Welcome back, today I'm going to show you
guys how to make a simple Mackerel Sashimi
using a whole fish, breaking it down to sashimi.
Mackerel is an extremely fatty fish and it
goes old very fast, so it's important to know
what to look for when you buy a Mackerel.
The first thing you want to do when buying
a fresh fish is you want to look at the eyes,
you want to see a nice dark, deep black pupil
right there.
You want it to be a little plump, so you just
look at the side, it's going to pop out a
little bit from the fish.
You don't want it to be retracting into the
body much.
Then you want to look for a nice glossy shiny
skin, not dull and faded.
Then you just want to press the fish, if the
skin bounces back up that's a great sign.
If it stays with the fingerprint then don't
buy it.
Next you just want to take a smell of the
fish, so just don't be shy, and if it smells
like sea breeze that's great, if it smells
fishy drop it go to the next one, look for
some other fish.
There is no point buying it if it smells fishy.
The last thing you want to check is the gills
of the fish, you just lift it up and you want
to see nice bright red gills, you don't want
it to be a faded brown brick color, that's
a bad idea.
The more bright red it is the fresher the
fish is regardless of what type of fish it
is.
Preparing your Mackerel -- the first thing
you want to do is just lift up a little wing
and you want to do a slice until you feel
the spine, when you feel the spine you just
kick through, okay -- there we go.
Now you just slice down and then on the other
side lift up the wing and you just cut through
to unite the two cuts, okay -- perfect.
Now you just slice down again, and now what
you do is a very quick cut just to finish
that off there.
Okay, so just slice through the fish -- now
the head is basically separated at this point.
And now you take your tip of the knife, don't
cut into the intestines, you want to just
drag it through and open the inside, you don't
want to let any of the bile or anything out,
so I have not damaged any of the intestines
doing that cut and it's ready to go.
Now all you do is just separate the head off
and in one move now you can take the intestines
out with the head -- look at that, that's
the cleanest way to do it.
You have all the intestines, you have nothing
left there.
Now you just clean this with some water, a
running tap, and you throw the head away with
the intestines.
Alright so now what I've done is just washed
out all the blood and whatever was left over
underneath the tap and now what you do is
just put your knife here and just glide above
pressing down -- okay.
You just release, you just feel the bones,
this is a very shallow cut.
Then you turn it around, where this little
fin is you want to be just on top of the fin
and you just want to cut in and then press
down with the blade, and what you're going
up against is a spine, you just want to keep
it above the spine and you want to take as
much flesh off the spine as possible.
You see you have little spines here, now just
make another cut until you get to the bones
that run up, and you just want to feel them
ticking across the tip of your blade.
Okay, beautiful, so I didn't cut them, I was
just pressing it up so it's completely loose.
Now that you've loosened up the top part,
you just simply cut the tail and just hold
down your fish while you just slice through
those bones -- there we go, and that separates
your fillets.
There is nearly no flesh left there on here,
you want to have the minimum wasted, you want
to have the most amount of flesh on your fillets,
because Mackerel is a small fish and sashimi
needs a lot of fish.
Okay so now you turn your fish around, put
your fillet on the side, and now you do the
same as you did with the belly but now on
the other side, so you just want to, at the
same point, you cut just above pressing down
and then you just lift up the flesh to see
where you're cutting -- perfect.
A little cut that way, okay and now you simply
press down again 
and you just glide the knife through.
It's very important to have a sharp knife,
little fishmongers use flexible knives but
it's not strictly necessary.
So you just feel through, and once you've
separated all the flesh from the spine, and
you can feel the little bones with the tip
of your blade as you run through, it's just
like click-click-click-click.
Now you just take it from the back and you
just glide through until you feel resistance
and just through -- there we go, beautiful.
That is two fillets, and a completely stripped
down spine, so there is no waste of fish here.
Remove Rib Cage
To remove the rib cage, here are the ribs
and you just have to put your knife in between
the ribs and the flesh and you cut through
and you push up.
Now, the ribs should protect you from your
knife blade and you want to cut the least
amount of flesh off and just the ribs, so
as thin as possible and then the last bit
here down at the bottom cut that off.
So we have no flesh being taken off really,
it's very thin and just has the ribs.
Okay, now do that to the other one.
Debone Mackerel
To remove the bones you simply just take some
nail clippers and you just pull them out,
okay.
It's very important to do the least amount
of damage and you want to do it in a continuous
line, so just start at one end and if you're
not sure where they are you just feel with
your finger and you should be able to feel
them.
There's quite a lot in Mackerel, they get
smaller as you go down but you really don't
want to leave one in when you make sashimi,
because trust me people will not be happy
about that.
You want to make sure you get the right angle
and you damage the flesh as least as possible.
Remove Skin
You grab onto the outer layer of the skin
and you just pull it off with confidence,
okay -- beautiful.
There we go, alright so now what I'm going
to do before I make the sashimi, I'm going
to marinate the fish and the first process
of it is just to add some salt over the fish
just to cure it quickly.
Just leave that like that for 30 minutes,
put a cloth over it.
So right now the Mackerel is being cured for
about a half hour to an hour and then I rinsed
it in some cold water and patted it dry.
Now what you want to do is mix half a liter
of rice wine vinegar, that's about 16-fluid
ounce, and you add about two tablespoons of
Mirin.
Then three tablespoons of sugar, and then
two teaspoons of salt.
This will make up your marinade -- okay, beautiful.
So now you just mix it up until the sugar
dissolves and then you chuck your Mackerel
inside.
Just throw it in there and now you just leave
it to marinate.
Welcome back, it's been about 24 hours, I
left the Mackerel in the fridge overnight
to soak up the mixture and let the vinegar
cook the fish slightly so it gets a different
texture.
It's got a nice sweet and salty taste from
the marinade.
That basically explains why I've got different
clothes on because it's been 24 hours.
Okay, so what I am going to do now is I'm
going to make sashimi out of the Mackerel,
so I'm going to start by taking a piece of
Mackerel.
You just take your sharp knife and you put
your hand against it, and you just drag through,
like so.
I'm going to let the cutting do the talking!
Okay, beautiful, so just need a couple cuts
and just you put your palm of your fingers
up against this and just make sure that you
have a very sharp knife and you drag through
in a single swooping movement.
The key here is a very sharp knife.
If you need to know how to sharpen your knife
I have made a video, and a link has just appeared
on the top left corner and that will teach
you how to sharpen your knife properly.
Okay, now to plate the sashimi.
Just simply take your knife and slide it underneath
your precut sashimi and place it onto the
plate.
I like to have one set of sashimi facing one
way and the other facing the other way, gives
a bit of diversity to the plate.
So this one is upside down and that one is
shiny side up.
Then you add a little cucumber garnish, you
can learn how to make this by clicking on
the link which has just appeared on the top
left corner.
Then you add some cucumber fans.
There we go, beautiful.
Now you add a little bit of pickled ginger,
and a little piece of wasabi -- perfect.
Don't forget your soy sauce to dip and some
chopsticks.
Okay, enjoy!
That concludes how to make this beautiful
plate of Mackerel sashimi, now if you enjoyed
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Thank you for watching!
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