Best Grilled Ayu Japanese Style Recipes

CLASSIC SALT-GRILLED FISH

Steps:

• To clean the sardines, have at hand a large bowl of cold salted water. Rinse the whole fish under cold running water. Scale the fish. Cut open the belly, and remove the gills and intestine without damaging them. Rinse the inside of the belly thoroughly but gently. Don't use a toothbrush, because sardines are very tender. Rinse the fish again in the salted water. Drain the fish, and wipe it dry with paper towels. For a more attractive presentation of cooked whole fish, you can remove the gills and intestine together without cutting the belly. To do this, insert a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks through the mouth of the fish and deep into the belly. Rotate the chopsticks several times, and then gently pull them out, with the intestine and gills sandwiched between them. If you won't be cooking the fish for several hours, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate it.
• If you are using swordfish steaks, rinse them in cold salted water (1½ tablespoons fine salt per quart of water) very briefly. Once fish is filleted and cut into pieces, it loses its flavor quickly in water. Drain the steaks, and wipe them dry with paper towels.
• Salt the fish using the proper amount of salt (see note), and let it stand for 20 minutes. During the salting period, fire up a grill or broiler. Heat the grill rack or broiler pan to a very high temperature before placing the fish on it. This will prevent the fish from sticking to the rack or pan.
• Rinse the fish in a bowl of salted cold water (1½ tablespoons fine salt per quart of water). Wipe the fish dry with a paper towel.
• Place the fish on the hot grill rack or broiler pan, about 4 inches from the heat source, with the side that will face the diner toward the heat. Cook the fish over high heat until its surface has attained a nice golden color. Turn over the fish just once. A 1-inch-thick fish takes about 8 to 10 minutes of total cooking time.
• Mix the daikon with the soy sauce. Accompany each serving with a little tinted daikon and two lemon wedges.

GRILLED OYSTERS WITH BUTTERY SOY-SAKE GLAZE

Steps:

• Combine the sake, sugar and shoyu in a small saucepan along with the smashed garlic and ginger. Bring to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced into a syrupy glaze with large, dark bubbles, about 30 minutes. Using a spoon or strainer, remove and discard garlic and ginger. You should have about 1/2 cup glaze. Stir in the butter.
• After the sauce is prepared (or as it reduces), ignite a full chimney of coals and spread out under one side of the grill once they are fully covered in gray ash, or heat half the burners of a gas grill to high. Cover and let the grill heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut off a sheet of aluminum foil twice the length of a 13-by-18-inch rimmed baking sheet. Crumple it up so that it fits into the baking sheet. The crumpled foil should be able to support the cupped side of the oysters without allowing them to tip over.
• Using tongs, arrange the oysters over the hot side of the grill, placing them with the cupped sides down, doing your best to set them in the grates so that oyster juices don't pour out of the cups as they open. Cover and cook, checking on them every minute or so, and transferring any oysters that have begun to gape open to the foil-lined baking sheet. After a total of 4 minutes, transfer any remaining oysters to the foil whether they have opened or not. Place the saucepan on the cooler side of the grill.
• As soon as the oysters are cool enough to handle, pry off the top shells with a butter knife or oyster knife, severing through the muscle that holds the oyster to the shell and retaining as much juice in the shell as possible. For oysters that aren't already gaping open, the easiest way to pry off the lids is by inserting the tip of the knife into the joint and firmly twisting it until the joint releases.
• Spoon a generous teaspoon of the glaze into each oyster, then return the oysters directly onto the grates on the hot side of the grill. Cook, uncovered, until the sauce mixture is bubbling hot, about 1 minute.
• Return the oysters to the foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with scallions, and serve immediately.