The marriage with pads of rice (nigiri sushi) and in seaweed-wrapped rolls, both known as sushi, came later. Modern sushi was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of the Edo period (1603 and 1868). He invented it in Edo, the city that is now Tokyo. It was an early form of fast food.

Today, sushi chefs train for years to achieve a level 1 certification, and prepare both sushi and sashimi (see the differences below). But back to sashimi:

In this beautiful evolution from RA Sushi (see photo), the fish is cut into cubes. If you think you don’t have the knife skills to make sashimi at home, think again.

This is much easier for a home cook to do than cutting the thin slivers of fish in a way that sushi chefs take years to master.

A Japanese saying, “kasshu hojo,” means that cutting is the most important; cooking skill comes second. But fear not: All you need to can serve this beautiful plate at home is a sharp knife and an eye for straight lines. (Don’t have an eye? Use a washed ruler or other straight edge.)

Then, enjoy this “special occasion” dish that is so easy to make, you can enjoy it anytime.

 
RECIPE: SASHIMI CUBES

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. STEAM or use other technique to lightly cook the shrimp (or for contrast, you can grill them). To get the elongated shape shown in the photo, cook the shrimp on skewers.

2. CUT the fish into bite-size cubes, about one inch square.

3. PLATE, ideally in a square grid on a square plate, as shown in the photo. But large round plates work, too. Garnish with the shrimp some pretty microgreens.

4. SERVE with soy sauce and wasabi. To make the soy sauce more interesting, mix it with fresh grated ginger (lots!) and a bit of lemon or lime zest. We always serve sushi and sashimi with lemon or lime wedges, and squeeze the fresh juice over the fish before dipping the pieces in soy sauce.

You can buy square plates with angled rims or without rims.
 

Or, if you don’t want to make an investment, pick up some very inexpensive yet attractive white plastic square plates, in 8-inch or 10-3/4-inch sizes.
 
SUSHI & SASHMI: THE DIFFERENCE

What Is Sushi?

Sushi is a dish made of vinegared rice (it also has a bit of sugar to counter the vinegar) that can be variously combined with thin slices of seafood, vegetables, egg and, in the world of nouvelle cuisine, other items from beef to barbecue chicken to fresh fruit.

You’ll note that some fish recipes, like the one below for Pretzel-Crusted Tuna, call for fish steaks. Other recipes call for fillets. What’s the difference?

It’s all about the cut.
 
FISH FILLET

What’s the difference between a fillet and a filet?

Just the language, which impacts spelling and pronunciation. Fillet (FILL-it) is English and filet (fee-LAY) is French.

FISH STEAK

 
IS ONE BETTER THAN THE OTHER?

Considered more elegant in appearance than steaks, fillets have been traditionally used by restaurant chefs. More casual eateries are more likely to use salmon steaks these days; and of course, they’re in your grocer’s fresh and frozen fish cases.

A salmon steak. Photo courtesy Tbilisi.all.biz.

However, more than a few people claim that bone-in beef steaks taste so much better than boneless cuts. So why wouldn’t it be the same with bone-in fish?

This article does a very good job of explaining why the argument for bone superiority may be specious.

There are also recipes that require one or the other by definition. Fish and chips, for example, requires fillets.

A final consideration: Because they are thicker than fish fillets, fish steaks are less likely to fall apart when cooking. Cod, dorado (mahi-mahi), tuna, larger varieties of salmon, and swordfish are typically cut into steaks.
  

[1] A delicious way to prepare tuna steaks: with a pretzel crust (photo © Bonefish Grill.)

[2] Yummy tuna loin, about to be coated with crushed pretzels (photo © Sea Delight).

[3] Take a rolling pin to a bag of pretzels (photo © Lisa Fotios | Pexels).

[4] Dough for the original pretzels, called pretiola in Italian, were twisted to resemble a child’s arms folded in prayer (photo © Williams Sonoma). Here’s a recipe to bake your own soft pretzels.

[5] Frying/sauté pans have straight sides that make liquids less likely to splash out (photo © Hiteclife).

[6] A skillet has sloping sides that are good for quick cooking techniques like stir-frying, where the ingredients need to be moved around continuously (photo © Michelangelo).

Beyond panko: Turn pretzels into a tasty crust for seared fish.

We love the appeal of this seared tuna recipe from Bonefish Grill. Not only do we love tuna; but the pretzels offer a fun alternative to the sesame crusted tuna recipe we typically use.

We endeavored to recreate the recipe at home, and discovered that:

 
April 26th is National Pretzel Day.

> The different species of tuna.
 
 
RECIPE: PRETZEL-CRUSTED TUNA

Ingredients For 2 Servings

 
For The Sauce

 
Preparation

1. Pulse the pretzels in a food processor to the consistency of bread crumbs. Set aside.

2. MAKE the sauce: Mince the shallot and heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté until soft. Then add the wine and deglaze the pan. Simmer the sauce for three minutes so the alcohol evaporates and the sauce thickens.

3. HEAT a cast iron skillet over high heat and add the butter or oil. Press the tops of the tuna steaks into the pretzel crumbs to coat. When the fat starts to smoke, place the fish face down in the pan.

4. COOK for 4-5 minutes top down, then flip over and cook for another 3 minutes to serve rare, as they do at Bonefish Grill.

5. SERVE with the sauce on the side, so the crumbs stay crisper.
 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SKILLET & A FRYING PAN

It’s this easy: A skillet has slanted sides. A frying pan, also called a sauté pan, has straight sides that are higher than the skillet’s. (For this recipe, use whatever you have.)

Why the two different side shapes?

Frying/Sauté Pan Benefits
 
If both pans are the same size, the frying/sauté pan (photo #5) will have a slightly larger surface area. In a 12-inch diameter pan, it can make the difference when fitting in pieces of chicken or other food, so you can cook everything in one batch.

The other benefits of a frying/sauté pan: Liquids are less likely to splash out of the higher, straight sides; and lids fit more tightly, limiting evaporation.

Skillet Benefits

Chefs prefer the sloping sides of a skillet (photo #6) for quick cooking techniques like stir-frying, where the ingredients need to be moved around continuously. A skillet is also a better option for a frittata, served straight from the pan.

It is a fun fact in cooking that a skillet is better for sautéing than a sauté pan. The sloping sides make it easier to move pieces of food around while constantly stirring, and to more easily shake the pan to toss the food for even cooking. For the best sear, choose a cast iron skillet. It gets hotter than other metals.

You can, of course, sauté your food in a straight-sided sauté pan, but it requires more work: constant stirring and turning.

Guessing that the straight-sided frying pan may have come first, and the skillet adapted for greater flexibility, we tried to locate the facts. What we found was this, in Wikipedia:

Before the introduction of the kitchen stove in the mid-19th century, a commonly used cast iron cooking pan called a spider had a handle and three legs used to stand up in the coals and ashes of the fire. Cooking pots and pans with legless, flat bottoms were designed when cooking stoves became popular; this period of the late 19th century saw the introduction of the flat cast iron skillet.
 
Related Pans

Professionals use a sauteuse (saw-TOOZ), a pan that combines the best higher sides of the sauté pan and the sloping sides of the skillet. It is also called a fait-tout (fay-TOOT), which literally means that it “does everything”.”

Finally, mention must be made of the grill pan. It’s a frying pan with very low sides and series of parallel ridges on the cooking surface, which both enables cooking with radiant heat like a grill, and allows the fat to drain down.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PRETZELS

It was all for the kids. In 610 C.E., monks in the what is today southern France northern Italy twisted and baked scraps of dough as a reward for children who had memorized their Bible verses and prayers.

The shape represented the monks’ concept of a child’s arms folded in prayer. The monks called this soft, baked dough a “pretiola,” Latin for “little reward.”

The word evolved into the Italian “brachiola,” which means “little arms.” Over the next few centuries, the pretiola journeyed through the French and Italian wine regions, crossed the Alps, traveled through Austria and arrived in Germany, where it became known as the Bretzel or Pretzel.

Here’s more pretzel history.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Before the tastiest citrus goes away until next season, consider this super-easy yet elegant (and low-calorie!) first course. Estela Restaurant in New York City made it with small “cocktail” grapefruits, but we added some blood orange (rosy red) and cara cara orange (deep pink) for color.

Sauvignon blanc white wines are known for their grapefruit or grassy notes. We poured one of each style—a grapefruity wine from California, a grassy one from France—although you’ll need to consult your wine store if you want to be sure your wines have these flavor profiles.

A drizzle of olive oil, expecially a grassy one, is a great complement.

RECIPE: RAW SCALLOPS WITH CITRUS

Ingredients

Preparation

1. PEEL the citrus and remove the pith. Slice the fruit into widths that will match the scallops (to the extent possible).

2. RINSE the scallops and slice horizontally. Your can choose how thick or thin to slice them, but aim for four slices per scallop.

3. PLATE the fruit and scallops. Depending on their comparative sizes, you can plate them as shown in the photo, or place the scallops atop the sliced fruit.

4. DRIZZLE a small amount of the optional olive oil over the food, or in a circle or droplets around it. Sprinkle with sea salt and optional chili flakes. Garnish as desired (you can grate citrus zest over the dish, or sprinkle it around the rim of the plate) and serve.
  

Yesterday was National Bock Beer Day, coinciding with the first day of spring. It’s a holiday declaration that makes sense: bock beer is a spring beer.

There’s a lot of media attention to eating seasonally; less so to drinking seasonally.

So today we’re starting the first in our seasonal beer recommendations. By the end of the year, you’ll have them all, including summer beer, fall beer and winter beer.

Some people drink the same beer year-round. But aficionados know to look for the “seasonals,” as they’re known in the trade. America’s craft brewers have made plenty for you to choose from.

Spring beers are brewed with brighter flavors, sharper textures to bridge the gap between the stronger cold-weather beers and the lighter summer styles. Brewers use different hops, malts, spices and brewing styles to create fresh flavors and crisp textures.

It takes 3 months to assemble the ingredients, brew the beer and let it mature before release. So these are beers that are brewed in the winter, to be released and in the spring:

 
Thanks to brewer Greg Smith of Beersmith.com for his guidance.

Now, how about a tasting party to share the different spring styles with your pals?