Japanese Food Recipes Tarako Japanese Spaghetti

Japanese Food Recipes

 

[caption id="attachment_1270" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tarako Japanese Spaghetti Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

Not to long ago I did a blog post and videos on some sushi recipes that are some of my favorite to make and eat. I love Japanese food recipes and I make these sushi types all the time for friends and family because they love it as much as I do. As I have said before my first choice in culinary gastronomy has always been Asian food! I don't care from where it comes from I just love Asian and Oriental food. I find it to be the most versatile and in most cases the most nutritious as well. Japanese food recipes are some of my all time favorites.

One of the things I love most about Japanese food recipes is that they have taken bits and pieces of other Asian/Oriental cuisines and added them to their own to make them there own. I think this happens in all Asian/Oriental cultures. As an example I made a Vietnamese Spring Roll video and blog post and if you look around spring rolls are made all over the Asian/Oriental world. There are some differences in sauces and ingredients that will go into these delicious rolls but, for the most part they are all similar in one way or another. It is the same with Japanese food recipes as they are so versatile and delicious.

Asian dishes are very versatile and that is why I love them so much! I recently made a blog post and videos of some sushi Japanese food recipes that I like to make because they are easy and delicious. I make these sushi recipes and others for friends and family all the time because they love them as much as I do. I made one sushi recipe called California Roll Uramaki, which is one of my total fave Japanese food recipes as far as sushi is concerned.

California Roll Uramaki is a sushi roll in which the rice is on the outside of the nori sheet and then the rice is covered in Tobiko. Tobiko is the roe or eggs of the flying fish. It is much prized by Asians and used often in many Japanese food recipes. Anyway, after I made that video and posted it to Youtube and I got some nice responses and one of the comments was from a guy named Jay who has a cooking channel called The Aimless Cook.

As far as my experience with Japanese food recipes Jay's comments were complimentary to me and I appreciated them greatly. Then I got a private message from Jay talking about fish roe or fish eggs. I used Tobiko fish eggs to cover my uramaki, but I made a slip on my video and called it masago instead. That was a blooper! Anyway Jay sent me this private message explaining the differences between some of the more common fish roe that are used in Japanese food recipes. He taught me the difference between Masago, Mentaiko, Tarako and Bottarga. This was stuff I didn't know and I appreciated the information as I will use it in future Japanese food recipes I make.

Then Jay sent me a link to a video he did on a recipe called Tarako Japanese Spaghetti. As far as Japanese food recipes are concerned Tarako is considered to be a favorite amongst the Japanese. I watched the video and I made a variation of the dish at home and I like it so much that I asked Jay if he would mind of I made the Tarako for my blog and video channel. He said yes and so I am presenting it to you here.


As stated Tarako is a Japanese favorite and in my opinion it is a dish that is a fusion of West meets East or East meets West depending on your point of view. Tarako is the roe/egg of the Pollock fish. You buy Tarako in an Asian market and they are frozen in the egg sacks from the fish and you cut the sack open to use the eggs. In Japan they use Tarako is a couple of different ways. Some eat it plain for breakfast. In Japanese food recipes Tarako is also used as a filling or Onigiri or Omusubi which are rice balls stuffed Tarako and of course Tarako is used in this spaghetti dish.

Tarako is the Japanese version of a dish called Bottarga which comes from Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy. It is called "Bottarga Di Muggine." It is a pasta dish that uses the roe of the mullet fish. The roe is sliced or ground and dried and then sprinkled on pasta dishes.

Tarako can be topped with either slivered nori sheets or Furikake which is something you can buy in most Asian markets and is made of slivered nori, sesame seeds, sugar, salt and bonito flakes. In most cases it will have MSG and I don't like MSG so I made my own for this recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe and the details are listed below.

Tarako Spaghetti ingredients:

1 pack regular Italian spaghetti
1 stick of unsalted butter.
1/2 cup or more of heavy cream.
4 Tarako Pollock fish egg sacks cut open and eggs removed to plate or bowl.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:

Melt butter in nonstick pan. Don't let butter get burned or turn brown.
Add Tarako fish roe/eggs to the butter and cook them.
Pollock eggs will cook fast and change color quickly. When all the eggs have changed color uniformly add the heavy cream.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Black pepper or white pepper will do.
Reduce the sauce to desired thickness. If sauce is to thin it won't stick to pasta so reduce to reasonable thickness.
Add about 1 Tsp of Kewpie Mayo(Japanese Mayo) if you have it and stir it in.
If you don't have Kewpie you can use the regular mayo or look below for a quick way to convert regular mayo into as close as possible to Kewpie.

Last step is a choice: You can now take the sauce and blend it in a processor or blender until the Tarako eggs have liquified or leave the sauce as is and and plate the dish and pour sauce over the spaghetti or add spaghetti to the skillet with the sauce and then plate and eat.

This recipe will serve 4 if you want only two servings then cut amounts in half!

Furikake Topping:

1 or 2 sheets of nori cut into thin strips or slivered as chiffonade.
1/8 to 1/4 cup toasted white sesame seeds.
1/2 Tsp sugar.
1/2 Tbsp salt.
1/2 Tsp white or black pepper.
Optional: You can use red pepper flakes for some heat if you don't have white or black pepper.
Mix it all up together and use it as topping on your Tarako Spaghetti.

Kewpie Mayo Homemade:

1 1/2 Tsp regular mayo.
1/2 Tsp salt.
1/2 Tsp sugar.
1 Tsp Rice Vinegar.
Mix together and add to the Tarako cream sauce in your pan.

Eat and Enjoy!