Today we learned to make baterra (square, compressed sushi made in a mold), gunkan (flying fish roe nuggets) and shime-shabe (marinated mackerel – a personal favourite!)

When making baterra sushi, a mold is used to create a square or rectangular pattern and to help lightly compress the rice.  It is often made with mackerel but there was extra unagi (eel) so we used that instead.

After filleting a whole mackerel, the cleaned fillets (with skin intact) are sprinkled with sea salt and left a few hours (2 – 24).  After curing in the salt, the skin can be removed relatively easily.  The mackerel is then submerged in vinegar (again for several hours initially) until serving.

A thin layer of nori is wrapped around a nugget of sushi rice.  Fish roe (or other things that are hard to contain) are used to fill space created.  This is spectacular when made with ikura (salmon roe).