Shirasu and Shiso Peperoncino
Translated from my original Japanese post (2018). 日本語の原文を読む →
Do you suddenly have a lot of shirasu (young sardines) at home from a hometown-tax gift or a present? It's hard to know what to do with it, isn't it?
You're tired of the usual shirasu rice bowl and shirasu furikake (rice seasoning)... So here are recipes to help you use up a big batch of shirasu!
I have a huge amount of shirasu right now, so I'll keep adding recipes as I go!
How to Store Shirasu So It Stays Delicious
To use up a lot of shirasu, proper storage is essential.
You can freeze shirasu. Put it in a zip bag or airtight container and keep it away from air as much as possible!
This is really important.
If you only wrap it in plastic wrap, the temperature rises every time you open and close the freezer, ice forms around the shirasu, and it spoils, so I don't recommend it.
I recommend wrapping it in two or more layers, such as plastic wrap plus a container, or plastic wrap plus newspaper plus a container.
Once I just tossed shirasu into a container, and sure enough it was covered in ice.
When I tried to stir-fry it, the shirasu popped all over the place, a total disaster, so be careful...
Use Up Lots of Shirasu! How to Finish It Deliciously
People get bored when they eat the same thing all the time.
It helps to change the cuisine, turn a cold dish into a warm one, and so on.
Honestly, the best approach is probably not to eat only shirasu (lol).
Shirasu are baby sardines (young sardines in English), so if you think of it as a substitute for sardines, it opens up more recipe ideas.
Today I'll introduce a peperoncino, going in the direction of a warm Italian dish.
Using Up Lots of Shirasu! "Shirasu and Shiso Peperoncino"
Today's recipe is a peperoncino with shirasu and shiso (perilla leaf).
It's refreshing and easy to make!
■ Ingredients
Shirasu: 2 ladlefuls
Shiso leaves: 6 (as many as you like is fine too)
Spaghetti: for 2 people
Garlic: 1 clove
Dried red chili peppers (takanotsume): 2
Olive oil: 4 tbsp
■ Steps
1. Boil water in a pot and start cooking the spaghetti. Cut the shiso into thin strips, slice the garlic thinly and remove the germ. Cut the tips off the chili peppers and shake out the seeds.
2. Put the olive oil and garlic in a frying pan and cook over low heat. When you smell the garlic, add the chili peppers. When the garlic starts to take on a little color, add a ladleful of the pasta water a little at a time and stir to emulsify.
3. Add the spaghetti, cooked 2 minutes less than the package says, to the pan and stir around with cooking chopsticks to emulsify the sauce again. Top with the shiso and it's done!
* The seeds inside the chili peppers are extremely hot! If you don't do well with spice, eating one by mistake could be a disaster.
Take them out if you can.
* Shirasu is salty, so don't add salt to the water when boiling the spaghetti.
* The pasta water contains starch that has come out of the noodles.
This starch mixes with the olive oil to emulsify the sauce
and make it silky. So plain hot water won't emulsify properly; be careful.
* To make the most of the starch that comes out of the spaghetti, don't boil it in too much water.
I'll keep adding more recipes for using up lots of shirasu!
Please give it a try!
