Recipe for Pressed Mackerel Sushi and Ball-Shaped Sea Bream Sushi

The Saba-kaido was a path used in ancient times to carry fresh seafood to land-locked Kyoto from the Sea of Japan. The starting point of the Saba-kaido, the area near Wakasa Bay that includes Obama in Fukui Prefecture, is known as a scared place for pond fish, and is a bountiful place where more than 400 varieties of fish can be caught.

Wakasa is the old name for this area, but it is still in use today. Take a look at these recipes for mackerel pressed sushi and ball-shaped heshiko and sea bream sushi – recipes that come in handy for celebrations or for having guests over. 

We’re being taught how to make these recipes today by workers in the kitchen studio at the Miketsukuni Wakasa Obama Food Culture Museum. Many events are held here, including cooking workshops using fresh, local Wakasa ingredients, lectures on nutrition, and more. A variety of food-related activities happen here to meet a wide variety of needs for people of all ages, and the Museum was built as a home base for life-long nutrition educational activities, set up by the city of Obama in 2000.

Pressed mackerel sushi recipe

Ingredients for two pieces:
450g of uncooked rice
1 tablespoon of sake
5cm strip of dashi konbu (seaweed used for making soup stock)
2 pieces of pickled mackerel

Flavoring:
135ml vinegar
75g sugar
18g salt

Step 1

Add the konbu seaweed, sake, and water to the rice and steam until slightly hard. Mix the vinegar, sugar, and salt together to create a vinegar mixture. (The vinegar mixture should be made up of 135 ml of vinegar, 75 g of sugar, and 18 g of salt for every 450 g of uncooked rice). Move the cooked rice to a wooden sushi bowl and mix in the vinegar mixture to create sushi rice. 

A wooden sushi bowl, called sushi oke in Japanese, is an indispensable tool used to make sushi rice in Japanese homes since ancient times. Placing freshly cooked rice inside the wooden sushi bowl regulates the moisture of the rice and gives the rice a pleasant flavor.

Step 2

Remove the bones from the pickled mackerel with tweezers or any other appropriate tool, and remove the thin outer skin, starting from the head. Slice off the thin part of the flesh.

Step 3

Apply some of the vinegar mixture to the sides and bottom of a wooden box. This keeps the ingredients from sticking to the box.

Step 4

Place the mackerel skin-side down. Line up the meat sliced from the tail, and spread the pickled mackerel out.

Step 5

Cover the fish in sushi rice, and press down from above with a wooden board. Be sure not to press too hard!

Step 6

When you pull away the box, a beautiful cross-sectional mackerel pressed sushi is left behind. Flip it over so that the fish is on top, wrap in plastic wrap, and lay it to the side. You can eat it now, but if you wait a little bit, the flavor intensifies. 

Now your pressed mackerel sushi is complete. Sometimes grilled mackerel is used and this recipe can be adjusted in a variety of ways at home, including mixing ginger in with the rice, placing a shiso leaf between the fish and rice. Try adjusting the recipe to your liking. 

This is a recipe for ball-shaped sushi, with rice holding together Wakasa heshiko and sea bream. Just as the name suggests, the result is a cute, small ball-shaped food. Due to its small size, it can easily be eaten by hand but can also be eaten until one is full. It’s also great in lunch boxes and for home parties thanks to the wonderful colors.

Ball-shaped Heshiko and sea bream sushi

Ingredients for four pieces:
150g of uncooked rice
4 pieces of pickled sea bream
4 cuts of heshiko

Flavoring:
45ml vinegar
25g sugar
6g salt
2 pieces of shiso leaf
Dried white sesame seeds for grinding

Step 1

Add the dashi konbu seaweed to the rice and steam until slightly hard. Apply the vinegar mixture to the freshly cooked rice, and mix the rice while cooling it down with a paper fan. Mix half of the rice with coarsely ground sesame seeds.

Step 2

Spread out some plastic wrap, apply a small amount of wasabi to the sea bream, place it on top of sushi rice, and press together. You can neatly press the sushi together using the plastic wrap.

Step 3

In the same way, place a shiso leaf under the heshiko, place that on top of the sushi rice mixed with sesame seeds, and press together. Finally, once you’ve twisted the plastic wrap and put everything down, the sushi is complete!

Efforts by Obama city showcase Japanese food culture as it is, including not only delicious foods passed down through the generations but also the Japanese customs of giving thanks by saying “itadakimasu” before and “gochisosama” after a meal, and this had a large effect at Expo Milan 2015. Showcasing food as a bridge between education and culture, each steady action done to preserve the past over the years will certainly connect to the next generation.