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Chikuwa (竹輪) – Japanese Fish Paste Tubes
Chikuwa means bamboo ring, which is how the fish tube looks in cross section. In Japan you buy it ready-made at the supermarket, and it belongs in oden, udon, and bento boxes. Homemade tastes fresher and less sweet. You puree cold cod or pollock into a sticky paste, shape it around a wooden stick, and fry it until it sets. Eat the tubes plain with soy sauce or slice them into a soup.
Chikuwa (竹輪) – Japanese Fish Paste Tubes
Laura Chen
4
50 minutes
12 minutes
140
Japanese
Snack
Chikuwa are Japanese fish paste tubes with a hole in the middle. You puree cold white fish fillet with salt, egg white, and starch into a sticky paste, spread it around thick wooden sticks, and fry it until it gets brown spots. Unlike the Korean eomuk, they are not deep-fried.
Ingredients
- 400 g white fish fillet (cod, pollock, or Alaska pollock), skinless and boneless, well chilled
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg white
- 2 tbsp potato starch (about 16 g)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp sake (Japanese rice wine)
- 1 tsp mirin (sweet rice wine for cooking)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 8 wooden sticks (about 1 cm in diameter, such as cooking chopsticks)
- Soy sauce for dipping, as desired
Instructions
- Cut the fish fillet into 2 cm cubes and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes, until the edges firm up.
- Puree the fish with the salt in a blender for 1 minute. Add the egg white, starch, sugar, sake, and mirin and blend for another 1 to 2 minutes, until you have a smooth, sticky, glossy paste.
- Chill the paste for 20 minutes. Brush the wooden sticks lightly with oil.
- Dampen your hands. Spread one eighth of the paste (about 55 g) evenly around the middle of a stick, about 10 cm long, and press the ends on firmly.
- Heat the remaining oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Fry the tubes for 10 to 12 minutes, turning constantly, until they are firm and have brown spots all over.
- Let the tubes cool for 3 minutes, twist out the sticks, and cut the chikuwa into pieces on the diagonal. Serve with soy sauce.
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