So, I made Ikura

[h20hunter]

Three out of our four coho yesterday had roe. I decided to try a little something different.  I looked online and found a brine that 8ncluded soy sauce, salt, sake, little fish stock. I cleaned the eggs off the skien, rinsed them off, put them in the jar and called it a night.  This morning it was clear the brine was doing its thing. The majority of the liquid was absorbed and the eggs had a deeper rich red color.

[h20hunter]

I let it soak for a few more hours as I was due at the range for a littke volunteer time. Once home i emptied the jar, gave them a rinse, and picked out a few broken ones and a few bits if skein.

[h20hunter]

Next was the pickled veggies.  I sliced paper thin cucumber,  red onion, serrano peppers, diced some chives, added bay leave, herbs, some random stuff and pickled them. Brine was apple cider vinegar,  rice wine vinager, sugar, and water. Quick 3 hours and they were good to go. I served the roe on a crostini with a nice schmere of cream cheese with garlic and a bit of this and that.

Turned out pretty darn good. Not fishy at all. The eggs would pop and you got a very mild briney ocean flavor. Almost rich.

[7mmfan]

Looks tasty. There was a time when I would have balked at that, but I've grown a bit more adventurous in my old age.

[h20hunter]

Same here...its really not my thing. I'd give them away or throw them in the scrap bag for crab bait! I had some and my dog loves them.

[Angry Perch]

Nice job. That looks fantastic.

[quadrafire]

Dang.....Making my mouth water

[7mmfan]

Same here...its really not my thing. I'd give them away or throw them in the scrap bag for crab bait! I had some and my dog loves them.

You and your dog. Do you share everything?

[h20hunter]

Foodwise.... just about! Im a sucker for those begging eyes.

[HuntnFishnRyan]

looks delicious. One of these days I'm gonna try roe from my own salmon. Just a suggestion, some restaurants use marscapone instead of cream cheese.

[Whitpirate]

Quality work.  I'd make some salmon sashimi and put a little of that on top.

[merkaba93]

Dang. Looks great dude. Impressive.

[h20hunter]

 

[pianoman9701]

That looks great. We had 1/2 lb of steelhead caviar up in elk camp one night. That didn't suck at all. 

[762Armo]

I made some caviar from a King. Had one pound. I grew up with this stuff, and we always buy from the store, but this one was brighter and more “fresh” tasting. Not as “fishy” as the store bought.

I’ll try your recipe next time. It looks delicious.

[pd]

Yep.

Chum makes for the best ikra (chum ain't good for much else, btw).  The trick is to wash the skeins quickly in mildly warm (warmer than lukewarm) water, but not cook the eggs.  The skins will come off the skein better that way, separating the individual eggs.

Canned ikra can be purchased in the store, and it will last for quite a while because it has been canned.  Homemade stuff can be frozen, although the quality will suffer.

Germans and Russians love this stuff.  As you probably already know, "ikra" is a Russian product, adopted by the Japanese (who added the soy sauce, etc.).  No surprise that Russia is still the largest consumer of chum eggs.

Good job there!

[Mtn.Ghost]

Solid work h20 way to step outside the box Coming from a traditionally trained Chef I must say impressive  and adventurous my friend keep it up. 

[lokidog]

Looked good, except for the cucumber stinking it all up....      

[TimBaleia]

Very very nice!

[h20hunter]

 

I made a 2nd batch and used less fish stock, a bit more kosher salt since I less of the salty stock and upped the qty of sake. I liked it better. More sweet.

[TimBaleia]

I made a 2nd batch and used less fish stock, a bit more kosher salt since I less of the salty stock and upped the qty of sake. I liked it better. More sweet.

Ikura is Japanese version. I'm Russian and I'm from Siberia. Back at home we always had couple gallon size jars of Salmon roe ("Krasnaya Ikra" we call it "red roe" and "black roe" for caviar). I remember my grandma go fishing for salmon and than i helped her on the kitchen at home to run roe thru tennis rocket to get rid of film ) In Russia we just salt it. No fancy stuff as Japanese version.

[pianoman9701]

Yep.

Chum makes for the best ikra (chum ain't good for much else, btw).  The trick is to wash the skeins quickly in mildly warm (warmer than lukewarm) water, but not cook the eggs.  The skins will come off the skein better that way, separating the individual eggs.

Canned ikra can be purchased in the store, and it will last for quite a while because it has been canned.  Homemade stuff can be frozen, although the quality will suffer.

Germans and Russians love this stuff.  As you probably already know, "ikra" is a Russian product, adopted by the Japanese (who added the soy sauce, etc.).  No surprise that Russia is still the largest consumer of chum eggs.

Good job there!

Separating cold eggs from the skeins is more efficiently and safely done by using a screen with holes slightly larger than the eggs and gently rubbing the skeins over the screen into a large pan like a bain marie or a plastic food tub. It's not a good idea to rinse in warm water as it will raise the bacteria count. Once in a container, the bacteria will thrive, even with the salt in the brine. Eggs should be refrigerated immediately upon harvesting and kept cold throughout the brining and canning. It's especially important to make sure the containers have been thoroughly cleaned and left to dry, as well.

[trophyhunt]

Yuk, no thanks!  Looks cool though.

[h20hunter]

You never know. I don't care for sushi but liked this.  I also use ice cold water and a flat strainer type deal to seperate the eggs.

[pianoman9701]

A couple of other things. Fresh caviar should be made within 24-48 hours of harvesting and consumed within 10-14 days. This is one of the healthiest seafoods on the planet when it's fresh. It's full of vitamins and minerals. The omega 3s it contains are huge. Once you freeze caviar, it kills most of the nutrients, but it can still thaw out great. Remember to pack the cans or jars with some room on top for expansion from freezing or you'll end up with a popped, soupy mess once you thaw them out.

[h20hunter]

@Stein

[Fl0und3rz]

That looks really good.

[Alchase]

Looks like great bait!

LOL

[Taco280AI]

I'll have to do that sometime 

[IslandStorm62]

I've only had the luck of doing this once...it is the best.  I did not know that warm water / skiens trick, will have to think about that.  I did notice that if the roe sacks are placed in fresh unslated water, they turned milky.  so cold "salted" water was how I cleaned and preserved them until I was ready to cure...afer the cure a real light cool smoke just takes it over the top.

[PlateauNDN]

That little cracker bite thingy looks restaurant quality. 10 bucks and you got yourself a cart business.