hey guys this summer I got something that a lot of you guys are familiar with
and I think most of you will consider these as bait fish but hopefully after
watching this you might think twice and next time to catch a blue runner
And I bet a lot of guys that fish in Florida have never tried eating blue runners before
but the truth is they're really good for sushi and lately I've seen
other people doing some catch and cook videos and they were quite surprised on how good they taste.
They're usually not big enough to filet but the ones
offshore are much bigger and more worthwhile to clean.
The one in the video was about pound which is a beast for this kind of fish.
So as usual, I'm very careful when it comes to preparing the fish before I began to fillet.
Just take your time and try not to cut into the gut and it's best if we can remove the head with
the innards still attached to it. This way you won't contaminate your cutting board
or the meat and you know overall you just have a cleaner surface area to work with
And the way I cut around the head and the belly might seem unusual
for a lot of people that's been filleting fish for a while but for sushi
purposes this is meant to ensure that I avoid cutting the stomach or the
gallbladder, which is really important because that can make the fish taste
slightly bitter if I cut that
so I've had a few people comment on why scaling fish is a waste of time. For the
most part I would agree especially when the fillet is going to be washed off and
cooked later but if you're going to use it for sushi it's important to keep the
fillet dry and the only way to do this is to avoid getting scales on the meat
that way you don't have to wash it off later. For demo this fish wasn't scaled
and you can tell that as the blade runs down the back, tiny pieces of skills are
rubbing off and some are getting worked into the flesh and some might get
embedded into the meat, so if you really want quality sushi it's best to scale
the fish first. And overall you'll have a cleaner area to work with and there
won't be tiny pieces of scales everywhere. Like on your hands or a knife
or cutting board or on the hand towel. I mean to me it's just easier to work with
and by the way blue runners have a layer of armored skin towards the tail and
this is nearly impossible to cut off especially if it's you're using a larger
fish so just cut off the fillet about an inch away from the very end
The ribs on these fish are very easy to remove so you won't have a problem doing this
and here I'm filleting off a piece of the belly side first, because I'll be tearing
off the skin later and by cutting this off first it won't tear off along with the skin
And the next thing I'm going to do is to remove the skin with tweezers
you can also use pliers too but just keep in mind that the important thing
is that to make sure that you hold down the fillet with one hand and pull on the other
you might have to work the edge first but you should come off in one piece
and the reason why I'm taking the skin off is because for this kind of
fish the skin is kind of very chewy and it's tasteless so it's not really edible
and one technique to remove any leftover scales is to gently brush it off with
the edge of your blade this way you won't have to wash it off in water
just like most other fish you can cut out the center pin bones or use a
tweezer instead for the way I make the sashimi and nigiri you won't make any
difference if I split in half like this
for the top loin I'm going to slice it into wider and thinner pieces for the nigiri
and for the bottom line this is going to be cut for bite-sized sashimi pieces instead
so here's a neat trick if you want to eat your sashimi with grated
ginger or onion for example by scoring the loin later on you'll be easier for
the fish to grab on to you whatever garnishes you're using. Also if you are
dipping them into ponzu sauce with with grated ginger for example
it'll pick up more of the sauce too. It's a neat trick try it out.
And if you want to be extra fancy you can try cutting super thin slices and stack it on top of each
other and then roll into your pretty rose, because maybe your Tinder dates
will be into this but you know I don't know
so at the end you're gonna have some leftover trims that you can cut into
smaller pieces and make a sushi roll out of it. But for me this time I'm going to
mince it up and mix it with a kimchi base and some green onions and then make
it into a Gunkan sushi which is just a small piece of rice ball with nori around it
you get to see this at the end. The kimchi base is mostly just chili
vinegar, salt, and garlic and personally I really like this slight spiciness and
sourness that it brings. It goes really well with many other white fish too
not just blue runners. You know I hope there is a market for this fish some day
because it definitely deserves a spot in sushi case. Actually a lot of
upper and sushi bars in the Northeast and on the west coast, they serve a very
similar fish that's call an Aji, which is Japanese "Horse mackerel" and they are
typically much smaller than blue runners, the difference between the two is that a
Aji has a lighter and softer flesh but personally I prefer blue runners because
it has a better texture and has a bolder taste. And I bet many sushi chef would
love to use his fish if they were exposed to it and I'm pretty sure if you
were to have a professional chef serve you this platter in a fancy New York City
restaurant it wouldn't surprise me if it cost close to $100, so save
yourself some money and go catch one. Alright guys thanks for watching another
video I hope you try blue runners yourself they're not too bad cook either
but I prefer it raw. And by the way I recently just finished my website so
please check it out the link is in the description below. The blog post on the
site is where I discuss more in depth about the fish that I'm using and other
cool information that's not in that video so please check it out!