Taimeshi recipe (Whole grilled sea bream cooked with rice)

Taimeshi（鯛飯）

Taimeshi (sea bream rice) is a Japanese dish made by grilling a whole sea bream and then cooking it with rice.

tai = sea bream meshi = rice

Sea bream and rice have been familiar foods to the Japanese since ancient times. “Taimeshi” can be eaten throughout the year, but sea bream is considered an auspicious fish, so it is often eaten on celebratory occasions.

Nowadays, taimeshi refers to rice cooked with grilled sea bream, as in this recipe. Grilling sea bream before cooking removes the unpleasant odor, and the fragrant taste is the secret to its deliciousness.

At high-end Japanese restaurants, it is served in a clay pot instead of a rice cooker, garnished with kinome leaf and thinly sliced ​​ginger. It is also particularly delicious to pour hot tea over it at the end of a course meal and eat it as ochazuke.

Incidentally, areas such as Uwajima and Iyo in Ehime Prefecture are famous for producing sea bream. There, raw fillets of sea bream are marinated in a sauce made from soy sauce, mirin, eggs, sesame seeds, and dashi soup, then the sauce is poured over hot rice, which is called taimeshi.

If you use the whole sea bream, you can enjoy the full flavor of the fish. However, sea bream has many bones and is very tough, so if you have children or elderly people in your home, we recommend removing the bones before cooking it with rice.

What kind of dish is sea bream ??

Tai has long been known as an auspicious fish in Japan. There are various reasons for this, including the long life span of the tai, the fact that red is considered to ward off evil in Japan, and the fact that good fortune is called “medetai”.

There are several types of Tai, but generally, red sea bream refers to madai (真鯛). (There are also many black sea bream.)

Kidai (also known as renkodai) and chidai are red sea bream that are smaller than madai.

Madai (red sea bream) is a large fish, weighing about 1 kg. In supermarkets, it is usually sold as fillets.

The fish used in this recipe for Taimeshi is chidai.

Sea bream has firm white flesh, and is characterized by a light yet strong flavor. It is characterized by less odor and fat than other fish.

In other countries, sea bream is often called red snapper, but strictly speaking, biologically, snapper is a general term for fish species belonging to the Lutjanidae family.

Sea bream’s bones are hard, so be careful not to swallow them when eating.

NUTRITION FACTS

Nutritional value of madai per 100g edible portion　

The waste rate of sea bream is about 50%.　One red sea bream weighs about 1 kg, so the edible portion of one fish is 500 g and the calories are about 800 kcal.

• 160 kcal
• Protein 20.9 g
• Fat 9.4 g
• Carbs 0.1 g
• Salt Equivalents 0.1 g

Total Nutrition Value

• 1335 kcal
• Protein 46.8 g
• Fat 14.2 g
• Carbs 257.6 g
• Salt Equivalents 10.0 g

INGREDIENTS for Taimeshi recipe (Whole grilled sea bream cooked with rice) (5SERVINGS)

• ★Water 420g
  • ★Kayanoya dashi stock 1 pack
• Rice 320g
  • ☆Water 1000g
• Red sea bream(chidai) (220g)
• Salt 4g
• ☆Light soy sauce 30g
• ☆Mirin 10g

Traditionally, it is best to make dashi using kelp or bonito flakes, but Kayanoya’s dashi stock packs have a very authentic flavor. Sea bream also produces delicious extracts, so using a dashi stock pack saves time and effort. If you have dried kelp at home, place it on top of the rice and cook it. In that case, use a piece of kelp about 7 cm cubed.

Taimeshi recipe (Whole grilled sea bream cooked with rice) COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

In a corner of a Japanese supermarket, there is a section that handles fresh fish. I asked the staff in charge of the fresh fish section to remove the scales and innards of the sea bream. In Japanese supermarkets, if you ask the staff, they will do this for you for free.

1. Put 400g of water and a Kayanoya’s dashi pack in a saucepan and heat over low heat.
2. Once boiling, turn off the heat and let it cool. Discard the dashi pack once it has cooled.
3. After washing the rice, soak it in water for 30 minutes. (If using pre-rinsed rice, soak it for at least 1 hour.)
4. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the sea bream and let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Wipe the surface of the sea bream with a paper towel. This will remove excess moisture and unpleasant odors.
6. Apply oil to the wire mesh of the fish grill to prevent the sea bream from sticking.
7. Grill the sea bream on the fish grill for 6 minutes. Adjust the heat so that it does not burn too much. The grill I use can be heated from both sides. If you are using a grill that can be heated from only one side, turn the sea bream over once while it is grilling.
8. Place the rice in a colander to drain the water.
9. Add rice, dashi soup, light soy sauce and mirin to the rice cooker and mix.
10. Place the sea bream on top of the rice and cook on normal mode.
11. Once cooked, remove the bones from the sea bream and mix everything together. Sea bream bones are hard and dangerous to swallow! Please remove the bones carefully.

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