My personal friends sometimes ask me if I become friends with any other food bloggers. I would reply yes and typically they follow up with the question if I have met any of them in person. The answer is yes, I got to meet up with Kay from My Home Cooked Meals twice when she visited SF this year. And yesterday, I was also fortunate to meet two new food blogger friends in person, Elisabeth from Food and Thrifts and Joanna of Chic & Gorgeous Treats.
Elisabeth flew in from Florida and Joanna from Malaysia to attend the 2011 Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. I only had a few hours to spend while my children were in school but I had such a lovely time with two ladies in a tiny French pastry shop. I was in a such a hurry that I didn’t bring my camera so no photos to share…Sorry! It was a first time meeting them in person, but we kept talking about food, blogging, the festival, and 2 hours went by really quick. I had to run back to get my kids from school or else I wish I could have spend more time with them.
Now let’s talk about food. One of readers in Singapore told me Sanma (Pacific Saury) is still in season and it’s pretty cheap there (about $4 for 2 whole Sanma in the US). So today I’m sharing one more Sanma recipe. Please check my other Sanma recipe, Sanma Shioyaki, if you haven’t seen it yet.
In my Beef Teriyaki post I briefly explained that Teriyaki is a cooking technique, which we cook fish/meat till the sauce starts to luster, but “that” sauce we make became very popular outside of Japan. We don’t really have a specific name for the luster sauce we cook, but this combination of sauce ingredients are used for many dishes in Japan. My fellow blogger Arudhi of A Box of Kitchen made Teriyaki Saury a month ago and as you see, we make the sauce slightly differently, but the cooking method is referred to as “teriyaki”. In Japan we use many different kinds of fish prepared this way, and that’s why I mentioned in the previous post that the teriyaki style of cooking is used more on fish than meat in Japan. Now let’s go over this quick and easy Sanma Teriyaki recipe. Oh, and don’t forget to come back on Friday! I made some sweet treats for you… 😉
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- 2 Sanma (Pacific Saury)
- ½ Tbsp konbucha (or pinch of kosher salt)
- Sea salt
- neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- 1 green onion/scallion (finely chopped)
- With a sharp knife cut the abdomen of the fish into the flesh to open it up. Scrape out the guts and discard. Rinse under cold water to clean and remove any traces of blood. Cut into 2 inch piece.
- Sprinkle Konbucha and salt and set aside for 10 minutes.
- In a non-stick frying pan, heat oil on medium high heat. Add the fish and cook both sides. When the fish is cooked, wipe off extra oil on the frying pan.
- Add the seasonings. Shake the frying pan and coat the fish well with the sauce.
- When the sauce gets thicken, add green onion. Shake the frying to mix. Serve the fish on a plate and pour the sauce over. Serve immediately.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Hi, I work as a Cook at the Japanese cargo vessel. While browsing your site I saw this recipe and tried it. And my Japanese officers loved it 🙂
Hi again Allan! Thank you so much for sharing your photo on my Facebook fan page. Your dish looks excellent! So happy to hear your officers enjoyed this dish! Thank you for trying my recipes. 🙂
Hi there!
I was wondering if you had any tips for picking the best Sanma at the fish market. I am very excited to try and make this dish but am not familiar with this type of fish at all! I’d appreciate any advice!
Best,
Erica
Hi Erica! Good question! Here in the US, I don’t get to “pick” the best one as we have limited supply…. I just researched in Japanese online and here’s what I found:
1) Pick sanma that is plump (thick?) from head to the back . It’s more oily and delicious.
2) Fish goes bad from the intestine, so pick sanma that has firm stomach.
3) Make sure the area around the black eye is clear and transparent.
4) Old days it is said that yellowish mouth and fin has nice oil, but these days there’s a theory that’s opposite.
Hope this helps, and enjoy Sanma! 🙂
Hi Nami San ^^
We don’t have pacific saury in the UK. Do you know what other fish I can use to substitute? Sardines maybe? Thanks 🙂
Hi Raina! Hmm any types of fish works great as long as it’s not flakey flesh. 🙂