Yesterday, we had kuki tuna

It's been quite awhile that we cooked this yellow fin tuna dish with tamarind sauce and kuki. Kuki is more popularly known as miso. And so I bought miso in accordance with my plan to cook this dish. Miso or kuki which was how it was called back in the Japanese Edo period, is a "traditional Japanese food produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus kojikin. (the most typical miso is made with soy.)" So I bought around ten grams.

Wikipedia further informs us that during "the Muromachi era, Buddhist monks discovered that soybeans could be ground into a paste, spawning new cooking methods where miso was used to flavor other foods."

And on to my wet market trip, I got 4 large slices of yellow fin tuna. It looked so fresh I couldn't resist the temptation. Yellow fin, is of the tropics, usually three 12-inch rulers long and to me delectably flavored. In fact a more superior variety is used to prepare sashimi. In fact I heard the fish vendor say yes to one of his buyers when asked if yellow fin can be used to prepare sashimi. Downright lie, I told myself. Yellow fin tuna according to research are of two varieties: the 'Sashimi grade' and 'the other' grade. What I got was 'the other grade', judging from the money I paid for it.

And, there I was also buying fresh tamarind fruit and fresh mustard greens to complete the four most important ingredients in cooking this food recipe.

Back home, I gave the greens first a thorough bathing and second, the fish a good cleaning, removing the debris from the fish stomach portion. When I start preparing food which calls for fish or poultry, I make sure that I handle the vegetable ingredients first before touching the 'star' of the food show to make sure that there is zero-contamination.

Hah. So on with my yellow fin tuna dish. Here's what I did. I assembled the following:

4 slices of yellow fin tuna (set aside)
miso (about 10 grams)
1/4 kilo of sour tamarind fruit
large onion, sliced
ginger root, sliced
garlic
vegetable oil to fry the fish
salt

On a pan, I fried the yellow fin while I started boiling the tamarind fruit in 2 cups of water in another cooking pan. As soon as the tamarind was cooked, I started to mash, on to strain and then set it aside. By this time the fish is all browned up, and setting it aside I sauteed the garlic, ginger and onions from where I fried the fish. I added and mixed the miso, put some salt to taste. Within a minute, I poured the tamarind juice till it was simmering to where, I added the yellow fin tuna. Yes, I could smell that sour aroma. It was now the mustard green's turn to be added. Over here, this dish is usually called 'sinigang sa miso'. To me it is wonderfully soured, plain and simple kuki tuna.

Ahh bliss. Goes best with rice cooked with pandan leaves and some lemon flavored fried chicken. ( Calls for another recipe post)

Popular posts from this blog

Tora Bika Cappuccino

MSG in most coffee blends?

Pininyahang Manok cooked Marikina style