烏魚子 / Karasumi / Botargo

My parents sent me two slabs of karasumi or salted mullet roe, a luxury delicacy often eaten at the lunar new year in Taiwan and other celebrations.

For this treat, I bought a bottle of good quality sake, a first in my life as a teetotaller, and daikon. The box in which the karasumi was packaged included cooking instructions complete with Mum's annotations (she is, after all, a master of cooking karasumi).

Ingredients

karasumi
sake, to marinate the roe
daikon, sliced

Fried roe cooling on the chopping board

oil, for frying (I used rendered lard as I was making sausages for Husband)

Method

1. Remove the skin from the roe.
2. Pat both sides of the roe with sake. Leave the roe in a shallow dish soaked in a puddle of sake for at least 10 minutes.
3. Heat a pan with a little bit of oil. Fry the roe gently, 1 minute on each side. It's ready when the skin is crispy while the inside is still slightly soft and moist.
4. Remove roe from pan and let cool slightly before slicing.
5. Serve with daikon slices (or cucumber, apple, spring onion slices). 

I was delighted with the result. I like the slices slightly chunkier than what is normally served at restaurants (and I imagine in other homes). The skin was indeed slightly crisp while the inside was moist and what I would describe as al dente (even though it's probably weird when not talking about pasta or risotto).

Husband tried it but decided it was too fishy for his liking, so he happily went back to the white pudding, which actually worked out rather well - more for me!