Soup dish as nimonowan

Ushiojiru, a soup made by simmering the heads and bony parts left after a fresh fish is filleted or various kinds of shellfish, is a great way of directly capturing the natural flavours of these ingredients. It is a soup which shares with sea water that very pure and wholesome kind of saltiness. At Kitcho restaurant, the heads of the sea bream are removed and immediately dusted with salt. Kombu dashi is used for the soup instead of water, in order to increase the umami content. Usually, when making ushiojiru with sea bream, the whole fish head is used, meaning that one fish gives about 20 bowls of soup. At Kyoto Kitcho, however, they use only the inside of the eyes and the region behind the gills of the fish, with the result that they can only produce about two bowls of soup with one sea bream. To prevent the dashi becoming cloudy, they take extra care of the heat in order to fully draw out the umami from the sea bream. In autumn, sea bream turn a vivid red, so they are known in Japanese as ‘momiji-dai’, or ‘maple leaf sea bream’. They are best once they have given birth as their flesh is firmer and more delicious.