"French fry" Aji

This weeks food blog challenge is to try to fry a very small fish called bean Aji.

Interestingly "Tuna head cooking at home" is one of the most popular posts, soon to overtake 7-11 Onigiri (another surprise) for top honors. So why not go to the opposite end of the spectrum and cook one of the smallest fish?

This idea was actually inspired by a restaurant dish though - and not the giant tuna head. It was served at a restaurant next door to Hisago Yakitori. The restaurant's name is Daihachi 大八 and you can take a look at the restaurant at this website. The second tab will take you to the menus. Eventually this place deserves a write-up, but I'll have to go back to sample some additional dishes first.

The dish is Aji Karaage and this is how it shows up on their menu あじ唐揚げ.
Aji Karaage is deep fried Aji. Another way of writing it is 豆あじ空揚げ or deep fried bean aji.
唐 and 空 are both pronounced "kara" in these kanji compounds.
Aji is also known as Japanese Horse Mackerel and the kanji looks like this 鯵
The bean kanji symbol 豆 also means "midget/small."

"Karaage" anything means deep fried and many times you'll just see 揚げ (ah-gae) on the menu following the main ingredient such as chicken. You'll also see 揚げ物 (deep fried things) as a menu section label. 空揚げ (Karaage) and all these other forms are good kanji to know as they appear on many menus. It's one of the kanjis listed on the key food kanji page.

After tasting this dish at the restaurant I couldn't wait to start the process of finding the fish and a recipe to get going! That enthusiasm I felt for making these when eating them at the restaurant faded a bit though as I set out to clean the fish at home. But in the end I was happy to have tried this Japanese dish and just may do it again.

Small aji inside big tuna mouth

Artist's depiction of "Meguro no naka" (目黒の中) showing the relative size between the poor bean aji and the hungry tuna. No actual fish were used used or harmed in this display - just innocent manipulation of pictures.

From the store

So this is what the fish look like at the store in the package.
On the label:
The black section on the left says its from Ehime prefecture.
まあじ is Japanese horse mackerel (maaji)
極小 kyokushou means extremely small
唐揚　is an old form of 空揚 and both are pronounced karaage . 用 is "use" (for deep fry use)

On the yellow label we also see the hiragana "karaage" followed by the "use" kanji. My first rushed reading of this was "karaoke use" and that would be correct too as they would be great during karaoke. But the o is not an o, it's an a. and the ke is really a ge. If I were to be a marketing consultant for them I would make a label that says "for karaoke use" too.

The fish are a small version of ones shown below.

Finding the aji proved to be a bit more difficult than finding a tuna head, but eventually found them. Several stores carried them but were already sold out by the time I got there. They sell fast.

I followed an online recipe. Simply potato starch, salt and curry seasoning. The potato starch was found out in the local market and even has the English words on the bottom (right above the weight).

Ingredients

1st step - scale removal

Aji have a small but hard line of scale extending up from the tail for about a centimeter or two. This must be removed from both sides of the fish. In the picture below that scale is almost cut off. It's best to use a very sharp knife.

Another technique is to put the knife under and apply pressure from the top of the aji to cut off the scale. A Japanese "how to" video taught me this. Eventually I just went with cutting it from the top because I could not be taught, apparently, from the video. Years of Wisconsin fishing and fish cleaning did not prepare me well for cleaning these little critters.

Step one complete

Above you see what it looks like after getting that tough scale off. There is no other descaling necessary. I will not show you some of my early fish using this technique as they were somewhat mangled. But you quickly get the hang of it. Having about 50 little fish to clean, I thought to myself after the first few that this is the first and last time I'll ever do this. I also received no genuine encouragement from my family as they mostly found it amusing. But once I got the hang of it, and then later tasted them, I am reconsidering. Kind of like climbing Mount Fuji.

Step 2

I'll not post the photos of what happens immediately after the above photo. You grab the fish under the gill flaps and push the gill flaps up. Then pinch tightly and pull out the gills and the guts. They should pretty much all come out together. Then, under running water a little clean up remains of the head and belly cavity. Set aside and do the next one.

Step 2 complete

You'll end up with a little V-notch.

All cleaned. Dry them out a bit with napkin. Add some salt to taste then they are ready for coating.

Mix up the potato starch and curry seasoning in equal parts in a bag. I used more potato starch though, and thought I could add more curry later. Salt can be added to this mixture as well.

Coated and ready to cook

Deep fry for 3-5 minutes in hot oil. Longer = crunchier.

Drain on napkin

Ready to eat

These are better than french fries.

Pairs well with: beer
Serving suggestion: beer

The recipe link above also states the health benefits of the calcium you'll get by eating the bones. The head and all the bones are real easy to eat after frying and you won't notice them at all. They were very tasty and just as I remember them from the restaurant. Although there was quite a bit of prep work involved, I will likely make these again in the future - as the prep time can be cut in half now that I have the experience.

Besides this post, I also have these other homemade attempts:
- tuna head
- deep fried gobo root (burdock root)
- the Maido salad.
...enjoy

Addendum: What do you do with the cooking oil? The Japanese have a great product called tempura oil hardener. Below is the package and I picked up a 3 pack for 100 Yen at a local 100 Yen store.