ham of Mutton with Natural Nitrate

Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Air Dry Cured Whole Goat Leg or Ham)

Homemade Goat Prosciutto, Prosciutto di Capra  or Violino di Capra Recipe. Prosciutto is Italian ham made of bone-in hind leg (usually pork) which marinated in spiced and salt cured then hung to air-dried cured for several months. Capra is Italian word for goat or mutton; so Prosciutto di Capra is air-dried and salt cured (cold smoked) goat leg or ham. This homemade goat prosciutto is also cured without any preservative or curing salt (NO pink salt or salt petre)

Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Air Dry Cured Whole Goat Leg or Ham)

Unpopular Delicacy Goat Prosciutto di Capra

Goat prosciutto is not as well-known as the pork prosciutto, even in Italia it’s rarely served nowdays.  I’ve never seen any deli store here in Indonesia sold any goat prosciutto before and it’s challenging me even more to made it. Eversince I’ve made several whole meat muscles charcuterie before, i think finding the right goat leg for making the prosciutto di capra is my only issue.

Homemade Goat Prosciutto, Nicely Cured Mutton Ham!

Goat Prosciutto a.k.a Violino di Capra

Homemade Goat Prosciutto isn’t that hard to made if you got the passion on home curing charcuterie, i mean any amateur kitchen can made it, but sure it need some patients and precision steps to made the goat ham prosciutto edible. A little bit of passion can create a far better delicious prosciutto than any professional deli store products ever sold. Homemade charcuterie or dry curing is so easy; salting, washing (sometimes cold smoking) and then the final air dry curing. This is some of my previously charcutterie project;

• Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello (Dry Cured Lamb Belly)
• Homemade Beef Bresaola(Dry Cured Beef Tenderloin)
• Homemade Venison Deer Bresaola Di Cervo (Dry Cured Venison Tenderloin)
• Homemade Spanish Chorizo (Dry Cured Smoked Paprika Sausage)
• Homemade Salmon Gravlax
• Homemade Tea Smoked Salmon
• Homemade Smoked Duck Breast
• Homemade Smoked Beef
• Homemade Venison Deer Bresaola Recipe
• Homemade Gravlax (Salt Curing Salmon)
• Homemade Duck Prosciutto (Air Dry-Cured Duck Breast)
• Homemade Tea Smoked Salmon Recipe

Goat Prosciutto (Salt Cured , Cold Smoked, Air Dried Whole Goat Ham)

Prosciutto di Capra

Goat prosciutto is considered delicacy for its mild gamey, sweet and yet tender delicious because it’s made from very young or junvenile goat that unless the prosciutto will be tough and rubbery. Prosciutto di capra usually made from about 6 months to 1-year-old goat hind leg weighed about 1 to 1.5 kg and no more than 2 kg each. Goat prosciutto will be hung to air curing for about two to three months untill it lost about 30% its original weight after salt cured. Goat prosciutto can enjoyed  for a long day since it can last for months or even years. Some would love to inoculate a good white mould in the exposed meat to make it last longer.

Goat Prosciutto; Nicely Vivid Red, Well Done Curing Celery Seed & Juice!!!

To maintain the red meat color and prevent spoiling and poisoning from botulism, prosciutto cured with nitrites like salt peter (sendawa) or potassium nitrit. The nitride oxide bonded and reacted with the remaining myoglobin in the flesh and make a red pigmentation. These process get even better when the water is drained out from the flesh. I used to used salt petre to my charcuterie project, but eversince i’m concerning about the health hence I’m using the natural form of nitrate from celery juice & celery salt for making this goat ham prosciutto.

Vivid Red Sliced Goat Prosciutto, Cured with Natural Nitrate of Celery Seed & Celery Juice

Measure the weight of your beef then calculate the sea salt weight (3 %) and the pink salt weight (0,1%) needed to curing the goat leg prosciutto di capra . If  you using salt petre for making prosciutto  it’s recommended ammount is 500 ppm (part per million) or 500 mg for one kg of meat. Unfortunately, i didn’t know about the correct ammount of nitrate on celery salt and juice for properly cured this prosciutto but judging from the satisfying result i guess my recipe is quite correct.

Homemade Goat Prosciutto

Sliced Goat Prosciutto

I mention before that home curing goat prosciutto need a precision; simply because improperly curing process can lead to food bourne poisoning called Botulism and possibly causing death, no kidding!!!. Before you considering to made your homemade lamb pancetta or any other air dry cured meat, you should know about the safety about curing  first. You NEED NITRATE, that’s for sure because it’s the only known additive that effective to prevent the Clostridium botulinum growing.

Prosciutto di Capra, Salt Cured Cold Smoked and Hung Dried Whole Goat Hind Leg

Thinly Sliced Goat Prosciutto

Making homemade goat prosciutto is very fun to me, if you ask me why I’m curing my own goat prosciutto, my simple answer is; why not ? Beside the fact it’s must be very expensive to purchased and imported  genuine Italian prosciutto di capra, i also simply can control all ingredients and adjust the taste according to your own personal licking. For example, i add a little bit Szechuan peppercorn to my homemade prosciutto to satisfied my asian descent taste buds and you won’t get any of it in the store.

Thinly Sliced Goat Prosciutto with Lettuce Salad

Properly prepared goat prosciutto is  save to eaten raw as thinly sliced appetizer on charcuteries platter alongside other homemade cold cut charcuterie. Goat prosciutto  usually served uncooked or raw with greens leaves  salad and vinegar or lemon juice dressing. Beside that, prosciutto can be served as sandwich filling, rolled in the veggies and roasted and many more.

Bruchetta with Goat Prosciutto, Mild Cream Cheese , Kalamata Olives Puree, Preserved Artichoked, Mustard Leaves and Blossom, Crab Clawn Herbs, Pickled Garlic & Green Pepercorn, & Crushed Pink Pepeprcorn

I also made some bruchetta whith my homemade goat prosciutto. Crispy oven toasted french baguette, spread with some mild cream cheese and kalamata olives puree, then topped with  preserved artichoked and finished with some micro greens mustard leaves and blossom, micro crab clawn herbs, pickled garlic & green peppercorn, & crushed Pink pepeprcorn

My grandma won’t eat any uncooked meat, not even my raw delicious cured goat prosciutto, so she decided to crisp up the goat prosciutto by fried it up with some avocado oil and enjoy the crispy proscoutto like a fried goat bacon, lol

Violino di Capra a.k.a Violin of Goat

Violino di Capra or literary translated as violin of goat is the Italian names for goat prosciutto. It ‘a leg of ham made from goat and the name derives not so much from the cured ham shape as from the characteristic way of holding it for slicing. It is placed on the arm like a violin and sliced thinly using the knife as a bow

Slicing Goat Prosciutto

Slicing a goat prosciutto or violino di capra is quite challenging for me. First you need to sharpen your knive to get a thinner sliced prosciutto. I’m using small boning knives, i sharpen it using automatic knife sharpener and it’s almost as sharp as surgical scalpel knives. If you had the prosciutto holder, use it to secure and fixation it, but if you didn’t have any, use your left hand to hold it tight while  you slicing the prosciutto horizontally. Slice the prosciutto as thin as possible with a gentle and confident movement, well my grandma gladly do this job for me; at least for the photograph session, lol

Thinly Carving the Goat Prosciutto

Now this is How I Make My Goat Prosciutto or Violino di Agnello from scratch!!!

Young Goat Leg from 8 Months Old Goat Leg Weighed About 1 Kg, The Best Ingredients for Making Goat Prosciutto

1. Select the Goat Leg;

Prosciutto di capra usually made from young goat, i personally order 8 months old goat leg weighed about 1 kg for each of it. DO NOT EVER WASHED THE GOAT LEG WITH WATER or it will be had a very strong gamey aromas. Properly trimming the sinew as much as possible is essential to the rich taste and properly cured prosciutto. Clean the goat leg from any debris or remaining fur and trimmed the remaining blood debris or stain. You can pushed the leg a little bit to drain remaining blood then wipe it out with paper towel.

2. Salt Curing the Goat Leg

Young Goat Leg, Celery Seed-Spices-Salt & Celery Juice = Homemade Goat Prosciutto

The spices and herbs used for making the goat prosciutto differ according to the traditions and your personal preferences. For making my homemade prosciutto do capra i’m using a combinations of nutmeg, celery seed, Szechuan peppercorn, fennel seed, cumin, cardamon, sage, tarragon, juniper berries, black pepper, bay leaf, cloves, thyme, oregano, and rosemary. For the salt, i’m using homemade sea salt that i processed with the spices and herbs until fine powder to made it penetrate better to the meat. The natural nitrate preservatives source for making this goat prosciutto is the celery seed and the celery juice that i added into it.

3. Salt-Dry Curing (Plus Cold Smoked) The Goat Leg

Salt Curing Goat Leg with Natural Nitrate

The hind leg or ham of the goat salted and cured with the celery juice, salt and seasoning for about 14 days, depend on your goat leg size. During this time the goat leg ham is sit in the refrigerator and gently pressed to drain all the blood that remains  in the meat and flipped over every day.  After the curing process, the goat leg is carefully washed in running water,  patted dry and hung in a dark, good-ventilated environment.  At this point, you can cold smoked the cured goat leg a little bit to improved the taste and induced the smokey flavour on it before hung it to air cured. The  humidity and temperature of the enviroment is the key success of making a good quality of goat prosciutto. The best environment for making cured meat is cold climate with low humidity. The goat prosciutto  is then left until dry and loosen  30 percent of it’s weight, so make sure you notes the weight of the cured beef before you hung it and calculate the 30 percent loss from the freshly cured goat leg weight. When you lived in a tropical country with high temperature and humidity, don’t worry about it, as long as you can set your refrigerator in “dry mode” you can made your own dry cured meat or prosciutto.

Recipe Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra)

Recipe Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra) with Natural Nitrate Preservatives (Celery seed & Juice) :

• 1 small goat hind leg (about 1 kg)
• 3% sea salt (30 grams) *add more if necessary
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 50 ml celery juice (from about 1 1/2 cups celery leaves and little stem)
• 1/2 tbsp freshly grounded black peppercorn
• 1 tsp of rosemary
• 1/2 tsp of Szechuan peppercorn *optional
• 1/2 tsp juniper berry, coarsely ground
•  2 tbsp of mix italian herbs
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

How To Make Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra):

• Clean the goat leg from any debris, pushed out the remaining blood and patted it dry with paper towel
•  Rub the celery seed, spices and salt mixture to the goat leg, make sure all the surface is coated with salt mixture evenly
• Pour the celery juice over the goat leg and massage it all over the surface, put it in a ziplock bag and pushed out the air to sealed it properly
• Let the salted goat leg cured for about 14  days, in the refrigerator flip it over every  day.
• Gently press the cured goat leg by putting some weight over the ziplock bag.
• When the curing process is done, your goat leg should be slightly flattened and firm to touch
• Washed the cured goat leg gently in running cold water to dissolved the remaining curing salt
• Pat it dry with clean paper towel
• Washed it a little bit with red wine vinegar*optional
• Rub it with a freshly ground black peppercorn*optional
• Measure and note the weight of your cured goat leg
• Hang it in your refrigerator (make sure you set it in dry mode)
• Ater hung 1 day in the fridge, you can cold smoked for about 2 hour *optional
• Let the goat leg dry cured into prosciutto for about 2 months up to 12 months
• Make sure you watch the weight loss
• Your goat prosciutto or violino di capra  is ready when it loosen 30 percent of it’s freshly cured leg weight, but if you want it develop more flavour let it cured for longer period of times.
• You can either serve it raw on salad or cook it in your pasta, your choice

You May Also Like (CLICK!!!)

Mushrooms Crusted Matsusaka Wagyu Beef Sous Vide Steak with Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef with Gourmet Mushrooms Crusted & Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef with Gourmet Mushrooms Crusted & Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter, A5 Matsusaka beef ribeye from Japan dusted and marinated with medley of gourmet mushrooms (porcini, morel, kulat pelawan/local chanterelle and shiitake) then sous vide cooked in 60°C waterbath for 1 hours, drained, dusted with extra porcini mushrooms powder then seared, carved and served with porcini mushrooms powder infused butter.

Matsusaka Beef Ribeye Steak & Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Porcini Mushrooms Crusted Matsusaka Beef Steak  Topped with Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Matsusaka beef is a black hair Japanese cattle (wagyu), also known as Kuroge Washu or “Japanese Black”, the cattle come from the Matsusaka region of Mie, Japan. It is one of the most famous beef types within Japan and internationally, with a high fat-to-meat ratio. Within Japan, Matsusaka beef is generally considered one of the three top brands (known as Sandai Wagyu, “the three big beefs”), along with Kobe beef and Omi beef or Yonezawa beef.

A5 Matsusaka Wagyu Beef with Massive Marbling Fat Marinated with Gourmet Mushrooms Medley Powder

Matsusaka beef is got the top marbling fat ratio (BMS 12 out of 12) so you won’t taste it unless you willing to reach deep into you your pocket. Yup, look out the massive fat within the meat of the sous vide matsusaka beef above. Matsusaka marbling fat is a promise of succulent, juicy, tender and flavourful beef steak. Matsusaka wagyu beef raised in Mie perfecture japan, a wagyu catttle sanctuary of quiet, serene area, feed with the best nutritious diet including ground wheat, ground corn, tofu lees or soy pulp and fresh grass.

Massive Marbling Fat Matsusaka Beef (BMS 12 out of 12)

Matsusaka wagyu beef also got it’s massive marbling fat because the cattle once had a very happy live.  The Matsusaka beef farmer even  improving the cattle appetite with sake rice wine and beer. Matsusaka cattle got daily massage all over the body to get a well distributed fat and then exposed with classic music to improved the dopamine hormones release to make the cattle calm and happy. One single thing that i hate about this precise Matsusaka beef raising procedures is it definitely cost you  a lot, here in Indonesia imported Japanese matsusaka beef cost about IDR 3.600.000 (360 USD) for a kilo.

Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef Steak with Mushrooms Butter

Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef with Mushrooms Crust, Served with Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Premium beef such Matsusaka wagyu need a prescise method to cooked it; i prefer sous vide for any prime beef meat since my previous SOUS VIDE KOBE BEEF Served with Kaffir Lime Ponzu is turned out really good,  even sous vide method make choice grade or cheap SOUS VIDE BEEF BRISKET with Roasted Pepper & Pine Nuts Romesco Sauce delicious too.

Sous Vide Matsusaka Beef

Sous-vide is the French term for “under vacuum”, a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times for up to 96 hours, in some cases; at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 50°C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140°F) for meats and higher for vegetables.

Porcini Mushrooms Medley Crusted Wagyu Beef with Mushrooms Butter

The sous vide Matsusaka beef marinated with porcini and other gourmet mushrooms powder. The dried mushrooms powder is a mixture of dried porcini, morel, kulat pelawan and shiitake mushrooms that thinly sliced and then toasted with low heat until a little bit browned and crisp. The toasted dried mushrooms medley then processed with blender until become a fine powder.  You can use any of your favourite mushrooms for the mushrooms powder medley.

Dried Porcini Mushrooms

This is dried Porcini mushrooms (Boletus edulis), also called cepes, penny bun, porcino, or king bolete. Porcini is gourmet mushrooms and prized for its flavour and aromas and high regard in many cuisines, and is commonly prepared and eaten in Porcini Mushrooms Risotto, as a crust seasoning for meat like my Porcini Mushrooms Crusted Pan Seared Lamb Chop or as a stuffing for my Porcini Mushrooms Stuffed Chicken Ballontine

Dried Pelawan Mushrooms, Bangka Island Endemic Chanterelle Mushrooms

This is Jamur  Pelawan or Pelawan mushrooms, Bangka Island endemic wild mushrooms that symbiotically grown under Pelawan Tree (Tristaniopsis merguensis).  Fresh  jamur pelawan got a burgundy color and it’s turn out reddish-brown once it dried and aged. Kulat pelawan hand-picked one by one in the pelawan tree forest and carefully covered with some cloth and then exposed with heat or sun ray until the mushrooms dried, it’s prized for its earthy, smokey and woodsy flavour, even a professional French Chef in Jakarta Thought Kulat Pelawan is Genuine French Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms in a Blind Tasting Test.

Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

The porcini mushrooms infused butter for serving my sous vide Matsusaka beef steak is pretty simple to made.I mixed powder of toasted porcini mushrooms and the remaining mushrooms powder mixture for the beef marinade with  softened butter. All the ingredients must be chilled before mixed, then after the butter and mushrooms powder mixed well i put it in a cling wrapping plastic and then rolled it to assemble a cylindrical log. Wrapping the mushrooms butter once more with aluminium foil made it chilled even better in the fridge. The porcini mushrooms infused butter log then cut into a thick coin and place over the hot seared Matsusaka beef steak, melt a little bit and there you go to enjoy it.This mushrooms butter using clarified butter that really had a lower temperature melting point compare with the regular butter, so easy to melt as you see in the photograph, hence  i need to keep it chilled before serving instead it’s spreadable rather than palatable. You can use regular butter for a better presentation, it’s hold it’s form and pretty easier to photograph as well.

Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef with Mushrooms Crust, Served with Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter

Melting Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter Over Matsusaka Beef Sous Vide Steak

The Matsusaka beef marinated in porcini mushrooms mixture actually cooked in sort of sous vide because i using rice cooker as the heater to my water-bath, so no fancy equipments; sousvide water bath circulator and vacuum sealed pack machines involved.  Instead, this sort of sousvide method using amateur kitchen tools, ever since  i take care all the basic principles of sousvide on this recipe.Since this is Matsusaka beef is cooked in sort of-sousvide, the beef sirloin is vacuum packed with ziplock manually without any vacuum machine by simply submerged the ziplock package under water partially to pushed away the air. The ziplock package silicone seal then zipped once the air removed from the bag. This ziplock bag submerging method is quite efficient to pushed away the air from the bag. Choose the heat-proof and food grade ziplock bag with a good sealing feature, cheap ziplock bag may burst out while cooking and ruined your entire Matsusaka beef batch.

Sous Vide Beef Steak with Rice Cooker Waterbath

As you can see from the photograph, my water bath temperature was 60°C , but it’s actually fluctuated from 60 to 61°C if i  put the lid partially on. I adjust the temperature of the rice cooker water bath with covering the metal pot, the more you cover hence the temperature will get closer to the maximum temperature when you put the lid on completely. I let the Matsusaka beef sit in the rice cooker water bath for about 1 hours, don’t get hesitate to leave it longer in the water bath because it’s not a single chance your beef will overcooked, but definitely no further than 2 hours or it turn into mushy because the fat is totally rendered.  The heat source of my rice cooker is on the bottom of the metal pot, so the temperature in the bottom and the surface of the the water bath is different with about 0.5°C range, so it’s necessary to flip it every 20-30 minutes to made the Matsusaka beef evenly cooked. Do not forget to submerged the vacuum packed beef sirloin completely on the water bath during the sous vide cooking, i’m putting some glass plate for that purpose.

Sous Vide Matsusaka Beef with Gravy

Right after i sous vide the porcini mushrooms powder marinated matsusaka beef for 1 hour in 60°C rice cooker water bath, i take it out of the ziplock bag, then drained the precious Matsusaka beef little bit. The gravy or natural juice from the sous vide bag is separated. The gravy from the sous vide bag then  reduced it a little and served the with the beef steak. I also added the reduced gravy into the Porcini mushrooms infused butter to give extra beefy flavour into it.

Mushrooms Powder Dusted Sous VIde Matsusaka Beef

While the gravy from the sous vide Matsusaka wagyu beef ziplock bag reduced, i dust the precious beef with extra gourmet mushrooms powder to make a nice mushrooms crusted on it once it properly seared. Make sure you dusted the mushroom powder evenly to make a nice and even mushrooms crust on it.

Mushrooms Crusted Matsusaka Beef Steak

Nice Gourmet Mushrooms Crust with Juicy Sous Vide Matsusaka Beef

I drizzle some olive oil and give a gentle massage on the mushrooms crust and then seared it with blowtorch until the outside layer of mushrooms crust on the beef steak is slightly charred and browned all over. The seared mushrooms crusted Matsusaka ribeye beef steak is beautifully pink and very juicy ever since sous vide method is slow cooking process which the best way to retain the moisture within the steak. Almost none of the moisture loss during the sous vide method, there’s only earthy mushrooms and beef flavour exchanged inside the vacuum packed ziplock bag.

Matsusaka Beef Ribeye Steak with Mushrooms Infused Butter

The Next Day Patients Gonna Get The Best of Mr. Dentist Chef!!!

Now is the moment of truth, carefully carved and enjoy your Gourmet Mushrooms Crusted Sous Vide Matsusaka Beef Steak with  Gourmet Mushrooms Infused Butter. If you like beef, this is the heaven kind of beef,trust me !!! All the investment you’ve let go to purchased the gourmet mushrooms is definitely worth once you taste this. I gladly announced that if i had this Matsusaka Beef Ribeye Steak, ALL THE PATIENTS IN THE NEXT DAY WILL GET THE BEST OF MR.DENTIST CHEF!!!

Recipe Sous Vide Matusaka Wagyu Beef Ribeye with Gourmet Mushrooms Powder Medley

Recipe Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef  with Porcini, Morel, Chanterelle & Shiitake Mushrooms Powder Medley:

Serving (2-3)

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of 500 grams A5 Matsusaka Wagyu Beef Ribeye Steak
  
• 3 Tbsp Gourmet Mushroom Powder for Marinade (Mixture of dried porcini, morel, chanterelle & shiitake mushrooms)
• 1 Tbsp extra Gourmet Mushroom Powder for the mushrooms crust
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 2 tbsp butter
• Ziplock plastic bag

How to Make Sous Vide Matsusaka Wagyu Beef Ribeye Steak Using Rice Cooker:

• Season the Matsusaka beef  with salt, pepper and gourmet mushrooms powder generously, set aside
  
• Put the porcini mushrooms powder mixture marinated Matsusaka beef steak and the butter in the ziplock bag.
  
• Submerged the ziplock bag in the water partially to pushed the air out of it.
• Secure the ziplock seal once the air removed from the bag, let it sit marinated  in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.
  
• Place ziplock packed Matsusaka beef ribeye  in the preheated rice cooker water bath in 60°C for medium well done (i’m using my rice cooker with the lid cover partially on)
• Let it sit in the water bath for 1 hour, flip it every 20 minutes and put some weight to let the bag completely submerged.
• Take away the sous vide Matsusaka beef  bag from the rice cooker waterbath, set aside
  
• Pop out the Matsusaka beef ribeye steak from the ziplock bag, drain and set aside the gravy.
• Dust the Matsusaka beef with the remaining porcini mushrooms mixture
• Drizzle some avocado oil (or any high smoke point oil) to the mushrooms crust
• Sear the sous vide Matsusaka beef steak until the mushrooms crust is perfectly browned for about 1 minute each side, set aside

Porcini Mushrooms Butter Recipe

Porcini Mushrooms Butter Recipe:

• 2 tbsp Porcini mushrooms powder (you can combine with morel, chanterelle or any kind of gourmet mushrooms you want)
• 1 tbsp reduced matsusaka beef gravy (from the ziplock sous vide bag)
• 100 gr butter
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Plastic cling film for wrapping and rolling the porcini butter
• aluminium foil for wrapping the porcini butter

How to Make Porcini Mushrooms Infused Butter :

• Lay a  plastic cling film in a table, set aside
• In a glass bowl, mix the butter, porcini mushrooms powder and the reduced beef gravy until well blend
• Put it in over the cling film and then roll it to made a cylindrical log
• Wrap it with aluminium foil and let it refrigerate until set
• Serve the porcini mushrooms butter  with the Mushrooms Crusted Matsusaka Beef Ribeye Steak
  

You May Also Like (Click!)

Resep Daging Se’i Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur, Hot Smoked Cured Meat (Beef, Pork, or Venison Deer)

Daging Se’i, Indonesian Hot Smoked Cured Meat Bacon from East Nusa Tenggara Island

Daging Se’i is an Indonesian style bacon from East Nusa Tenggara Island, an authentic dish of Rote descent people. Daging sei derived from the word daging which is meat and se’i that means thin strip sliced, so daging sei is  thinly slide meat strip that hot smoked until dried and throughly cooked. Daging se’i mostly made from a pork or beef, but the anchester used to made daging se’i from wild boar or games venison deer.

Daging Sapi Sei Asap, Indonesian Hot Smoked Cured Beef

Daging sei babi or hot smoked pork meat is iconic food souvenir from Kupang City, you ain’t travelling to East Nusa tenggara Island unless you give daging sei babi a try. Daging babi se’i also the most popular food souvenir people expecting if you’ve got a chance to travelling there. For those who can eat pork such local moslem tourist, you can taste the daging sapi sei or hot smoked beef instead the pork because there’s also several halal daging sei restaurant there.

Homemade Hot Smoked Beef

Daging se’i  or hot smoked beef, pork or venison meat  traditionally only contain with salt and salt petre as seasoning, that’s it!. The smokey flavour is what made it taste specials. Nowdays, manufactured bacon usually stuffed with tons of preservatives and stuffs you even don’t wanna know about, but this traditional daging sei asap is usually remain contains that simple ingredients, the only additional ingredients usually added is mono sodium glutamat (MSG) and i bet it’s still much more healthier than the store brough smoked bacon.

Daging Sapi Sei, Cured Hot Smoked Lean Beef

Daging sei making is begin with the selection of the meat first; what ever kind of meat you want to made daging sei; beef, pork or venison, make sure  you choose the lean cut. The loin, the eye round or the silverside of the beef, pork or venison usually using for this recipe. Removed any silver skin, fat or sinew because it’s will not be rendered  from the low temperature hot smoking. The meat then sliced into 1 inch maximum thickness then seasoned and cured with spices, salt and salt petre. Traditionally, the seasoned meat is hung first in a perforated sack to let the dripping liquid running out off the meat during the curing process for at least 6 hours. Once the cured meat had a firmer and dry texture, the meat then hung and exposed with air to develop a pellicle for another 4 hours before ready to hot smoking.

Beef Tenderloin Hot Smoked Meat, Daging Sapi Sei Asap Has Dalam

Sei daging asap usually using native wood called kayu kosambi (Schleichera oleosa). Kayu Kosambi is called Ceylon oak in English, Malay lac tree or Macassar oil tree contain essential A number of wood smoke compounds act as preservatives. Phenol and other phenolic compounds in wood smoke are both antioxidants alongside other formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other organic acids,, which slow rancidification of animal fats, and antimicrobials, which slow bacterial growth. But i can’t find any of kosambi wood nearby, so i’m using mangoo wood instead .

Damn Delicious Daging Se’i or Hot Smoked Cured Meat from East Nusa Tenggara

For hot smoking you need to inisiate the fire first and let the block of dry wood turned into charcoal first. Never let the fire had any contack with the meat you want to hot smoked, so i keep enough distance beetween the meat with the firing wood. Once the wood turend into red charcoal, you can put it in the smoking chamber or a simple grill  like me.  Put the meat in a metal net with at least 15 inches from the charcoal, you want the smoke that cooked the meat, not the direct heat from the charcoal.

Starting the Charcoal by Firing the Wood Block Away from The Meat, DO NOT LET THE DIRECT HEAT from CHARCOAL CONTACT the Meat

Once your charcoal is ready, now let’s begin  to make the smoke, shall we ? The smoke can be initiate by putting some dry wood chips that priorly soaked in water for about 10 minutes to enchanced the smoke formation. The other method is using fresh green leaves, you can lay the green leaves over the charcoal and let the magic happen.

Once the Charcoal Ready, Scatter The Soaked Woodchips to Generate the SMOKE and let the SMOKE Gently Cook The Cured Meat

Hot smoking process is between 165 and 1850 Fahrenheit (73-85C) and this temperature is definitely cooked the meat .”Hot smoking exposes the foods to smoke and heat in a controlled environment.. Although foods that have been hot smoked are often reheated or cooked, they are typically safe to eat without further cooking. Within this temperature range, foods are fully cooked, moist, and flavorful, if you let the temperature raised more than 185 °F (85 °C), the meat will shrink excessively, buckle or even burned.

Homemade Hot Smoked Beef or Daging Sapi Sei Asap

My brother in law is running a Pentacostal Church in Sungai Lilin, about 3-4 hours drives from my place in Palembang City. My sister’s house  had a very wide yard so nobody will probably complain about the smoke if we held a barbeque party there, so i love to practice my barbeque skills there. Several members of the church congregation had Nusa Tenggara descent, so i’m lucky to practice making daging sei with their family secret recipes and techniques.

Recipe Hot Smoked Meat or Daging Se’i from Kupang City

I’ve try making daging sei or hot smoked meat bacom from beef, pork and also venison deer meat and it’s turned out really good. My favourite is the venison or daging sei rusa. I love the flavour and the texture, smokey and natural mild gamey flavour of venison deer meat is really got my taste buds.

16 Pounds Hot Smoked Beef, I kinda Nailed it !!!!

This is hot smoked beef or daging sapi sei, my big sister “trick” me to made this for her gathering party. This is 16 pounds of beef that i cured with a very simple salt, sugar, garlic and red coloring agent. I’m using red yeast rice powder for the curing marinade. I’m not using any salt petre for my hot smoked beef because it won’t be last for more than next 2 hours and definitely did’t need to be preserved with salt petre or other nitrate preservatives.

Daging Babi Sei or Hot Smoked Wild Boar Meat

This is daging babi sei or hot smoked pork that i made several days after making the daging sapi sei or smoked beef. I’m using wild boar tenderloin meat for this recipe and i kinda like this even more compare to the commom farm raised pig. Hot smoked wild boar is taste nutty, sweet and very succulent and tender, i’m not a fans of lean meat but i’m really digging this .

Daging Rusa Se’i, Hot Smoked Cured Venison Deer Meat

This is daging rusa se’i asap or hot smoked venison deer meat. This smoked venison deer bacon made from wild Sambar Deer meat (Cervus Unicolor), Sumatra island native large deer with large and rugged antlers with uniform brown to dark grey colour. Sambar deer meat is considered as delicacy and also healthy choice of meat because it high in protein and low in cholesterol and trans fat. I like the venison deer steak simply because i like it’s natural light gamey flavour and if you lucky enough the traditional market in Sungai Lilin  provide venison deer meat occationally.

Daging Se’i Masakan Daerah Khas Kupang Nusa Tenggara Timur

Daging Se’i atau Se’i adalah daging asap tradisional suku Rote di Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur. Daging sapi, babi ataupun rusa dibumbui dengan garam dan sendawa, digantung selama 6 jam (kyuring) didalam karung berpori agar cairan dapat keluar dari daging, lalu diasap dengan kayu bakar yang berjarak cukup jauh sehingga panas dari asap yang mematangkan daging tersebut bukan lidah panas api secara langsung. Daging sei dapat dimakan langsung, tapi  jika sudah disimpan beberapa hari, harus digoreng lagi, atau dimasak dalam tumisan bunga pepaya ataupun sayuran lainnya.

Resep Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur/Kupang

Resep Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur/Kupang :

Homemade Hot Smoked Meat Bacon (Beef, Pork, Venison) Recipe:

Ingredient:

• 1 kg lean meat (beef or pork or venison deer)
• wood block, for making charcoal (you can use charcoal )
• woodchips, soaked in water for 10 minutes for generate the smoke

Homemade Curing Smoked Beef Recipe:

• 1/4 tsp *sendawa/ salt peter/ curing salt
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp brown sugar*optional
• 1 tbsp garlic powder*optional
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg*optional
• 1/2 tsp cardamon*optional
• 1/2 tsp rosemarry*optional
• 1/2 tsp blackpeppercorn*optional
• 1/2 tsp  caraway*optional
• 1/2 tsp red food coloring (i’m using red yeast powder)*optional

Cara Membuat Daging Sei Asap Khas Nusa Tenggara Timur :

How to Hot Smoked Meat Bacon from Scratch:

• Mix the meat with the curing ingredient, let it rest in fridge for at least 12 hours, discard the dripping liquid, patted dry.
• Once the meat is already cured, the texture will be firmer and the color turned darker
• Hung or exposed the meat with fan, let the it the outside layer form a dry pellicle before hot smoking process
• Meanwhile, fire the wood block or charcoal until ready, put the wire netat least 45 inches above the charcoal, so the direct heat won’t too much contact the meat (you want the heat of the smoke touch the meat)
• Scatter the soaked woodchips or sawdust, springkle with a little bit of water if necessary, let the smoke released
• Put the meat above the wire net, do not overloded and kept some space beetween the meat so the heat of the smoke have a greater contact with the meat
• Keep the heat constant, let the smoke generate gently, ass more soaked wooodchips if necessary and cooked the meat until dry and the internal temperature reach 200 F (90 C), it takes above 3-4 hours for 1 inch thickness with gentle heat hot smoke
• Now your Daging Se’i or Hot Smoked Meat Bacon is ready to eat, sliced thinly and enjoy with some chili sambal.

You May Also Like (Click!)

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Kaffir Limes Shoyu Ponzu, Silgochu (Korean Chili Strand) & Bean Sprout

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout. This is an upscale dining appetizer experience which possibly gonna made you get laid tonight! A5  Kobe wagyu beef (BMS 10) cube roll from Hyogo Prefecture in Japan, slowly cooked with kelp or seaweed and sliced mushrooms until medium welldone then chilled overnight until the fat harden, cut into bite portion and then served with tangy, citrusy and kicking savoury chilled ponzu souy sauce.

A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef Sous Vide, Served Cold with Kaffir Lime Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Cold Sous Vide Kobe Beef with Melting Fat

Yup, the A5 Japanese Kobe beef cooked ala sous vide into medium well done, you don’t misread it! You may think that i’m a jerk for cooking the kobe beef more than medium rare, don’t judje me too early. Eversince the kobe beef is gonna be served chilled, the massive ammount marbling fat must be cooked until well rendered (at least 64°C) to make sure it will be melted when it touch our palate and exposed with the natural heat of out mouth.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Kaffir Lime Ponzu Sauce

Sous-vide is French term for “under vacuum”, a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bathor in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times for up to 96 hours, in some cases; at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 50°C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140°F) for meats and higher for vegetables. Sous vide also used to pasteurized egg, beef and other meat to made it save to be eaten raw without cooking it. I pasteurized my beef tenderloin to make Yukhoe (Raw Korean Seasoned Beef Steak Tartare with Asian Pear).

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef, Served Cold with Ponzu Sauce, Silgochu (Korean Chili Thread) and Bean Sprout.

I’ve been cooked beef with sous vide method several times, mostly from lean and non prime cut. The choice or second grade of beef turn into tender, moist and delicious meat once it cooked sous vide style with rice cooker waterbath. So i think it’s obvious that beyond prime A5 Kobe beef gonna be turned out terrific once slow cooked in sous vide method. This  is actually sort of sousvide cooking using rice cooker as a heater to my waterbath, so no fancy equipments sousvide waterbath circulator and vaccum sealed pack machines involved.  Instead, this sort of sousvide method using amateur kitchen tools, eversince  i take care all the basic principles of sousvide on this recipe.

A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef with Massive Ammount Marbling fat

Since this is kobe beef is cooked in sort of-sousvide, the beef sirloin is vaccum packed with ziplock manually without any vaccum machine by simply submerged the ziplock package under water partially to pushed away the air. The ziplock package silicone seal then zipped once the air removed from the bad. This ziplock bag submerging method is quite efficient to pushed the air from the bag. Choose the heatproof and foodgrade ziplock bag with a good sealing feature, cheap ziplock bag may burst out while cooking and ruined your entire kobe beef batch.

Kobe Beef (Bottom Right) Sous Vide at 64°C with Rice Cooker Waterbath

I slowly cooked the kobe beef using my old rice cooker as a sous vide waterbath. As you can see from the photograph, my waterbath temperature was 64°C , but it’s actually fluctuated from 63 to 64°C if i  put the lid on. I adjust the temperature of the rice cooker waterbath with covering the the meatal pot, the more you cover hence the tempersture will get closer to the maximum temperature when you put the lid on. I let the kobe beef brisket sit in the rice cooker waterbath for about 1 hours, don’t get hesitate to leave it longer in the waterbath because it’s not a single chance your beef will overcooked, but definitely no further than 2 hours or it turn into mushy because the fat is totally renderred.  The heat source of my rice cooker is on the bottom of the metal pot, so the temperature in the bottom and the surface of the the water bath is different with about 0.5°C range, so it’s necessary to flip it every 20-30 minutes to made the beef evenly cooked. Do not forget to submerged the vaccum packed beef sirloin completely on the waterbath during the sous vide cooking, i’m putting some glass plate for that purpose.

Slow Cooked Kobe Beef with Rice Cooker Waterbath, The Meat Flavoured with Kombu/Kelp & Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

The verdict: the authentic japanese A5 kobe wagu beef is worth every single cent of it. In a fine dining restaurant you probably charged 100 USd for a single portion of 250 grams of Kobe beef steak and you won’t regret to paid it if it’s perfectly cooked. Tasting a Japanese kobe beef is beyond a gastronomic orgasm, honestly; i’m not fucking kidding about it. After all, all i can said is you live your life once, so be generous to yourself!

Homemade Kaffir Lime Shoyu Ponzu for Serving The Sous Vide Beef

Once the kobe beef cooked into medium well done with sous vide method, the fat of kobe beef is so fragile and easily melted even with a simple hand touch heat, if you wanna got a clear and clean cut, i suggest you to chilled the chopping board and the knives before slicing it. Carved or cut the kobe beef just before serving to prevent the beef meat dry out.

Cold Kobe Beef Served with Cold Lime Shoyu Ponzu

The ponzu sauce for serving the cold kobe beef is homemade. Ponzu is a Japanese soy sauce citrus based sauce commonly. It is tangy, citrusy, tary, with a thin, watery consistency and a dark brown color, the additional of soy sauce or shoyu made ponzu also callled Ponzu shōyu or ponzu jōyu (ポン酢醤油).

Tangy, Citrusy, Savoury Kaffir Limes with Melting Tender Sous Vide Kobe Beef, DAMN DELICIOUS!!!

My homemade ponzu is made by simmering rice vinegar, mirin, , katsuobushi (dried smoked bonito or skipjack tuna flakes), and seaweed (kombu) over medium heat. The liquid is then cooled, strained to remove the katsuobushi flakes, and finally the juice of one or more of the following citrus fruits is added; local kaffir lime called jeruk jungga. Commercial ponzu is generally sold in glass bottle, you can purchased it in any Asian-Japanese groceries store, but i guess it’ taste even better if you made it from scratch.

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef with Homemade Kaffir Limes Shoyu Ponzu

Recipe Sous Vide Kobe Wagyu Beef :

Serving (2-3)

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of 250 grams A5 Kobe Wagyu Beef Cube Roll Steak
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 piece (5×10 cm) kombu or dry seaweed(for flavouring*optional
• 2 piece of dried shiitake mushrooms (for flavouring)*optional
• Ziplock plastic bag

For Serving:Homemade ponzu sauce, Silgochu (korean chili thread), and mung bean sprout

How to Make Sous Vide Beef Brisket Steak Using Rice Cooker:

• Season the kobe beef  with salt and pepper, set aside
  
• Put the kobe beef steak in the ziplock bag, put the kombu, dried mushrooms and the butter on the bagg
  
• Submerged the ziplock bag in the water partially to pushed the air out ouf it.
• Secure the ziplock seal once the air removed from the bag, let it sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours or ovenight.
  
• Place ziplock packed kobe beef cube roll  in the preheated rice cooker waterbath in 64°C for medium well done (i’m using my rice cooker with the lid cover on)
• Let it sit in the waterbath for 1 hour, flip it every 20 minutes and put some weight to let the bag completely submerged.
• Take away the sous vide kobe beef  bag from the rice cooker waterbath, set aside until it reach room temperature
• Chilled it for at least 6 hours or overnight in 4°C fridge
• Pop the veal sirloin steak out of the ziplock bag, carefully cut it with chilled knives on a chilled cutting board
  
• Put the cut chilled kobe beef sous vide in a serving bowl, served with korean chili thread, beand sprout then pour the cold ponzu sauce over it and enjoy your foodgasm!
  

Homemade Kaffir Lime Ponzu Soy Sauce:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shoyu /soy sauce
• 1 piece kombu, (about 3 x 5 inches)
• 6 tablespoons kaffir lemon juice
• 1/4 cup tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4teaspoon mirin
• 1/4 tablespoon bonito/katsuiboshi flakes (smoked dried skipjack tuna)

Instructions

1. Lightly rinse the kombu and place in a small bowl along with the kaffir lemon juice, shoyu, rice vinegar, and mirin. Cover and let sit for at least a few hours, but preferably overnight.
2. Add the bonito flakes, let sit for a few minutes and strain.
   
3. Chilled overnight n the fridge

You May Also Like (Click!)

 

Recipe Homemade Bottarga di Tonno (Salted Cured Tuna Fish Roe)

Bottarga di Tonno (Salted Cured Tuna Fish Roe)

Homemade Botargo di Tonno. Botargo is a air-dried salt-cured fish egg or roe which considered as  delicacy in Mediterranean cuisine. Botarga di Tonno is botarga made of tuna roe, while bottarga is refers product made of grey mullet fish or called bottarga di muggine which is the most pricey and expensive. This is one of the seafood charcutteries featured in my blog, you can served this bottarga with my Homemade Hot Smoked Salmon and Homemade Gravlax (Dill and Honey Cured Salmon Fillet).

Bottarga (Salted Cured Fish Roe)

Bottarga is popular name in English and Italian, while it’s popular with other names around the world; karasumi (Japan) butàriga (Sardinian), botarga (Occitan, Spanish, and Catalan), poutargue or boutargue (French), butarga (Portuguese), batarekh or butarkhah (Arabic), tarama or haviar (Turkey) and avgotaraho (Greek). Here in Indonesia bottarga possibly translated as telur ikan tuna asin, while in Malaysia there also salted and cured fish roe called telur terubuk masin made of the roe of  freshwater fish Toli Shad.

Tuna Roe Bottarga

Botargo di Tonno is made from the roe sac of tuna, beside tuna or mullet roe, bottarga can also made of swordfish, halibut, herring, flounder, white seabass, weakfish or mackerel or other small size fish egg with sac, so never made it with salmon roe. My fellow blogger friend Merryn of Merry’sMenu even Making Bottarga from Flathead Fish Roe. I’m making mine from tuna, the fishmonger told me that it’s dogtooth tuna fish roe. I actually specially ask my fishmonger to save the tuna’s roe for this fish egg seafoood charcuterie project. The Minangkabau descent fishmonger guy actually used to save the roe and bring it to feed his family and never even though to sell it because it’s considered as delicacy, his wife used to make Gulai telur Ikan (Fish Roe Curry) or Pindang Telur Ikan (Spicy sour Fish Roe Soup) with it.

Fresh Tuna Roe with Whole Attached Sac Membrane

How too choose the egg roe for making homemade bottarga ? first step is make sure you choose the very fresh egg roe with complete and unbroken sac attached and covering the roe. Never used any fish roe broken sac because the salt will penetrated too much into the roe and made it too salty and almost unedible once it cured. FRESHNESS is the KEY of DELICIOUSNESS of bottarga, fresh tuna roe used to be bouchy and not too watery or too dry with natural pleasant sea fragrance, never used if the smell too strong or even slight rotten fishy aromas. Choose the ripe fish roe is one where you can see the eggs in the sac they come in, and that they are uniform in color. The watery fish roe is normal, but will take longer time to cure. Unripe fish roe will not work, you must be able to see the eggs; if they are too small, do something else with the roe.

Salted Fresh Tona Fish Roe

Now we making the homemade tuna fish roe Bottarga di Tonno. The tuna fish roe submerged in a 37 % salt saturated water solution overnight and then patted dry. The tuna fish sacs then individually coated with olive oil  and let it sit for about few hours until the oil absorbed to prevent it dry once cured. The fish roe then coated with salt and then marinated for about 2-3 days depending on the size of the fish roe sac, the bigger sac needed more time. You may see some liqued dripping from the fish roe sac and some of the salt dissolved, hence you need to massaged the outside by hand to eliminate air pockets and add extra salt and  to coated the cured fish roe.  The result is firmer fish roe and it’s need to be air dry cured and let the time changing the salted raw tuna fish roe into Bottarga di Tonno

Firm Salted Tuna FIsh Roe

This is the salted and marinated fresh tuna fish egg roe for two days. The salted tuna fish roe sack then washed under running cold water, rubbed the sack a little bit to removed the excess salt and then patted dry with dry and clean pepper towel.  The salted tuna fish roe much more firmer than than the raw sack.

Bottarga di Tonno, Already Dry Cured for 14 days

This is the Bottarga di Tonno or salted and cured tuna fish roe after air dry cured for about fourteen days in my refrigerator. Bottarga should be firm but not rock hard, the salt should not over power the flavor of the bottarga, there should just be a hint of salt in it’s flavour and it should be gentle on the palate. The bottarga should not be dry but moist an creamy in flavour.

Different Ripeness of Tuna Roe Made Different Texture of Bottarga di Tonno

Nice Moist, Crumbly and Buttery Texture of Bottarga di Tonno

This is homemade Bottarga di Tonno or salted and air dried cured tuna fish roe finished product looked a like once i cut the sac it in half. There’s different color and texture of the bottarga, it’s depent on the ripeness of the roe inside of the sac before it’s salted an cured. The overly ripe tuna fish roe got bigger individual grainy egg and it’s crumbled easily once grated, just perfect for making pasta or fried rice. The sufficiently fully ripe fish turn into a very moist and creamy bottarga, just perfect to almost any bottarga recipe, but i prefer to served it raw without any heating or cooking process.

Grated Bottarga di Tonno

Ready to Use Bottarga di Tonno Powder, Seafood Gold!!!

The salted tuna fish roe or Bottargo di Tonno is now ready to use in any kind of dish you want it to be. Bottarga is briny with a creamy buttery sweetness, smooth  and slighly grainy in texture with a natural savoury sea flavour. If you love caviar, you probably loves bottarga and vice versa, but my friend who doesn’t love caviar lovin the bottarga once it cooked with pasta.

Freshly Grated Tuna Fish Roe Bottarga

Here’s Few Ideas of How to Eat and Enjoy Bottarga:

Tuna Bottarga Appetizer with Flat Bread

1. Sliced or Grated Raw Bottarga

Thin Sliced Bottarga Flatbread with Kalamata Olives Puree, Sliced Red Shallots, Chili, Cherry Tomato, Fresh Micro Green Herbs (Mustard & Lemon Basil),  Edible Black Mustard Blossom, Olive oil & Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

Raw thiny sliced or grated bottarga is used to be served as as an appetizer. The richness of bottarga with it’s naturl briny ts is a great option for appetier because the bold naked savoury flavour  of bottarga is definitely tickle the taste buds. Bottarga also can be eaten with lemon juice on a piece of baquette, pizza, flatbread or any kind of bread which used as you serving anchovy. This is thinnly sliced Tuna Fish Bottarga di Tonno served as topping for Homemade Flat Bread or Tortilla with sliced raw shallots, chopped tomato, black olives puree, chopped chillies, micro greens and edible black mustard blossom. The flat bread tuna fish Bottarga di Tonno also drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Bottarga Pasta (Aglio Olio Style Angel hair Pasta with Confit Crayfish)

2. Bottarga with Pasta

Bottarga with pasta is the most common way to prepare the cured fish roe. The dried salted fish roe grated or finely chopped then sauteed with butter and other ingredients like garlic, chili and shallots until slighly bubbly and cooked. The best quality bottarga made of ripe fish roe will be crumbly well coated evely the pasta that lated added into it. The picture above is Bottarga Angel Hair Pasta aglio olio and served it with crayfish confit.

Bottarga Fried Rice

3. Bottarga with Rice

Bottarga with rice, now my Indonesian taste buds will be satisfied. The Nasi Goreng (fried rice) telur ikan asin or translated as salted  fish roe fried rice is the best way to present the savoury sea flavour of it. The sauteed grated bottarga stir fried with the spicy spice paste and rice and other ingredients until the individual grain of rice is charred and coated well with the cured fish egg. Extra grated bottarga made it delicious even more. In Malaysia especialy in Serawak, the freshwater toli shad fish bottarga or telur ikan terubuk masin used to be steamed with rice and eaten as a morning booster.

Spicy Fried Rice Bottarga

Raw bottarga is got a pleasant sea briny flavour and the delicate sea aromas even stronger once it cooked. This afternoon i made dinner of  Nasi Goreng or fried rice with grated bottarga and my grandma comes curiously to the kitchen by the aromas once i tossed the grated tuna bottarga with butter. The fried rice above is actually bold and very simple, but the spicy chili spice paste and the savoury grated Bottarga di Tonno made it very hearty and delicious, then i said myself this salt cured fish roe is worth all the time the efforts.

Recipe Bottarga di Tonno (Salt Cured Tuna Fish Roe)

Recipe Bottarga di Tonno (Salt Cured Tuna Fish Roe)

Ingredients:

• whole fish roe or egg sacks (small eggs are best)
• salt
• 37% salt solution brine (10 grams salt per 1 litre of water)
• olive oil

How to Make Bottarga di Tonno (Salt Cured Tuna Fish Roe)

1. Soak the tuna fish roe overnight in 37%  saltwater solution .
2. Remove from the solution and pat dry the tuna fish roe on paper towels.
3. Coat the tuna fish roe with olive oil for about 2-3 hours
4. Lay out fresh paper towel on a tray and liberally sprinkle with salt, place the roe on top and cover with more salt.
5. Place this in the fridge and massage it to remove hte air pocket, replace the paper towels daily.
6. After 2 or 2 days the tuna roes will have firmed up.
7. Washed the tuna roe fish sac under running tab water to removed the excess salt, pat dry
8. Hang or pleace the salted tuna roe in a rack  and place it in a cool dry place (refrigerator) for 10–14 days (or longer, if desired).
9. Remove the roe from its hanging place, wrap and refrigerate.
10. Bottarga is best served freshly sliced or grated onto pasta.

You May Also Like (CLICK!!!)