Healthy Beer/Sake Side-Dish for the Dummies: Tai no Arani 鯛のあら煮

I hope that no one is hurt by being called a 'dummy'. Actually I have by chance cooked a dish that even dummies can close their eyes and do it well. I was flipping through a gourmet magazine at the library of the Japanese Association. I hardly go there because it doesn't have many non-fictions that I like. Occasionally when I do, I'd read a popular cooking magazine or two. This dish appeared in the most recent
食彩浪漫. It's great for this very hot season when we're trying to cool our bodies with beers or chilled wines and remove some toxic gas, increase our fibre intake as usual...I've rewritten the recipe-here goes:

THE FISH HEADS:
If you go to the Japanese supermarkets (e.g. Meidi-Ya or Isetan), pick up a fish head or two-depending on how many you want to serve. For this season, tai is readily available. You can have salmon as well. These are normally well-cleaned at the Japanese supermarkets - and don't mind the fishes staring at you with their protruding eyes! Wipe away big residual scales stuck around the fins or give the heads another quick rinse under running water. Wipe dry with kitchen towel. Remember to buy a bag of burdock root *arai gobou produced in Aomori Prefecture at the same time. There are two in a bag and the soil has been removed for lazy cooks.

DASHI:

To prepare dashi (bonito stock), micro-wave a satchet of crushed bonito (like our crushed ikan bilis) in hot water in the microwave oven for 2 minutes. Don't use cold water to extract the essence out of the bonito in the microwave -you'll be disappointed. The powdered dashi in bottles or tubes do not produce the same flavor/quality. The sachet ones are more expensive - but you'll be able to convince your dinner guests that you've been trained in Japanese cooking ;).

BURDOCK ROOT:
Wash the gobou roots again-and if you like, peel off another thin layer of skin from it. Cut into bite sizes.

THE COOKING:
Cover the fish heads and the gobou half-way with the dashi, hot from the oven, flavor it with Japanese soy sauce -about 4 TBS (Kikkoman's natural brew自然酿製 is cheap and good), about 4 TBS sake and 1 tsp (teaspoon) of brown sugar or fructose (for your health's sake). Put the pot over medium fire and just forget about the fish for a while.

Wash some ginger and green onions. Shred them finely. Your TAI NO ARANI is ready to be savored with beer/chilled white wine! I had a cold Tyrell's Wine - Semillon 2006 with it.