Karei (flat fish – a type of sole) is a popular, quick-cooking whitefish that is typically seen as a Winter dish, but since it’s so light in flavor and readily available, I like to cook it year-round. Karei should be served as soon as it is cooked, and if you can get fresh sole wherever you are, so much the better. I buy the Japanese import sole, but any flat fish variety will do.
More often then not I see karei in the market without a head and already cleaned. It is fine to use this, but I prefer buying a whole fish and gutting/cleaning it myself.
Disclaimer – I pulled this recipe from the fantastic book Japanese Homestyle Cooking
What you need
- Special Equipment
- Aluminium foil
- Ingredients
- Two flatfish (sole)
- 2 c dashi
- 3 Tbsp Sake
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2 1/2 Tbsp shoyu
What to do
Step 1 – With the dark, scaled side of the fish upward, scrape from the tail to the head with a knife to remove the scales. Scrape the fins and tail with the knife to remove any dirt and slime trapped there. Rinse and scape again until all dirt, mud and scales have been removed.
Step 2 – Remove the gills with the tip of the knife, as shown. The gills are the spiny, red parts – just cut them out where they are attached to the inside of the mouth.
Step 3 – Make a 2 inch cut on the white side as shown, drawing out the guts with the tip of the knife. Rinse in cold water, removing the remaining insides with your fingers. Pat dry with paper towels.
Step 4 – Score the black side of the fish as shown.
Step 5 – Bring the dashi to a boil. Add the sake, sugar, mirin and shoyu in a pan and bring to a second boil.
Step 6 – Place the first fish in the pan, ladeling the cooking liquid over it until it begins to firm up and change color. Add the second fish and do the same.
Step 7 – Turn the heat down a bit and place a foil drop lid on top, as shown. Simmer for about 5 more minutes.
Step 8 – Turn the heat off. Carefully remove the fish and place on a plate, ladeling some of the broth over the top. Take care in removing it because it will probably be very fragile at this point. Garnish with steamed horenso (spinach) or any steamed green.
A note about cooking
Most of the time I can only manage to find frozen karei. Freezing makes the flesh *very* fragile, and I actually had two fish fall completely apart when I attempted this recipe. Take extra care when removing them from the pan. You may want to watch them a bit closer if they’ve been frozen, and reduce the overall simmering time by a few minutes.
I’ve only prepared this dish a few times with little deviation from this recipe because I like it so much! The delicate fish lends itself very well to the simmering stock. It’s simply a really good dish. I do like to use any leftover liquid to cook rice, as it is very flavorful.
If anyone happens to make this recipe we’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
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