On a recent summer trip to the mountains of Okayama, near Kobe, Japan, I was reminded of just how simple Japanese food can be. One of my favourite things to eat in Japan is coal-baked sweetfish (ayu) which is like a small rainbow trout, about 15 cms long. It is very common in mountain resort towns to find locals with small coal pits, made from a half drum with hot coals in it, cooking fish they caught in the local river. The sweetfish is skewered whole, rolled lightly in good salt, and the skewer is erected to bake next to the hot coals for 15 minutes. This gives crispy skin, bones, fins and head, with tender flesh inside. The fish is eaten whole, including the head if you’re keen!

The simplicity of this delicacy is the reason is it so tasty, and healthy. By eating the sweetfish or any fish whole, you get the additional nutritional benefit of the vitamin and mineral packed organs – liver, kidneys, heart, fat, eggs, etc – balanced in the way nature intended you to eat it. And being a small fish, the organs are not ‘obtrusive’ in their flavour, which can be a challenge with larger fish (I’ve tried!)

So at home, if you have a BBQ with coals, you are set to go, but if not, the coals can be made like in the above picture, with a small fire on a sand bed to give you the coals. As sweetfish are uncommon in Australia, try small rainbow trout, and I suggest that whiting and other small ocean fish would also be suitable. Always choose wild caught fish where possible – ask your fish-monger – and be sure to use a good quality salt. Never use refined table salt, it has aluminium added so it doesn’t coagulate, and it tastes too salty (a good salt shouldn’t actually taste too salty!) – it should be a little ‘sweet’ and off-white.

Vegetables, marinated meat and almost any other kind of seafood can be cooked in this way and is a unique, fun way to throw a barbie, or to just plain cook dinner!

– Shared by a friend living in Japan