| Unagi, or freshwater eel, is one of my favorite | | | | have Dashi (a small, minced piece of whatever |
| ingredients used in sushi, whether it's a | | | | fish you're using in your sushi; the water drained |
| western-style Dragon Roll, unagi nigiri or a simple | | | | off of a can of tuna; the tuna itself, mixed into |
| eel makizushi. While creating my latest batch of | | | | the water and strained; perhaps even some |
| homemade and somewhat improvised sushi I got | | | | chopped up nori.) We're not connoisseurs here, |
| the hankering for the sweet, sumptuous nitsume | | | | we just want something that tastes good. If you |
| eel sauce and decided to whip some up, even | | | | don't have anything suitable on hand, then just |
| though I didn't have any unagi on hand to work | | | | use plain water. It won't ruin the sauce, it'll just |
| with. Turns out I didn't have very many Japanese | | | | turn out a bit different. |
| ingredients on hand at all, so I had to "westernize" | | | | Additionally, the original recipe used Sake but I |
| the recipe somewhat. The result, to my great | | | | didn't have that, so I just used some of the |
| surprise, was slightly different from conventional | | | | cheap (REALLY cheap), boxed red wine that I did |
| nitsume though no less delicious, and went very | | | | have. This recipe is also halved from the original |
| well with my makeshift Rainbow rolls. | | | | because I wasn't sure how it was going to come |
| This recipe is great to make if you don't have a | | | | out, but now that I know how good it is I have |
| lot of Asian ingredients on hand to work with but | | | | no problem suggesting that you double the |
| still are in the mood for a sweet, yummy, | | | | amounts listed here. |
| easy-to-make sauce to use with sushi. | | | | Cooking Instructions This is the easiest part -- |
| Recipe for "Western" Nitsume | | | | dump everything into a sauce pan and let it sit on |
| - 1 c. Dashi / fish stock / fish-flavored water | | | | low heat for about an hour. As far as I could tell |
| - 1/4 c. Sake / Red wine | | | | mine wasn't quite at a simmer, just steaming. |
| - 1/8 c. shoyu (soy sauce) | | | | Stirring is also probably advised, but I literally put |
| - 1/4 c. sugar | | | | everything in the pot and forgot to even stir the |
| Ingredients Explained | | | | sugar in, and it turned out none the worse for |
| In all honesty, I don't even know what "Dashi" is. I | | | | wear. The original recipe advises reducing the |
| believe it is some kind of seafood-based Japanese | | | | original volume by about 80% but it's really |
| cooking stock, but don't quote me on that. All I | | | | personal preference. It will not thicken until it's |
| know is that the original recipe that I based this | | | | taken off the heat and allowed to cool, at which |
| one on listed this as the primary ingredient, but I | | | | point it will assume a viscosity similar to maple |
| didn't have any on hand. As a substitute I took | | | | syrup. |
| some Korean shrimp paste stuff I had in my | | | | I hope some of you have found this recipe |
| fridge and mixed it with water, then strained the | | | | beneficial, even if sushi "purists" may scoff at it. |
| pieces out and used the flavored broth instead. | | | | This is a very simple, easy and tasty sauce that |
| Since this isn't traditional nitsume anyway, I | | | | you can prepare ahead or set on the stove and |
| imagine you could use anything "fishy" you have | | | | forget while you're preparing the rest of your |
| on hand to flavor plain water with if you don't | | | | sushi. |