Now it’s October and autumn has come here in Japan. Autumn is the harvest season. We can enjoy not only various vegetables or crops, but also season fishes. Salmon is one of typical autumn’s fish and we can find many fresh Salmon Roe at stores. We call Salmon Roe as “Ikura” as same as Russian language. I don’t know why we call it in Russian, but normally Ikura means Salmon Roe which is already marinated with Soy Sauce or Salt. Salmon Roe is wrapped thin film when it is extracted from Salmon. This form is called “Sujiko” and it is Japanese.
If you go to Sushi restaurants, you will find “Ikura” form. And restaurants where serves Sijiko may be rare. In this season, we can buy Sujiko at fish stores and it is cheaper than Ikura. Also we can make it as Ikura which has own favorite taste.
I bought one Sujiko and made Soy Sauce Marinated Ikura.
Ingredients:
- about 180g Sujiko
- 1 table spoon Japanese Sake (15ml)
- 1 table spoon Mirin (15ml: Sweet rice wine)
- 2 table spoon Soy Sauce (30ml)
- 2 table spoon Menstuyu (30ml)
How to make:
| 1) Add water in a Bowl. Remove thin film of Sujiko from each roes in water gently. When the water becomes white, replace to fresh water. This process is repeated until roes are removed from the film. |
| 2) Place roes in fresh water for a while. It will been seen not red transparent color (a little white), but it is no problem. The color will return to original later. |
| 3) Mix Sake, Mirin, Soy Sauce and Mentsuyu in a box. Place roes in the sauce after drain off the water. Place a lid on the box and in fridge for 1 or 2 days at least. |
I strongly recommend to use the Sake which is for drink (not cooking Sake) because flavor will be better.
If you worry about alcohol in Sake and Mirin, it would be better to boil the marinate sauce on small heat about 10 or 20 seconds. Once the sauce becomes cool, place roe in it.
The marinate sauce can be arranged up to you. I used Mentsuyu (Soup Stock for Noodles) , but you can use Dashi (Kelp, Bonito or both) and some more Soy Sauce instead.
Making marinated Ikura is not difficult. But you should remove think film gently. Do not break roes. It takes long time, but a fun of cooking. Marinated Ikura will be kept for about one week or 10 days in the fridge.
Once you made it, you can enjoy Ikura with grater radish (Daikon Oroshi) or as a topping of gohan (IKura Gohan) etc. It can not be main dish, but a very good side dish together with other autumn seasonal foods.
Enjoy meal!