The Excellent Detailed Way of Making “Heshiko Chazuke (boiled rice with tea poured over it) That Even Beginners Can.

The Most Important Point Is Preparation! The Excellent Detailed Way of Making “Heshiko Chazuke (boiled rice with tea poured over it) That Even Beginners Can.

For you who don’t know what to do with the Wakasa’s local specialty, “Saba no Heshiko (salted mackerel in rich-bran paste)” when you get it as a souvenir.

“Saba no Heshiko” is one of the Wakasaji’s local specialties. In Mihama cho, there is even a local mascot called “Heshiko chan”. The most popular way to eat Heshiko is ochazuke (boiled rice with tea poured over it). Since it has been provided as an aid on the “Wakasaji Century Ride,” many people may have tried it before. However, what is the impression when you see “Saba no Heshiko” for the first time at a souvenir shop? It is fish covered with brown rich-bran paste all over it. It’s really fishy. If you are used to dealing with fish, probably you won’t have any hesitation, but if you are not, you might hesitate to try it.

Furthermore, if someone who has never seen “Heshiko” received it as a souvenir, what would he/she feel? He/She might puzzle what it is and search “how to eat Heshiko” on the Internet or might not even open it because he/she has no clue what to do with it. If so, it is very sad. There are fans of Heshiko, and they even backorder this product. Mothers in Wakasa put their hearts into making Heshiko, and we would like as many people as possible to enjoy it. We introduce this recipe of “Heshiko no Ochazuke” aiming the most excellent detailed recipe in Japan.

Some local specialties are difficult to deal with even though it is said that they are “tasty”.

This is “Saba no Heshiko”. It’s one of the most popular local specialties in Wakasaji. This time, we use “Saba no Heshiko of Hikosuke”, but there are many other brands, and each brand has its own taste and saltiness. If you could compare various types of Heshiko at a time, it would be fun, but it seems difficult to find an opportunity like that, so if you find a tasty Hehiko somewhere, you had better ask about the brand. It could be homemade Heshiko.

This is the size of one Heshiko. This person in the picture above is a cook at “Kojyokan PAMCO” on the Suigetsu Lake, one of the Mikata Goko (Mikata Five Lakes) who teaches how to make Hehiko chazuke on this page.

Once you know how to prepare “Heshiko,” it’s easily manageable.

At first, we start the preparation. Take out Heshiko from the vinyl package. If you do not want to stain your cutting board, cover it with plastic wrap or paper towel before putting Heshiko on.

Next, the fish is already cut open along the back, so it’s easy to open. Once you open it, you’ll see lots of bran between the fish meat. Cut into half.

This time, we wanted to use the bone part for another recipe, “Hone Senbei (Deep-fried Bone),” so we filleted the fish in three pieces. Lay the blade at an angle starting from the tail of the fish meat with bones.
※If you would like to know more details about how to fillet fish in three pieces, search it on the Internet. You will find lots of videos. Comparing to fillet raw fish, it is easier to fillet Heshiko because Heshiko is a product which inner organs are already removed.

Now, the picture above is the Heshiko filleted into three pieces. The head part can be used to take soup stock, but we don’t use it this time, so put it aside. As you can see in the picture, the cutting board is covered with lots of bran, but it would get more stain if you filleted raw fish. The cutting board will get clean and won’t smell so bad once you wash, so don’t worry.

Then, cut as much as needed for Ochazuke. Your “desired amount” or “as needed” sound so vague in a recipe, but we can’t find another way to express, so please cut the amount you think you can eat.

Dealing with bran might seem troublesome for “Heshiko beginners,” but you can wash it off in running water. Some recipes ask to leave some bran on the fish, but we don’t need any bran for this Ochazuke recipe, so wash it all off.
※For leftovers of the fish, please wrap them covered with bran and keep them in a refrigerator.

Next, after washing the bran off, scrape off the thin skin. For more detailed way to scrape it off, search “mackerel, thin skin” on the Internet. It might be difficult to scrape off perfectly, but you don’t have to. Just try and peel off the skin.

You would feel good if you scrapped off the skin like this picture above.

Pat dry the fish with paper towel.

That’s all for the preparation. Now it’s time to make ochazuke.
Cut Heshiko into easy-to-eat sizes. You can make it into slices as the picture above, eat the chunk, or chop into flake-like pieces. Please find your favorite style.

It’s not necessarily, but you can grill Heshiko slightly. Here, we are using a burner, but you can also use a toaster at home. The point is to grill it SLIGHTLY not completely.  Some recipes recommend wrapping Heshiko with bran in aluminum foil when you grill. Please try various recipes and find your favorite arrangement.

Once you finish the preparation, please help yourself to arrangement.

Put Heshiko on the top of the rice in a bowl. The arrangement is up to you, but the cook has done a little bit different, as was expected. It already looks delicious! Is this complimenting a bit too much??

Finally, pour tea after putting Heshiko on the rice. Dashi (soup stock) could go well though boiling water will be better than dashi (soup stock) if you prefer the Heshiko’s saltiness. You won’t need “ochazukeno moto (prepared ochazuke mix).” We would like you to enjoy its own saltiness.

This time, we prepared some seasonings including umeboshi made in Fukui.

We present ochazuke like this picture above. You can’t see Heshiko in this picture, but it has its strong presence. You can enjoy ochazuke without fishy smell.

Ingredients

-Heshiko—as much as you want
-Rice—as much as you want
-seasonings : whatever you like (pickled plum, shredded seaweed, green onions, pickled radish, sesame, shiso leaves (Japanese basil), etc…)
-tea… as much as you need

It’s not delicate cuisine, so enjoy your own arrangement!

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