Battera (Pressed Saba Oshizushi)

Ingredients

• 2 mackerel fillets, about 300 g
• 60 g fine salt
• 300 ml rice vinegar ⇄
• 20 g sugar
• 1 strip kombu
• 400 g seasoned sushi rice (shari), at body temperature
• 1 sheet shiro-ita kombu (white pressed kombu)
• wasabi
• gari (pickled ginger)

The skills inside

Sushi rice & rolling

The words inside

Rice Vinegar

Allergen screen

Found: fish

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

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Method

1. Use mackerel that has been frozen at -20C (-4F) for at least 24 hours. Bury the fillets in salt, skin and flesh, and leave 45 minutes, until the surface firms and beads liquid. 600 min
2. Rinse off the salt, pat dry, then steep in the rice vinegar with the sugar and kombu for 20 minutes, until the outer 2 mm has turned opaque white. 20 min
3. Peel the fine translucent membrane off the skin, working from tail to head; it should lift in one sheet. Slice the fillet to an even 8 mm, keeping the trimmings.
4. Wet a wooden oshibako, lay the fish skin side down with trimmings filling the gaps, smear a whisper of wasabi, and pack the shari on top to just over the rim.
5. Fit the lid and press with steady weight until it stops sinking, rest 20 minutes, then unmould and drape with the softened white kombu sheet. 20 min
6. Cut with a wet blade, one clean pull per slice, wiping the steel between cuts.