From time immemorial, dishes made from raw fish of high quality have been favorites of gourmets in many countries around the world. It is not for nothing that in traditional cuisines in different parts of the world you can find interpretations of this theme - sashimi and sushi in Japan, ceviche in Latin America, sugudai and stroganina in Russia and Northern Europe. Today our chefs have prepared for you 5 cool recipes with raw fish that you can easily repeat at home.

Rule 1: Choose quality fish

Rule 2: Use a marinade

Before eating raw fish, you need to hold itin the appropriate marinade. This can be either pre-marination or simply a sauce with which the fish is seasoned before serving. You don’t have to wait long – 5-10 minutes is enough. The marinade should contain an acidic component - lemon juice, fresh lime or vinegar (rice, apple, wine). At the expense of acetic and citric acid These ingredients denature the proteins in the fish. This greatly simplifies the process of digesting the product.

Rule 3: Add an antimicrobial ingredient to your dish

A fairly common practice in all traditional cuisines is to add raw fish to a dish.antimicrobial ingredient. It could behot chili peppers, onions, garlic or wasabi paste. Don't neglect this product, even if you don't like it too much. In a dish with raw fish, it plays a completely non-decorative role.

Raw fish dishes are very nutritious and healthy. Almost every nation has a dish made from this product in its national cuisine. They eat raw fish, either freshly caught or frozen. The most famous such dishes are sashimi, sugudai and stroganina. Below is a detailed description of them and methods of preparation.

What is Japanese sashimi?

The correct name for this raw fish dish is sashimi. To prepare it, different types of seafood and fish are used. Usually, for this dish, the meatiest part of the fillet, which does not contain bones, is chosen.

A distinctive feature of the dish is that it uses fish that has not undergone any culinary processing at all. Typically, sashimi is served with longitudinally grated daikon radish and herbs, as well as wasabi. Before eating, you are supposed to dip each piece of fish in soy sauce.

There are many types of this dish, and salmon sashimi is especially popular. However, you can cook it from anything, including caviar and shrimp. For lovers of extreme food, they use puffer fish, which contains a deadly poison. If you cook it in a certain way, it becomes safe. However, even a small mistake by the cook can make this delicacy deadly poisonous.

Features of the dish

What else is remarkable about such a raw fish dish as sashimi? The fillet should be cut into slices so thin that they should literally show through. Since raw fish has a very soft and delicate texture, it is important to learn how to cut it correctly. Japanese chefs study this art for a very long time. In addition, without the right professional knife, perfect slicing will not work.

How to make Japanese salmon sashimi? For the simplest option, it is not necessary to try to make translucent pieces. It is enough to simply cut fresh raw fillet into even bars and arrange them beautifully on a dish. As a garnish, place daikon there, grated with carrots in Korean.

A more complex version of sashimi

You can complicate the dish a little by serving it with additional side dishes and spices. For this variation, cut the salmon into thick, even slices and place on a platter on top of the fried avocado slices. Sprinkle everything with pepper and salt. Pour warm sauce made from lime or lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, coriander and chopped green onions on top.

No matter what raw fish sashimi recipe you use, you must follow certain rules. Only an odd number of slices on a serving platter is allowed. As a side dish, you can put not only daikon, but also lettuce leaves, grated zucchini or carrots, slices of cucumbers and even tomatoes, as well as lemon slices.

What is sugudai?

This name hides a dish of raw fish, which is considered a delicacy these days. Sugudai is the food of the indigenous northern peoples. The dish is prepared from northern varieties of fish, characterized by high fat content and delicate taste. You can use any of its varieties caught in the Taimyr region and near the shores of the Arctic Ocean. At the same time, you can use both freshly frozen and freshly caught fish. Northern peoples traditionally make sugudai from omul, chir or whitefish. An excellent variety of the latter is muksun, the meat of which has a pleasant specific taste.

It is worth noting that the above varieties of fish are difficult to find on sale. Therefore, you can safely cook sugudai from mackerel and other available species.

How to cook it?

We must immediately make a reservation that there is no classical recipe. Therefore, you can easily adapt any recipe to suit your tastes. The traditional northern method of preparation is as follows: you need to take a large fish carcass, clean and gut it, and remove the head. Be very careful not to crush the bile. Otherwise, all the meat will become bitter.

If you cook sugudai from frozen mackerel, do not defrost it completely. Otherwise, all the insides will simply turn into mush during processing. Using a teaspoon, remove all the innards from the carcass. It is not necessary to remove the skin. Once you have cleaned the fish, cut it into finger-width pieces. Place the prepared slices in an enamel bowl, add the onion, cut into rings, and mix everything well with your hands. Calculate the proportions something like this: take 2-3 onions for one large fish carcass. After this, you need to add quite a lot of ground black pepper and salt (one teaspoon and about two tablespoons, respectively). Mix everything again by pouring two tablespoons of any vegetable oil and adding a few drops of vinegar, shake the container well. Place in a cool place for a long time: from half an hour to 3 hours.

What is stroganina?

You will need a deep frozen fish carcass. In the classic version, varieties such as omul, whitefish, muksun, vendace, peled and the like are used. You can also use lenok and grayling. If it is impossible to purchase these northern varieties, you can also take salmon, but taking into account certain factors. The fact is that stroganina is prepared from fish that was frozen immediately after catching. If it has been defrosted and re-frozen, you cannot cook stroganina from it. Therefore, most store-bought fish cannot be used.

How can you tell by sight? A properly frozen carcass should be whole, not stuck together with others, and not dented. If it's slightly weathered, it's not a big deal. The deeper the freeze, the better.

How is stroganina prepared?

Do not defrost fish. If the carcass is not very large, cut off the head immediately. Then warm it slightly with your hands to warm the skin and remove it. Don't heat the fish too much, as you want it to stay frozen inside. Simply insert the tip of a knife under the slightly thawed skin and move along, removing flaps.

After you clean the carcass, place it upright on a cutting board. Holding the fish by the tail with your hand, begin cutting thin strips of meat from top to bottom. This is not difficult as a sharp knife will cut the pieces to the desired thickness. Be careful when slicing the belly area as the innards are not used. Do not cut too many slices at one time, since the stroganina is not eaten when thawed. Place the prepared pieces on a plate, sprinkle with pepper and salt and serve.

What should be the sauce for stroganina?

The classic version of this dish uses only pepper and salt. It is recommended not only to sprinkle the fish slices with them, but also to place them separately in a small saucer so that each participant in the meal can dip their own piece. You can also use any sauce for stroganina that you like: Caucasian adjika, mustard, horseradish, wasabi and many other hot Asian seasonings.

The only drawback of this dish is that when cutting fish, there will inevitably be bones in the slices.

Crudo in Spanish and Italian means raw, uncooked. Indeed, only shrimp and shellfish caught from the Gulf of Naples do not require heat treatment - except perhaps lemon juice. It’s like with oysters - the first time you look at the slimy substance you swallow it with caution, but then the taste of the cool sea with mineral sparks is impossible to forget. The vongole clams are silky, creamy and slightly salty, the scallops are buttery and almost sweet, and the French tellines are generally reminiscent of Monpasier with a subtle seaweed flavor. Crudo can also be not only a designation of the quality of a product, but also at the same time a fish dish, say, sea bass or monkfish. Long strips are marinated in lime or lemon juice with onion and coarse salt and pepper. This is, in general, the basics - it’s just that in each country this dish is called differently.


Sashimi

The real connoisseurs of raw fish are the Japanese. Sashimi - slices of raw fish - should go at the beginning of the meal, when the receptors are most receptive to the subtlest shades of taste: namely, they distinguish raw fish from each other. Sashimi also speaks of the skill of the cook. Soft fish like tuna should be cut into half-inch-thick slices. Dense fish is cut into strips a millimeter thick - this method is called ito zakuri. Kaku zakuri is paper-thin sashimi, for example, made from fugu fish. A slice can be dipped in soy sauce, but not kept there for long - to feel, for example, that the akami, a strip of meat from the belly of the tuna, has a pleasant, noticeable fatty quality, the yellowtail is almost fresh and tight, the perch has a barely noticeable, subtle sea saltiness. Between types of fish, you can chew ginger to “reset” your taste perception.


Ceviche

The ideal way to eat fresh fish and seafood was invented by sailors in Peru out of necessity: they cut up the catch at sea, cut it into pieces and marinated it for fifteen minutes in lime juice. A close relative of crudo, the Russian sugudai, and a distant relative of finely chopped tartare, ceviche involves greater variety and boldness in recipes, be it the addition of onions, chili peppers, celery, tomato juice or olive oil. The lime juice should be squeezed out with your hands so as not to release the bitterness from the middle; the volume of juice and fish should be approximately equal. Accordingly, such a dish has less natural fishy taste, which is why it is easier for an eater biased towards raw fish to eat it.


Sugudai

A dish of raw fish is an analogue of ceviche from the north of Russia: fillets of freshly caught local whitefish, nelma or whitefish are cut across the carcass and marinated for 10-15 minutes in vegetable oil and vinegar with onions and peppers. It happens that they add grated apple or increase the time to an hour. One of the most delicious northern fish, muksun, is best suited for sugudai; it has almost transparent white meat with a subtle sourness.


Stroganina

Frozen fish or meat in the north of Russia was cut into thin slices and eaten when Europe had not yet heard of carpaccio. Only local northern fish are suitable: whitefish, omul, nelma or muksun, caught alive and spent more than ten hours in freezing temperatures of 30°C. They take the fish and plan it like a big pencil. Plan them at a time in small portions so as not to melt, and first dip them in “makalovo”: salt and pepper in proportions 1:1. It tastes pretty great - at first the slice just burns with frost and pepper, and then the delicate taste of the fish itself reveals itself. Every year Yakutsk even hosts the Stroganina festival, where residents compete in the speed and quality of planing. There are many rules: you can’t take dead fish (that died in the nets), you need to store it glazed in ice so that it doesn’t dry out, you can’t defrost it—thawed and re-frozen fish, although edible, is icy and unpleasant to the taste. Over the centuries in the Arctic, of course, we have tried everything.


Carpaccio

The name “carpaccio” refers to the method of cutting: the dish of thin layers of beef was invented by the inventor of the Bellini cocktail, Giuseppe Cipriani - it seems that for health reasons he was not allowed to eat food after heat treatment. Giuseppe named his discovery in honor of the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, whose canvases were dominated by red and white colors. The distinctive features of fish carpaccio are very thin layers of the product, pre-freezing and the presence of dressing: before serving, tuna or mullet is sprinkled with, for example, a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper and salt.

There are so many exquisite recipes for preparing fish dishes, but for me personally, there is nothing tastier than caviar and meat from fresh raw fish. This opinion is of course controversial, but another thing is indisputable - fresh raw fish is a very valuable food product in which many useful substances are not destroyed by boiling and frying. Of course, it is also true that raw fish dishes should be prepared only from the highest quality product.

Even the best fish, which by definition does not contain any infection, can be dangerous. If frozen and stored improperly, the fish may become infected with helminths. Therefore, eating raw fish is always associated with risk, especially if this fish is not caught by you personally. We are offered many raw fish dishes in various restaurants, and before you dare to try one of them, check the reputation of this establishment.

In a word, there is something to be afraid of. When cooking raw fish, the best way to sanitize it at least a little is to rinse it thoroughly under cold running water. Let the water drain and remove excess moisture from the fish with paper towels. And of course, after cutting raw fish, wash knives, cutting boards and other utensils with special cleaning products.

Salted pike

The most delicious pike I have eaten is freshly salted pike. Surely, many fishermen have enjoyed the taste of cold smoked pike and know how tasty this fish is prepared in this way. Freshly salted pike is even tastier, but there is one problem - opisthorchiasis.

I don’t know how things were with opisthorchiasis 30 years ago, but my grandfather caught pike in April and May and salted them in the cellar in an enamel pan. The fish was fresh, since the weather in April and early May in Siberia is quite cool. The river was only two hundred meters from the house, which means the pike was delivered to the table in the most ideal condition. The pike was immediately gutted, salted and dropped into the cellar for several days.

I ate this kind of salted pike all my childhood and somehow didn’t get opisthorchiasis. And now I’m thinking about whether I should salt the pike caught in winter or early spring, when there is still no flowering vegetation in the water and it’s possible that the fish is clean. Although there are very big doubts that this somehow affects infection with opisthorchiasis. This is the most risky dish of the recipes I have proposed, so decide for yourself whether to add salt or not.

Fresh sterlet

Since fishing for sterlet is allowed under a license in our country, you can catch it either yourself or buy it in a store, then this recipe for a sterlet dish has a place. Although there is actually no recipe. The main thing is to wash the sterlet well from sand and mucus. All that remains is to gut it, cut it like sausage into wide pieces and, after adding salt and pepper, without particularly waiting for salting, eat it right away. This is the beauty of sterlet, that it can be eaten literally like sausage.

In culinary terms, sterlet is a complete plus, except for one nuance - sturgeon fish is more susceptible to botulism than other fish and eating dead fish is not recommended. Although the sterlet is a very tenacious fish (almost like crucian carp), if the sterlet fell asleep not of its own free will, but died due to injury, the risk of disease is high. For this reason, poachers check the traps at least once a day, and the fish that died on the hook are thrown away, even if it does not show obvious signs of decomposition.

The next dish can be prepared from a variety of fish, but I would recommend using carp. Firstly, carp is a fairly clean fish, and secondly, carp can be bought live and this will make the dish even tastier. This dish is called Aran.

To prepare aran, you need to fillet the carp (separate the meat from the spinal bones). Next, the fillet is generously sprinkled with salt and placed in a colander so that under the influence of salt the meat begins to release excess moisture.

After 20-30 minutes, very lightly pour cold water over the fillet. In this way, we wash away excess salt and at the same time “refresh” the fish. When the water stops dripping from the fillet, place the meat on a plate on top of a layer of chopped radishes, carrots and other vegetables. But that's not all. The fish should be eaten as follows: dipping it in soy sauce mixed with grated ginger.

Salmon fish dishes

Needless to say, it is salmon, trout, chum salmon, pink salmon and other fish of the salmon family that most often end up on our table, and as a rule, frozen. But the situation is changing from year to year for the better, and many Siberian fish farms are now breeding trout and it can be bought live.

Raw fish sandwich

Ingredients: fish fillet 200 gr., green onions, tomato, hard grated cheese (mozzarella type), basil.

Salt and pepper the fillet to taste and place on a plate. Drizzle the fillets with olive oil, squeeze in the lemon juice, and top with a pinch of sugar and a handful of chopped green onions. Let the fillet brew and soak in the flavors for another 10-15 minutes. The best way to serve fish fillets is on toast rubbed with garlic. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the fillet and decorate with a thin piece of tomato.

Minced fish

Ingredients: 300 gr. fish fillet, 2 onions, 2 tbsp. l. refined vegetable oil, 1-2 tsp. lemon juice, salt, ground black pepper, herbs.

Cut the chilled (or preferably slightly frozen) fillet into slices and then finely chop. We clean the onion and also cut it into small cubes. All that remains is to mix the onion and fish, add vegetable oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve to the table, garnished with greens on top. You can eat it either with a spoon or by spreading the minced meat on bread. If you don’t have time to finish all the minced meat, then put it in the refrigerator; the colder the minced meat, the tastier it is.

Ceviche

Ingredients: 500 gr. fish fillets, 2 spoons peanut butter, 1 spoon soy sauce, juice of a whole lemon (or lime), 2 spoons chopped fresh green onions, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1 small chili pepper, small carrots, fresh cucumber, bell pepper and onion.

Indians prepare “ceviche” or “cervice” from raw fish living in the Peruvian Lake Titicaca. In our case, this recipe was adapted for salmon fish, but this did not make it any worse.

Mix all ingredients (except fish), salt and pepper, add butter and finely chopped garlic. We get a delicious marinade.

Place the fish, cut into thin strips, in the resulting marinade so that it completely covers the fish. After a quarter of an hour, drain the marinade and serve the fillet on lettuce leaves with sweet pepper, cucumber, sweet onions and tomatoes cut into strips.

Japanese raw fish dishes

The Japanese, of course, are the most experienced in eating raw fish. Historically, unlike the Mongols, who ate only meat, the Japanese ate mainly fish, since raising livestock was difficult on their island. The opinion and tastes of the fishing nation itself should be trusted, and the fact that they prefer to eat raw fish suggests that it is raw fish that serves as the crown of all fish dishes.

Let’s not describe sushi once again - this dish has already set everyone’s teeth on edge, it is prepared in hundreds of different ways and is served in almost any Russian restaurant. There is a dish that is simpler and more acceptable for Russian people - sashimi.

Ceviche

Ingredients: 300 gr. dorado fillet, 2 tablespoons each peanut and sesame oil, 1 spoon soy sauce, juice of a whole lemon (or lime), 2 tablespoons chopped fresh green onions, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 1 bell pepper, 5-6 radishes

It must be said that sashimi is very similar in ingredients to the sevchi described above, with some important nuances. Sashimi can be prepared from any raw fish, but in this case we will use dorado fish as an example, from the raw fillet of which many dishes are prepared. Dorado fish is not expensive and affordable.

Place the bream fillet in the freezer and wait until it freezes and becomes so hard that it can be evenly cut into thin pieces across the grain. The Japanese are very meticulous in cutting and cut fish so beautifully that it looks like an entire art.

Finely chop all the vegetables. Place the fish on a large plate and add a little salt, and sprinkle chopped vegetables on top. Sprinkle vegetables on top with onions and garlic. Pepper and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Heat sesame (aka sesame) and peanut oil in a frying pan along with soy sauce. Bring to a boil and pour this gravy on top of our dish.

There are also quite a few varieties of sashimi, but I like this recipe the most precisely because of the combination of cold fish and hot gravy. Of course, this dish should only be eaten fresh in order to fully enjoy the meal.

It's nice for you to kill the worm!

Konstantin Fadeev

If you choose the right fish, you can't think of anything better than tartare and carpaccio. Here are some ideas for raw fish dishes from chefs.

Photo: Restaurant TerraMare

Recipe by Andrey Makaev, chef of the TerraMare restaurant

  • 50 g salmon fillet without skin
  • 20 g avocado pulp
  • 5 g capers
  • Salt and pepper
  • 5 ml olive oil
  • 10 g lemon

Sea bass tartare

  • 50 g sea bass fillet
  • 10 g pickled onions
  • 10 ml olive oil
  • Slice of lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Tuna tartare

  • 50 g tuna fillet
  • 5 g red onion
  • 20 g fresh cucumber without skin
  • 10 ml sesame oil
  • 5 ml olive oil
  • Slice of lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Step 1. Cut salmon fillet and avocado into small cubes and mix.

Step 2. Add chopped capers. Pour a mixture of olive oil and lemon, add salt and pepper, stir.

Step 3. Cut the sea bass fillet into small cubes and mix with finely chopped canned onions.

Step 4. Season with salt, pepper and lemon oil. When serving, you can sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Step 5. Cut the tuna fillet into small cubes, mix with finely chopped red onion and cucumber.

Step 7. Place all three tartars on a plate through the rings, serve with toast, capers and olives. Can be topped with balsamic sauce.

Photo: Zotman Pizza Pie — pizzeria chain

Recipe by Dmitry Zotov, chef of the Zotman Pizza Pie restaurant

  • 150 g salmon fillet
  • 20 g fresh radish
  • 5 ml Japanese lemon juice (yuzu)
  • 10 ml ponzu sauce
  • Flower salt - to taste
  • Tagorashi pepper - to taste

Step 1. Remove all bones from the salmon fillet. Cut the fish into small cubes.

Step 2. Place the fish in a bowl, add yuzu juice and ponzu sauce, as well as flower salt to taste, stir. Leave for 5 minutes.

Step 3. Place the tartare on a plate. Cut the radishes into thin slices or strips and place on the tartare. Sprinkle with Tagorashi pepper. Serve.

Tuna tartare with mango salsa

Recipe by Evgeny Trofimov, chef of the “Heroes” gastrobar

4 servings

  • 250 g tuna fillet
  • 20 ml sesame oil
  • 25 ml soy sauce
  • 5 ml sriracha sauce
  • 5 g sesame

For salsa:

  • 170 g mango
  • 30 g red onion
  • 70 g tomatoes
  • 20 g fresh parsley
  • 20 ml orange juice

Avocado mousse:

  • 225 g avocado
  • 150 g tomatoes
  • 75 g white onion
  • 20 g garlic
  • 30 g parsley
  • 5 ml lime juice
  • 30 ml olive oil

To submit:

  • 50 g capers
  • 4 slices of bread
  • Corn salad

Step 1. Tuna fillet must be cut into 0.8×0.8 cm cubes, pour in sauces and add sesame seeds. Then stir and add salt to taste.

Step 2. Cut all the ingredients for the salsa into small cubes, add sauce and mix.

Step 3. Punch all the ingredients for the mousse through a blender, and rub the resulting mass through a sieve.

Step 4. Place the tartare in the shape of a circle in the center of the plate, and salsa and avocado mousse on the outside. Garnish with corn salad and capers, serve with bread croutons.

Photo: Restaurant Buono

Recipe by Christian Lorenzini, chef at BUONO restaurant

  • 120 g octopus
  • 20 g arugula
  • 5 g shallots
  • 5 g parmesan
  • 2 g frisee lettuce
  • 8 ml olive oil
  • 10 ml balsamic vinegar
  • 2 g sea salt
  • Pepper
  • 30 g tomatoes
  • 30 g avocado
  • citronet sauce (olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper) - 20 ml
  • onion
  • balsamic cream - to taste

Step 1. Rinse the octopus carcass well, boil, peel and cut into slices.

Step 2. Chop the tomatoes and avocado coarsely and season with balsamic cream.

Step 3. Place octopus on a bed of arugula, sliced ​​parmesan, shallots and celery.

Step 4. Season with citronet sauce (to prepare, mix 1 part olive oil and 1/2 lemon juice, salt and pepper).

Step 5. Serve with tomato and avocado salad.