hotate special

Hotate Special, and More Randomness

August 31, 2008 Other Recipes

I’ve gotten tagged with another “random things” meme, this time by Nicole from For the Love of Food. Of course, if you don’t want to know more randomness about me, you can always skip to the yummy Hotate Special recipes and pictures at the end of this post. 😀

  1. Up until nine months ago, I had never tried sashimi. My mother is allergic to fish, so it was rare that we ate fish at our house. Of course, now that I’ve tried sashimi, it’s pretty obvious I’m in love (as can be seen in all the sushi I make with sashimi these days!)
  2. I performed in the Nutcracker ballet for eight consecutive years. I’ve danced nearly every role… from a little boy in the party scene (we had a huge shortage of boys, so the smaller girls always played the boy parts before getting to be a girl in the party scene), to a Spanish (chocolate) dancer, to the Arabian (coffee) pas de deux, to Dew Drop Fairy. Fourteen roles in all. My favorite of all was easily the Arabian pas de deux… it’s a sensual dance with several amazing lifts, and lifts were always my favorite part of a pas de deux.
  3. In eighth grade, I came in first place for the Reach for the Stars (astronomy) event at our regional Science Olympiad. At the time I was really passionate about astronomy… my dad had has a pretty nice telescope, and at the time I knew just about every constellation in the sky.
  4. I’m half Japanese, a quarter Swedish, and one eighth Irish. The other eighth is comprised of German, English, and other European randomness. Unfortunately, I speak very little Japanese, and even less Swedish or Irish. (I’ve got English down though! 😛 ) I figure I’ll start with Japanese, then try to learn Vietnamese (since it would be *really* nice to be able to understand Son’s family all the time) and then move on to the other languages.

*******

And now, for the sushi.

The Hotate (scallop) Special is a type of sushi I first had about a month or so ago, when I went up to Sunnyvale with Son on a business trip. We went to a sushi restaurant called Seto Japanese cuisine, where Son and I decided we wanted to try something new. As I wrote in my review of the restaurant, I loved the Hotate Special so much, that I just had to try to replicate it at home.

Have I mentioned scallops are my new favorite sashimi? They’re so soft and delicious, it’s hard not to like them. One thing though… when you get the scallops, there’s a little piece on the side of them, as if you had rolled a ball of dough and then stuck another piece of dough to the side of it. Personally, I prefer to discard this piece. I find that it is tough and chewy, not at all like the rest of the scallop. Luckily, it’s only a very small piece, so I don’t feel as if I’m wasting too much of it.

Ingredients
  • 1 sheet nori
  • 1 cup sumeshi
  • 4 sashimi-grade scallops
  • 1 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp tobiko
Cooking Directions
  1. Cook sushi rice.
  2. Chop the scallops into 1/2 inch pieces.
  3. Mix the chopped scallops, mayonnaise, and tobiko.
  4. Prepare the sushi gunkan-style, except replace the ikura with 1/4 of the scallop mixture.
  5. Repeat to make four pieces.

13 thoughts on “Hotate Special, and More Randomness”

  1. Lara -

    Both the scallop and the tough bit are muscle but the tough bit is a lot more active so it’s chewy as heck. 🙂 Cooking it doesn’t help either. Maybe you can save the bits along with shrimp shells etc in the freezer for when you make a batch of seafood stock for added flavour.

  2. Allison -

    Oooh saving it for a seafood stock is a great idea! I would have never thought to do that. I’ll have to start saving my shrimp shells and scallop bits. 🙂

  3. Marvin -

    Hi Allison, do you have any recommendations on where to buy scallops from? I hardly ever see them fresh at regular grocery stores.

    btw, thanks for the t-shirt! I just got it this weekend and love it!

  4. Rebekah -

    mmm..yummy. i love scallops. i’ve had this at a few sushi places with sriracha mixed in with the mayo. its one of my favorites.

  6. Anonymous -

    Allison,

    I keep reading for a recipe that a newbie reader/sushi eater could try. Maybe this one?
    DId you cook the scallops?
    I don’t trust any place I would get scallops around here, at least not at this moment…I’m gettin better but the only place I know to get scallops is at teh grocery store and no…not so much do I trust them.

  9. Allison -

    Marvin – I usually go to a Japanese supermarket such as Marukai or Mitsuwa. Make sure you get sashimi-grade scallops, as they will be eaten raw. When we bought the scallops, they were partially frozen, but they thaw pretty quickly in the refrigerator.
    Rebekah – I can’t believe I had never had hotate before. Look what I’ve been missing out on for so long! Sriracha would be fantastic in this as well, especially for anyone who likes their sushi spicy.
    James – Yay! I’ll be keeping an eye out for it. Can’t wait. 😀
    Wendi – This is a delicious recipe, but it is raw seafood, so it depends on how willing you are to try sashimi. The scallops are not cooked, so I would make sure that any scallops you get are sashimi-grade – it will say so right on the package if they are (sashimi-grade scallops or scallops for sushi). I wouldn’t trust the scallops from a normal grocery store, but if you have a Japanese supermarket in your area or a good fishmonger, you could try either of those places.
    Sadao – I know, isn’t it so good? I’ve been craving hotate ever since I made these… I’ll have to go get some more soon. Yum!

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