Shimaaji

Shimaaji is one of my all time favorite Japanese fish, very smooth in flavor and is best eaten raw.  If you must cook, do so on a coal hibachi or grill, dust with a little chili powder and salt.  Striped Horsemackerel and Striped Jack is part of the Aji/Horsemackerel-Saurel family.  Even though it is in the mackerel family the flavor is more delicate then the majority of its brothers and sisters.  There is a good amount of fat and is best eaten in the winter but is still a excellent fish in the summer.

Remove all fins before scaling

Stabbing yourself with the dorsal fins while scaling is not cool

Get all the fins

Ready to scale

Remove the scales in a clean trash bag, easy clean up

Lightly rub the scaler back in fourth till all scales are removed, lightly rinse off

Shimaaji is a medium fatty fish, you can see the layer of fat protecting the innards

Start an incision at the poop shoot towards the nose to remove the innards

With your thumb carefully remove the innards sac with out breaking it all up

Nice and clean

Remove the head by first cutting behind the collar and then all the way to the neck

Once reaching the neck bone, repeat the same cut on the opposite side

Use a Deba or heavy knife to cut through the neck bone

A nice clean orchestrated decapitation

Soak the head, fins, bones and tails in ice water till later

Snip the rib bones with scissors as close to the spine as possible

Make the first incision starting at the belly towards the spine

Carefully cut around the spine and through to the top of the fish, repeat on the opposite side

When dealing with any protein especially raw fish it is very important to always keep a very clean board

When removing the ribs make your first cut UP to separate them from the pin bones

Turn your knife around and remove the ribs, slicing DOWN as close to the bones as possible

Always have a wet towel on hand while butchering

Remove the pin bones and slice in half After removing the pin bones slice the side n half down the blood line

Pull a corner of the skin away from the flesh, carefully remove the skin with your knife

Slice the fish at a slight angle, keeping your board and knife very clean

Mmmmm… soy, rice vinegar, scallion and shichimi togarashi

Cut the bones up and soak in ice water,that will help pull out any unwanted impurities cut the bones into pieces for stock

Head

Remove the collars and save for later

Remove the gills and discard

Cut the head in half, save for later

The innards sac covered in fat

Separate the fat and liver