What does Lake Biwa's endemic species, the 'Biwa trout,' taste like? We tried various ways to cook it, such as sashimi and salt-grilled, to find the best way to cook it.
' Biwa trout ' is a salmonid fish endemic to Shiga Prefecture, and the largest can reach a total length of 60 cm.
Biwa trout | Shiga Prefecture website
https://www.pref.shiga.lg.jp/ippan/shigotosangyou/suisan/18668.html
Biwa trout can be caught by a technique called 'trolling,' where you wait for a fish to bite while on a boat. There are many facilities around Lake Biwa that rent out the equipment needed for trolling, so even beginners can catch them relatively easily. You can check out the steps to actually catch a Biwa trout in Lake Biwa in the article below. This time, we'll be gutting the Biwa trout we caught and making various dishes with it.
I caught a Biwa trout in Lake Biwa - GIGAZINE
·table of contents
◆1: Prepare the Biwa trout
◆2: Grilled Biwa trout
◆3: Biwa trout sashimi and sashimi
◆4: Biwa trout meunière
◆5: Ishikari stew with Biwa trout
◆6: Steamed Biwa trout and mushrooms
◆7: Biwa trout rice (ame-no-io rice)
◆8: Summary
◆1: Prepare the Biwa trout
Seven of us caught 35 Biwa trout, 6 of which we brought home. The smallest was just over 30cm long, and the largest was 54cm long.
So, let's prepare the Biwa trout. First, lightly rub the surface with a scrubbing brush to remove the scales.
Once you have removed the scales, wash the surface and place it on a cutting board.
Smaller fish are filleted into three pieces. Biwa trout do not have a particularly complicated body shape, so they can be filleted in the same way as other fish. They are characterized by their pink color, which is similar to that of salmon.
I cut the fish into three pieces and set aside the skirt steak. I kept the head and backbone because I wanted to use them for soup stock. In addition, since the reproductive glands of spring Biwa trout are not yet fully developed, I gave up on salmon roe and milt and discarded all the innards.
Larger specimens were cut off along with the bone and cut into fillets.
Of the six fish, cut five into fillets and reserve one for grilling with salt.
I learned that 'Biwa trout are watery on the day they are caught, so it's best to wrap them in kitchen paper and plastic wrap and leave them in the refrigerator for a day before eating them,' so I wrapped the fillets in kitchen paper and plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator. In addition, I moved any that I wasn't going to use right away after a day had passed to the freezer.
◆2: Grilled Biwa trout
After removing the innards, we will grill the remaining Biwa trout with salt. First, sprinkle salt on both sides and leave it for about 15 minutes.
After about 15 minutes, moisture will rise to the surface, so absorb it with kitchen paper.
After soaking up the moisture, I slowly baked it in the oven.
The grilled salted Biwa trout is complete.
The inside was orange. Perhaps because it was very fatty, it crumbled quite easily and disappeared in my mouth. It was sweeter and more fatty than salmon, but strangely enough it wasn't heavy at all and I was able to eat the whole fish without getting bored.
◆3: Biwa trout sashimi and saury
I tried making sashimi from Biwa trout that had been chilled in the refrigerator for a day.
It is very fatty and has a sweetness that is comparable to farmed salmon. Even when eaten raw, it has the same characteristic of being 'fatty but not heavy,' and has a very high-quality taste: 'it's fatty and very sweet, but no matter how much you eat, you won't get heartburn.'
The Biwa trout that was left in the refrigerator for one day had a slightly crunchy texture. After two days in the refrigerator, the crunchy texture disappeared and it felt like it 'melted in your mouth.' Since the texture changes depending on how long it is left in the refrigerator, we strongly recommend that you do not eat the whole Biwa trout in one day, but rather eat it over several days.
In addition, I sliced up some frozen Biwa trout without thawing it and made a Hokkaido specialty called '
The Biwa trout ruibe has an ideal texture, with a melting outside and a crunchy inside. Because it is high in fat, the contrast between the melting outside and the crunchy inside is clear and very delicious. Both sashimi and ruibe are highly recommended ways to enjoy the fattiness of Biwa trout.
I was curious to know what Biwa trout would taste like marinated in vinegar, so I tried marinated some Biwa trout that had been refrigerated for a day in rice vinegar.
After pouring the rice vinegar over the Biwamasu, cover it with kitchen paper to ensure the rice vinegar is evenly distributed.
After 10 minutes, cut into pieces and the vinegar-marinated Biwa trout is complete. The surface will be slightly whitish.
When you eat it, the sweetness of the Biwa trout is emphasized by the sourness of the rice vinegar, which is good. If you don't mind the sourness of vinegar, this is a cooking method you should try.
◆4: Biwa trout meunière
Since I found that Biwa trout tastes similar to salmon, I decided that it would go well with the same cooking method as salmon, so I tried making a meunière. First, sprinkle salt and pepper on the Biwa trout fillets.
Next, sprinkle with flour.
Add oil to a frying pan and fry until golden brown.
Transfer the grilled Biwa trout to a plate, add butter to a frying pan, and combine it with the fat that has seeped out of the Biwa trout to make a butter sauce.
Pour the butter sauce over the grilled Biwa trout and the meunière is complete.
The finished Biwa trout meunière looks like this.
When you eat it, it has a sweeter taste than salmon meuniere. On the other hand, the distinctive salmon scent is weak, so it's hard to tell what kind of fish it is just by the scent. The belly bones are soft, so you can eat it whole.
◆5: Ishikari stew with Biwa trout
I will also try making a hot pot dish similar to Ishikari-nabe using Biwa trout. The ingredients are fillets of Biwa trout, fish bones, tofu, onions, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and other seasonings.
First, I put the Biwa trout heads into boiling water and simmered them. Not much scum came out, so I left them there.
Add an appropriate amount of sake and mirin.
Fillets of Biwa trout are also added.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer.
Once the ingredients are cooked, add the miso.
This completes the Ishikari-nabe style hot pot dish.
When I tried it, the miso accentuated the sweetness of the Biwa trout, and the shiitake mushrooms boosted the umami, making it a very sweet and delicious hot pot. The umami of the Biwa trout and shiitake mushrooms also soaked into the tofu and other ingredients, which was great. The umami also seeped into the soup, so I enjoyed it down to the last drop.
◆6: Steamed Biwa trout and mushrooms
I will also try making a Biwa trout version of the easy-to-make salmon dish '
Add all the ingredients to the pot and pour over the ponzu sauce, sake, and soy sauce.
Cover and steam for 7 to 8 minutes and it's done.
This is what it looks like when served on a plate.
When I tried it, the spiciness of the ginger masked the sweetness of the Biwa trout, and I couldn't taste the deliciousness that is unique to Biwa trout. Although it was delicious as a dish, I don't recommend steaming Biwa trout and ginger together, as it would destroy the flavor of the Biwa trout.
◆7: Biwa trout rice (ame-no-io rice)
In Shiga Prefecture, Biwa trout rice is known as '
First, simmer the Biwa trout fillets in soy sauce, sake, and mirin.
Soak the rice in kelp stock and then add the broth from the Biwa trout on top.
Once the broth has been added, add all the other ingredients except the onions.
Next, cook it in the same way as regular seasoned rice. This time I'm cooking it in a pot, but you can also use a rice cooker.
Once the rice is cooked and steamed, open the lid.
Add green onions.
Crumble the Biwamasu and mix it in to finish.
This is what it looks like when you serve candied rice on a plate.
When I tried it, the Biwa trout and the shiitake mushroom and kelp stock made for a very tasty rice dish. However, although I could taste the Biwa trout, it didn't taste much different from rice cooked with salmon, and I couldn't taste the sweetness that is unique to Biwa trout.
◆8: Summary
As a result of making various dishes using Biwa trout, I found that while the strong sweetness of Biwa trout can be felt when cooked simply as sashimi or grilled with salt, the taste of Biwa trout is lost when cooked with rice or with a lot of condiments. For this reason, when eating Biwa trout, I recommend first tasting it grilled with salt or as sashimi.
Among the dishes I made this time, I also enjoyed the sweetness and umami of the Biwa trout in the Ishikari nabe. It seems that the sweetness of the Biwa trout goes well with miso.
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