B swears you can make sashimi out of Costco salmon. I was mildly (ok, very) skeptical, but I told him if he prepared it, I would eat it. Love is trust, right? I was sure if he ran a restaurant, he'd be cited for health violations by not using sushi grade fish for sashimi, but after a Google search, it seems that no one - not the FDA, not local health inspectors, not any governing body - knows what sushi grade means! Yep, there's no regulations, as long the fish has been frozen for a period of time to kill parasites. I suppose it's comforting that even when self-regulated, at least seafood vendors care about whether we get tapeworms. Basically, "sashimi" is just a sexy marketing term to mean any fish that can be eaten raw. Of course, the fresher the fish, the better the taste and texture, so these fish should be killed and iced ASAP. Here's more info from Sushifaq, Cooking Stack Exchange, and Beyond Salmon. After more Googling (yeah yeah, so I trust online strangers' opinions more than my own boyfriend's) using Costco fish for sashimi is not uncommon.

From personal experience, their salmon quality is actually quite decent. B is very picky about the package date being the same day to ensure absolute freshness, so he only trusts Costco (Ok, I know this is the second post in two weeks waxing eloquently about Costco, but my boy is in love with that place), and does not recommend getting the salmon from any random Chinatown market.sumo sushi menu sacramento Update to some FAQs in the comments: The salmon is fresh (not frozen), and the day you buy the salmon should be the day you make this recipe - don't let it sit in your fridge for days!jiro dreams of sushi summaryLet's just say I was pretty darn impressed. where to buy sushi grade fish ann arbor

The salmon is so buttery and had the perfect texture. N: I want you to make this salmon sashimi for my family when you visit us! B: Oh you know how to make sashimi now, so you can do it for them. N: Well, I'm afraid I'll poison them, so I'll let you make it!sushi delivery london n8 B: Great, so if anything goes wrong, I'm the fall guy, eh?where to buy sushi grade fish in westchester B has made this recipe many times for family and friends and to date, no one has ever gotten sick. where to buy sushi grade fish in san luis obispoHowever, please use your own discretion when making this recipe as you are still eating raw fish (ie please don't try this if you're immunosuppressed or pregnant!).

Otherwise, enjoy some amazing sashimi! fresh salmon filet (check the packing date - the day you buy = packing date = day making the recipe) rice vinegar, diluted in water (optional) 1 sushi cup rice, recipe below Rinse and rub a generous amount of salt onto your salmon (both sides). Let sit in fridge for 2 hours. Afterwards, take out salmon from fridge and rinse with water. Submerge your salmon in diluted vinegar (preferably rice vinegar but white works as well). You use pure vinegar or dilute the vinegar up to 1:10 (ie 1/2 cup vinegar and 4 1/2 cups water) if you want a less vinegar taste.Let sit in fridge for 1 hour. Remove from fridge and rinse thoroughly.Wrap salmon in saran wrap and put it in the freezer over night The day you want to eat it, remove it from the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge. This should take 6-8 hours; do not try speed it up by leaving it outside. Cut the sashimi with a sharp knife in a slicing motion. Mold rice with your hands, dab with wasabi, and cover with your sashimi.

The Gentleman's Sushi Rice This serving size here is for 1 person. The lady and I do not like too much rice in our nigiri. 1/2 cup sushi rice 1 tablespoon rice vinegar Rinse the rice only 3-5 times (water does NOT have to run clear) and drain in a strainer. While rice is draining, combine vinegar, sugar, salt and mirin together in a bowl and mix well. Add rice to the pot. Bring quickly to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and DON'T touch it until the end, NO PEEKING. Put something heavy on the lid like another pot. The more pressure the rice is cooked under, the better it tastes. Cook for 15 minutes before removing the pot from the heat but keep the lid CLOSED. Let rice rest for 10 min and then remove the cover. Place in a glass dish to cool and lightly fan the rice while adding the vinegar mixture. Mix rice gently, being careful not to break it. Doc Uy's notes: As a caveat, Costco does not claim to sell sushi grade fish, but if you freeze it per FDA guidelines (pg 69), you should be ok from parasites.

As a doctor in training, I must also recommend taking FDA precautions if you're pregnant, old, sick, etc! Please be diligent in making sure your fish is good quality, don't eat fish that has never been frozen, and treat the fish with salt and vinegar for safety.There is nothing I hate more than being wrong. That's why I research things to death to make sure that I am not wrong too often. When it does happen though, it's a great learning experience, like the one I just got on freezing fin fish. has just posted on my How to store fish story has inspired me to finally get off my lazy butt and write up my frozen fish experiments. I used to be of the conviction that frozen fish was ALWAYS worse than fresh. I know, I know -- Whole Foods and many fish cookbooks like to tell you that previously frozen fish can be even fresher than previously frozen fish because it was frozen at the peak of freshness. Just so that I don't have to use the "not previously frozen" terminology (that just takes too long to type), I'll use the word "fresh" to refer to fish that did not undergo the freezing process.

The question I'll try to answer is , not whether it's as safe to eat. Why would I care? I can get plenty of excellent fresh fish here in Boston. The problem is that when it comes to eating fish raw, freshness is not the only thing you have to worry about. Depending on the fish, they might pose an extremely small risk (to read all about them, see my posts on parasites, parts 1 and part 2). But if you want to eliminate that risk completely by killing the parasites, the only way to do it is to freeze the fish for at least 7 days. Cooking kills them too, of course, but that doesn't help you much with sushi. My attitude to raw fish is pretty laid back. But when I teach sushi classes, I want to give my students an extra precaution option. Some people don't want to take a risk of food-born illness, no matter how minuscule. When I am serving fin fish raw, I only use tuna, farm-raised salmon, farm-raised branzino, and farm-raised yellowtail. The only way to get yellowtail in Boston is flash frozen and shipped from Japan so parasites are not an issue for that one at all.

The other fish are fresh, but the odds of them having parasites are practically zero, so I just buy them from a reputable market (The New Deal in Cambridge) and eat them. It doesn't kill bacteria, just temporarily stops it's growth, so freezing inferior fish does not make it "safe". I used to think that all fish would be damaged by freezing. Fish is mostly made of water, and water expands during freezing. This tears the flesh of the fish and makes it mushy. To prepare for my sushi class, I froze piece after piece of different fish, and here are my findings -- different fish react to freezing differently. Fatty fish freeze relatively well, and their texture is barely affected. Lean fish turn to mush in their defrosted raw state and rubber when cooked. In these pictures, farm-raised salmon (very fatty) and fluke (very lean) were frozen the same way for the same amount of time. After defrosting, the fluke was so soft, I could turn it into a puree with a chop stick. But, salmon stayed just as resilient as it was before freezing.