Simmered in Miso Ep. 1 Sanma Namero
なめろう
I have always avoided fish at the supermarket. Growing up my family never served fish unless it was frozen tilapia or salmon, and that was not often since salmon was too expensive to buy, so needless to say my fish experience was zero when I got here. I couldn’t shake the thought of “I’m gonna mess it up” and honestly, I wasn’t confident enough in my culinary skills to just wing it with fish either. Plus, dishes never come out looking like the picture… which is usually a restaurant-worthy beauty shot.
So, in order to combat my nerves, I found the one dish that isn’t about looking pretty or needing high technical ability or overwhelming you with a billion steps. I started my Japanese food journey with namero (なめろう).
Where in Japan namero got its start is unclear. Aomori, Chiba, and Hokkaido have all laid claim to the dish, with Chiba’s claim being the strongest and loudest, but what we do know is how the dish came to be. It is a fisherman’s dish commonly eaten over rice. Fishermen had to spend most of their time out on a boat and with it rocking around and not being the most spacious, there wasn’t much space to prepare a meal. With namero, all you needed was enough space to chop the fish and a few add-ins and you’re done! All of the same qualities that made this dish appealing to me as well.
The most common type of namero is sanma namero. Sanma is the Japanese word for mackerel or pacific saury, but any fish that can be used for sushi can be used for namero within reason. Fo me, some fish don’t quite work as well as others. For example, you may find it difficult to cut octopus or squid for namero, but it is entirely up to you.
For this dish you will need your fish of choice, shiso (perilla leaves), green onion (pre-diced is always a win), ginger and garlic (save time by using the tubes), and miso paste. I am not giving you values or measurements and I know this will be frustrating to some, but this dish is often catered to the tastes of the person making so in general my advice is start small with your seasonings and build up.
I start by rolling up the shiso leaves and chopping them into pinwheels then cutting those in half. Don’t use too much or you will end up with fish potpourri, which is not the best. Smart small then add in more after you do the first taste if you want. Next take your sushi/sashimi grade fish and use your knife to make quick chops all the way through the fish. You want to chop it into a pulp. You will know it’s done when it starts sticking to the cutting board as a paste. You’re gonna be this for a while but it’s quite therapeutic.
Now for the finishing touches. Add in small dollops of garlic and ginger, a little bit of the green onion and shiso leaves and a “small” spoon of miso. Be careful with the miso. Miso is very salty so you want less than you think you need to start with. Again you can always add more but you can’t take it back once it’s in there. Mix this all together on the cutting board by folding and chopping a little as you go to even out the size of add-ins. What’s left should be something that looks like this.
Now how do you eat it? Well, you can serve it simply over rice or you can go the Aomori route and eat it with cucumbers. You can also serve it with the small strips of nori as temaki. But namerou’s versatility doesn’t end there. If you pan fry this as a patty it becomes sanga-yaki. If you mix it with rice and green tea or genmaicha it becomes son-cha. If you toss in vinegar to the namero, it becomes su-namero. If you serve it with natto and raw egg yolk it can function as your otsumami (or food that you eat when you drink alcohol). You can also turn it into sushi of course. I prefer the temaki style with cucumber instead of rice or with raw egg yolk and nori.
You can’t go wrong with this dish and honestly there’s not much to it other than smash and eat.
It really is the easiest place to start on your journey of fish dishes in Japan, not to mention cleaning up is a breeze too — just your knife and cutting board! If you do decide to try this dish, take a picture of it and tag it @wideislandview so that I can see your namerou creations!
Next time we will dive a bit more into dishes like son-cha by exploring Ochazuke.
