you just buy the live fish and cut it? how do get the skin and scales off, what about the insides? then do you wash it with cold water and then its edible? they say buy saltwater fish not freshwater fish cos of the parasites in freshwater fish. i am so hungry please someone reply:confused:
I have prepared sushi and sashimi on many occasions - I have never just sliced open a live fish.
Buy your fish frozen from a speciality shop (Safeway, BTW, will NOT work.)
I’m assuming a trained sushi chef would do just fine with live fish.
An amature, such as yourself, would probably just wind up with a big, inedible mess.
ok so i just buy a frozen slab of salmon meat and im all good. cos u know sashimi costs an arm and a leg if u want a lot of it especially if you live in small towns where there are only a few stores…hey just wondering too alice do you make your own miso soup too using lobster
Lobster? Since when did miso soup contain lobster?
Miso soup is dirt-easy to make, BTW. The hardest part if you live outside a major metropolitan area is finding the ingredients.
Boil water. Add instant dashi to make stock. Dilute miso with stock so that it doesn’t clump. Add diluted miso. Miso soup!
(If you’re really hardcore you can make your dashi stock from scratch using seaweed and shaved bonito flakes. In my experience, however, this is a lot more work for very little difference in the final result.)
I read this thing about this guy trying to make lobster sashimi and he used the remain parts i think tail and head for miso soup. miso is what? what does it actually look like? they have cubes of tofu too in miso soup and also seaweed which i love
I beg to differ with you, Pochacco. Do a Google search on Lobster Miso Soup. There are several varieties of miso soup, and lobster is certainly one of them.
Oh, do get to a fish shop or call them beforehand, ask them for fish that you’re going to eat this way. That way they know its absolutely fresh. Tuna is about $14 lb here fresh & raw.
Isn’t Miso fermented soy paste?
I go to Costco and get Salmon Fillet, cut and eat with wasabi…yummm…
If you want simple miso soup, go to any korean / japanese store and get the miso stock (I dunno if you’ll have much luck if you don’t know what it looks like) and all I do is boil water, add a spoonful of stock plus tofu, green onions and whatever and presto! soup.
call ahead hehe good idea…i love sashimi and could eat tons of it…just the salmon…
THANK YOUUUU someone from canada! and in ontario too! yes THERE IS COSTCO HERE! IM SAVED thanks for all your help saving me from my hunger hehe
You can make chicken soup with matzo balls, but matzo is not an essential part of chicken soup.
So I suppose you could put lobster in miso soup, but its certainly not part of the basic recipe.
As Rob V says, miso is fermented soy paste. In its natural state it looks kind of like peanut butter. In supermarkets here in LA its stocked the dairy section with the tofu.
When I make miso soup I serve it with seaweed and little tofu cubes. Green onions are also nice.
hehe thanks guys…miso soup time! but i will make the basic recepie cos its more uhmm japanese…not that lobster in it isnt, but basic is the key. ahhaha la has everythingthanks for everything everyone hope i dont get worms for buying the wrong kinda salmon fillet!
I’ve been wondering about this myself. I had always assumed that I would have to buy some sort of “sushi grade” fish if I was going to eat it raw. Can I just pick something up at the store and dig in? If so, what should I be looking for to make sure I get the best (least likely to be harmful) meat? Thanks.
You can pretty much put anything in miso soup.
Except celery. I tried that once and my (Japanese) husband nearly had a fit.
BTW, he has made miso soup with lobster before on a number of occasions. But as Pochacco said, its not a main ingredient. Not even very common over here.
No. Really. Don’t do this.
Sushi fish is special in that its flash frozen - regular Safeway fish is not flash frozen, and may have spent time sitting around alowing bacteria to grow - this is not so bad if you’re cooking it, but if you’re eating it raw, you could make yourself really, really sick.
Many stores that cater to a large Asian market will carry flash-frozen fish - phone ahead to find out.
As to the Miso - lobster miso is a variation on the original - still miso, just with yummy lobster goodness. It will be just as Japanese with the lobster as without. 
Good luck shopping and bon apetite!
Brava Alice, you are one of the only people to make this important point.
Sashimi grade salmon is handled differently from regular commercial grade salmon. While you may get lucky and buy some acceptable off the shelf salmon at an ordinary market, you may also pick up some of the nematodes that can infest it. An excerpt from the link:
“Parasites become a concern when consumers eat raw or lightly preserved fish such as sashimi, sushi, ceviche, and gravlax. When preparing these products, use commercially frozen fish. Alternatively, freeze the fish to an internal temperature of -4°F for at least 7 days to kill any parasites that may be present. Home freezers may not be cold enough to kill the parasites.”
It is less risky to purchase “block” cut sashimi grade fish from a store that caters to the local Japanese community. It will have been dressed, or at least inspected, by an individual with a trained eye. The nematodes can pass through your digestive tract where they survive for only about one week maximum. However, an ingested larvae may cause anisakiasis. This occurs when a larvae attaches itself to or penetrates the intestinal wall.
Although the nematodes are fairly apparent to the human eye, it is not worth taking the chance. Another benefit of buying block cut sashimi grade fish is that you are rarely sold the tail portion. This is the business end of the fish’s musculature. There are larger amounts of connective tissue and the muscle fiber is larger and more pronounced. All of this adds up to tough and chewy fish, the antithesis of good sushi dining.
The finest portions of the fish come from two regions. One is the ‘tenderloin’ that runs along the top of the fish parallel to the spine and above the row of pin bones protruding laterally from it. The small bones you see in large salmon filets are these pin bones. There are two of these strips and they yield some of the finest meat. A second area that provides some of the best and richest flavored cuts is the belly or “wings.” These are the thin flaps that extend from the flanks of the fish towards the underneath side. As a rule of thumb, the farther forward on the fish that the meat comes from, the better the quality. This carries through to an almost outrageous extent.
In cuts of fine maguro tuna, this wing area is known as toro. The belly cut can command astronomical prices, sometimes exceeding **$60.[sup]00[/sup] **per pound! There are several grades of maguro tuna, among them are minami maguro, kuromaguro, mebachi maguro and binnaga maguro. Kuromaguro is regarded as the cream of the crop and commands extortionate prices at the fishmonger’s shop. Binnaga maguro can appear nearly white when compared to its pink and dark red counterparts and the flavor can vary as well. Toro is prized for its silky and exceptionally delicate taste. A single serving of two nigiri sushi (rice clumps topped each topped with a slice of fish) of toro can often run from five to ten dollars! Toro is also regarded as an ideal introduction for beginners because it lacks the intense fish flavors that other stronger tasting varieties can have.
One delicacy served at sushi bars is the ‘collar.’ This is the ring of meaty flesh that encircles the region directly behind and around the gills. Since this part of the fish sees the least movement or flexing, it remains the most tender. Likewise with the ‘cheeks.’ These two ‘collops’ or ‘scallops’ of meat (having nothing to do with shellfish) are highly prized among aficionados of fine seafood.
Just as the most infrequently used muscles on a chicken manifest as the more tender white meat, so it is with the forward reaches of a fish. We are all familiar with how the thighs and legs of a chicken contain dark meat. Muscles that are used most frequently take on a darker coloration than their more idle counterparts. Chickens rarely fly and usually only for brief intervals. Therefore the breast muscles that assist with flight remain light in color. This is typical of all tissue that is meant to provide “burst” performance during sprint sessions. So it is with fish as well.
There are few if any animals on the face of the entire earth that move with the efficiency of a swimming salmon. In general, fish move with a degree of energy conservation that can only be matched by a human riding a bicycle. This is why a majority of fish have white flesh. The salmon obtains it reddish coloration from ingesting krill (a minuscule shrimp-like crustacean) during its maritime growth cycle. A fresh water baby salmon that has yet to live in the sea looks like any trout when dressed out. Ruby or “red” trout are so colored for this same reason. Farmed ruby trout are given their sanguine hue through the addition of krill supplements to their feedstock.
If you have gone to the trouble of purchasing an expensive piece of sashimi grade fish, there are other precautions you may wish to observe. These include:
- Working on a scrupulously clean surface.[ul]Raw fish has an extremely delicate flavor that is easily interfered with by strong residues of onion, garlic and other spices. Likewise, your knives and plates should all be fastidiously clean for this same reason. When working with saba (Spanish mackerel) it is best to interpose a sheet of waxed paper so that the strong oils of this fish do not permeate wooden cutting boards and the like.[/ul]2) Using extremely sharp knives.[ul]Only knives with a razor or straight edges should be used to section sashimi grade fish. Serrated or mixed edge knives tend to shred the tissue they cut. This releases a greater quantity of the fish oils present and can influence the flavor. The appearance will also be affected in a negative respect as well. Ragged cuts and uneven slices are the typical result. Be sure to wet your knife in between cuts to facilitate ease of preparation. It is important to wash blades before beginning to cut another type of fish. Again, the delicate flavors can be marred by cross-contamination from other types of fish.[/ul]3) Always examine the fish as you work with it.[ul]Look for parasites, off colored tissue, blastomas or tumors of any sort. There is also a vast difference between light and dark meats of certain fish. Yellowtail tuna, known as hamachi to connoisseurs, has both light and dark meats. The darker cuts often possess an intense and frequently aggressive, oily flavor to them. Reputable markets will trim off 90% or more of this dark flesh from good hamachi blocks. Considering the $30.[sup]00[/sup] per pound price, it is well that they ought to. Always check for minimal dark meat when buying hamachi. It is important to avoid any tail filets for the reasons mentioned above.[/ul]4) Avoid using a low grade soy sauce.[ul]Once you have gone to the trouble of seeking out a Japanese market and spending half a day’s pay on block cuts of fish, the last thing you should do is dip it into watered down fast food grade soy sauce. At the very least, use regular Kikkoman soy sauce. Unless you use a lot of soy sauce on a regular basis, make sure to refrigerate it between uses. DO NOT use any sort of blended teriyaki sauce or other types of soy based marinades. All you will do is destroy the flavor of your expensive fish. I strongly advise you to search out Kikkoman’s Kappou Sashimi soy sauce. It has been worked with bonito extract, mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine), a glimmering of sugar and some kelp (kombu or tanglefoot) extract. Even though the 6.8 ounce bottle will cost nearly three or four dollars, your results will be superior. If the special Kikkoman sauce is not available, mix a dash of mirin and a pinch of sugar into your soy sauce for a similar effect.[/ul]5) Use an organic powdered wasabi.[ul]Look for Hime brand organic powdered wasabi. If you cannot find it use another brand (Kaneku) of powdered wasabi. At all costs, avoid using premixed wasabi paste. It has a noticeably bitter top note from the stale horseradish in it. To prepare a batch of the powdered wasabi, merely mix one tablespoon with a dozen or more drops of water until a thick but wet paste has been formed. You should be able to invert a cup holding the mixed paste and not see it flow. Cover the cup or overturn it on a small plate and allow it to rest for at least ten minutes while you prepare the miso and sashimi. It is critical to wet down and rest the wasabi paste. Fresh wasabi paste is sharp enough to slice tomatoes.
Mixing your wasabi dipping sauce is another art altogether. In scientific terms, you are creating a sort of colloidal suspension. Place however much aged wasabi paste into your dipping ramekin and very gradually add a few drops of soy sauce at a time. Stir constantly to create an increasingly thin “gravy” until you have diluted your dipping mix to the desired octane. Personally, I am totally gaijin and make “mud.” This sludge will open up seventeen new sinus cavities and drop a charging bull elephant in must at twenty paces. Nearly all Japanese would laugh derisively at such a glaring faux pas but that’s the way I like it and that’s that.[/ul]
As to lobster miso soup. Shellfish in general have a distinctive and very different flavor from traditional miso soup. There are several different varieties of miso. Red and yellow pastes are the most common. A byproduct of soy sauce manufacturing, it is akin to the brewer’s yeast sludge recovered from beer vats. The yellow miso has a more delicate and somewhat “sweeter” flavor than the robust red that is so often served at sushi bars. Traditional Japanese recipes for miso soup include a dried bonito extract known as dashi. Western palates unused to strong fish flavors will find it nearly repulsive. To the more knowledgeable, dashi is recognized as a vital yet (one hopes) restrained component in well prepared miso.
For a lobster miso soup, it would be highly desirable to cook off the lobster in another pot before adding any of it to the soup. This will avoid release of the juices and “coral” from the lobster’s interior during cooking. Either of the flavors would significantly alter the taste of the soup, most likely in a bad way. Another source of flavor is the chitin or shell itself. Used to provide a pale pink tint to seafood raviolis and other pastas, it represents yet another distinct and conflicting flavor element to introduce into a fine batch of miso soup. The most advisable method of arriving at a lobster miso soup would be to steam the lobster approximately one-half to two-thirds of the way. Remove it from the pot and then rinse in cold water to halt the cooking process. You will want to finish it off in the soup in order to avoid overcooking the shellfish.
For the best flavor, remove all of the lobster meat from the tail. claws and knuckles. Discard any internal organs from under the carapace and macerate the rinsed and cleaned shells in a food processor or coarsely chop them with a large blade. Return the shells to the water used to steam the lobster. Leach the shells for fifteen minutes and then strain off the liquid. You will want to strain the broth through an extremely fine wire mesh or use a coffee filter to remove all grit and residual shell fragments. The remaining liquid should then be reduced to 50% of its original volume at an extremely low simmer. Boiling it will destroy the more delicate top notes of the lobster’s flavor contribution.
Once you have made a batch of the miso soup using only half the recommended amount of dashi, begin to add very small amounts of the lobster broth to the soup. The first time you do this, it would be advisable to separate a cup or two of the miso from the main batch and begin flavoring that with the lobster shell stock. This will help you to avoid over-seasoning your entire pot of miso. For such a delicate flavor as lobster, you may wish to seek out some hanah katsuo. These are flakes of a different type of bonito extract that is much more mild and less likely to interfere with the shellfish flavor than the stronger tasting dashi.
Once the soup’s flavor has been adjusted with the shellfish stock, add the cubed tofu, chopped scallions and finally, chunks of the lobster. Leave the claw lump meat intact and section the tail into coins. For such a rich soup, consider adding a pinch of minced garlic chives to each bowl along with the traditional chopped green onion.
Enjoy!
That was post #6,600 and I’m not getting back several hours of life because of it.
That’s work?
The hardest part of making dashi for me was finding the seaweed - I’m 1200 miles from the nearest ocean, it’s not like I can just pick it up from local beach.
Maybe if you had to do your own bonito shaving… Actually, my husband almost threw out my bonito flakes, mistaking them for woodshop debris. You’d think he’d be used to weird things in the my kitchen after 13 years of marriage.
Actually, this is really really really really good. had it many times living in tokyo. They use live lobster. When they put it on the dish for presentation, the antennae are still moving. After you finish the sashimi part, they take away the head and tail and stuff and bring it back later as part of the miso soup. 