Neginuta

This blog sometimes becomes a Japanese cuisine guide. It's such time again.

After coming home from the Billingsgate fish market, where I bought two whole mackerel for 3.50 pounds, I pickled one of them as described on 21st August 2005. For lunch, I ate a half by dipping in soy sauce. It was gorgeous as always.

For dinner, I tried a new thing: neginuta. I didn't know this way of eating pickled mackerel. But it is brilliant. Here's the recipe:

1. Slice pickled mackerel and chop spring onions.
2. In a bowl, put three spoonfuls of miso paste, one and a half spoonful of rice vinegar, and a spoonful of sugar (you can change the amount to your taste as long as you keep the ratio, just like making cocktails).
3. Add sliced mackerel and chopped spring onions into the bowl, and marinate them all.

That's it! The sweet taste of miso and the sour taste of pickled mackerel along with the crunchy texture of raw spring onions melt together in your mouth, producing a pleasant sensation.

By googling Japanese websites, I found that neginuta refers to marinating spring onions (or, more precisely, negi (Japanese leeks) - but I prefer using spring onions as I doubt Western leeks fit this cuisine) in the miso/vinegar/sugar mixture. Some seafoods like boiled octopus or squid are sometimes added. Adding pickled mackerel is probably not a standard thing to do. Anyway, I'm probably the first person who introduces neginuta to English speakers as googling it in English doesn't yield any result. :)