Welcome to FISH FOOD TIMES
Jun. 2025 issue No.258
Rock greenling
I finally got it but...
There is a fish that I have wanted to write about for many years but have never been able to get my hands on, and now I have finally come across it.But unfortunately, it was a little different from what I had imagined.
The fish is a Greenling. The image above is of a Greenling that I bought, but it was not the real Greenling I wanted, but a Rock greenling.
Since it was a Hokkaido-produced Greenling, I wondered if it was a Whitespotted greenling rather than a real Greenling, but it turned out to be a Rock greenling. I decided it was a Rock greenling because the circled area in the image below was distinctive.
The Greenling and Whitespotted greenling have almost straight tails, but the Rock greenling has a rounded tail as shown in the image above. A second distinctive feature is that the distance between the eyes and mouth is slightly short, which I feel explains why it was given the name "rabbit." The third characteristic is that the Rock greenling has a large, noticeable notch on its dorsal fin.
Rock greenling can only be caught in Hokkaido, where it is called aburakko or aburako in the area where it is caught. Other species of Greenling that are not true Greenlings, such as Whitespotted greenling and Rock greenling, are also collectively known as hagotoko.
I have heard that the Greenling is a common fish that can be caught anywhere in the shallow seas near the coasts of Japan. However, I have been searching for it for a long time because I wanted to write an article about it, but I have not been able to find it. Based on the past experience, it seems that they are rarely available in fish markets in recent years.
For example, according to the most recent document released by the Fukuoka Prefecture Rare Wildlife Conservation Review Council, in the case of Fukuoka Prefecture, the greenling was once one of the common fishery resources that was widely distributed from the Genkai Sea to the Suo-Nada Sea. However, in recent years, only a few individuals are caught annually in the Itoshima Peninsula and Hakata Bay in the Genkai Sea. In the seaweed beds of Hakata Bay, where annual monitoring has been conducted, no juvenile greenlings have been seen since 2016, and it is believed that the population may have decreased to a critical level, and Fukuoka Prefecture has designated it as a Red List item as of 2023.
As a result, the price of greenling has risen and it has become a luxury fish because of extremely low supply in some areas, such as Fukuoka Prefecture. As an alternative, Whitespotted greenling and Rock greenling from Hokkaido, which are less expensive than Greenling, seem to be popular mainly for price reasons.
I am not happy that this month's article will be about Rock Greenling instead of Greenling, but due to the reasons I have explained above, I would like to write about Rock Greenling as the theme for this month's article. However, I would like to get my hands on Greenling someday and write about what the real thing is like, including the differences between it and Rock Greenling.
I had a picture of that Fillet product.
In fact, I had images of Rock Greenling, which was sent from Akkeshi, Hokkaido, commercialized in Okinawa in April 2019, as fillets and halves for frying. However, I thought that the product content was too simple to write an article on just that, and that it would not be able to be substantial. This time, however, I was able to create a new product with the same Rock Greenling, so I was finally able to put it together as an article for this month's issue.
It seems that commercialization of Rock Greenling is generally done in the form that was done in 2019, so I would like to first introduce some images that I took six years ago and have kept.
| The process of producing Rock Greenling fillets and halves for frying | |
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| 2 different colored Rock Greenlings | |
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| 1，This is a slightly larger size, so cut the half body with bone into five pieces. | 1，For the slightly smaller ones, cut the half body with bone into 4 pieces. |
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| 2，The head was cut in half and then cut into fillets containing either three or two pieces, and the half body without the central bone was used to create a product for frying. | 2，The fillets are produced in two packs containing a halved head and two slices, while the boneless product is made from half a fish with the skin on. |
The rock greenling I handled six years ago was impeccably fresh, considering it was a fish that had been transported from Hokkaido to Okinawa. However, as you can see from the photo, the fish was thin and not very fatty for a fish from the North Sea, so we decided it would be better sold as fillets.
Is the bone cutting(honegiri) necessary for Rock greenling?
The rock greenling I caught this time weighed about 1.4kg, so I think it was probably on the larger side. It also looked plump and fatty, so I decided to make some bone-cutting Nanbanzuke, sashimi, and sushi.
| The process into three pieces disassembling of Rock greenling | |
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| 1，Removing the scales from rock greenlings is a bit of a hassle. There is a risk that some scales will be left behind if you only use a scale removal tool. | 8，Insert the knife near the anal fin and cut towards the backbone. |
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| 2，In some places the scales look as if they are connected to the skin, so to finish, scrape them off with the edge of a knife. | 9，Using a one side disassembling technique, cut over the backbone towards the dorsal fin. |
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| 3，Grab the large pectoral fin with the thumb of your left hand and lift it up, then make an incision next to the collar of the fish on the lower body. | 10，Separate the lower body fish meat from the fish. |
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| 4，Make an incision next to the collar of the fish on the upper body and separate it leaving the gills and internal organs attached to the head side. | 11，Cut from the edge of the dorsal fin on the upper body towards the backbone. |
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| 5，Cut open the abdomen and cut up to just above the anal fin. | 12，Push and cut through the belly bone with the tip of the blade, cutting past the backbone and separating the upper body. |
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| 6，Make an incision in the film of the lump of the blood with a knife. | 13，Remove the belly bones from the upper and lower bodies. |
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| 7，Use a tool to remove the lump of blood and rinse thoroughly. | 14、Three pieces disassembling is complete (chiai bone removed) |
The completed three pieces disassembling in the 14th image above is the state after the chiai bone was removed with a bone removal tool. In fact, it was found that the bone removal process was not necessary in the work flow, so the unnecessary process was omitted from the process image.
In my mind, I had assumed that the Greenling's small bones were difficult to handle based on my prior knowledge. However, in reality, there were no small bones that looked like small bones, and there was only a relatively long chiai bone, not much different from other ordinary fish. Although I had intended to cut the small bones based on my prior knowledge of the Greenling fish, I didn't feel like I was cutting a bone at all.
In other words, what I can say from my experience cooking Rock Greenling is that there is no need to cut the bone (honegiri). However, I cut the bone (honegiri) of Rock Greenling and tried to commercialize it, so I would like to introduce the process below.
| The method of commercializing the bone cutting (honegiri) of Rock Greenling | |
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| 1，Separate the back body and belly body with the skin still on. | 6，Place the bone cutting (honegiri) of Rock Greenling into boiling water. |
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| 2，The bone cutting (honegiri) is performed from the head to the tail. The small bones, such as those of conger eel, were not felt at the tip of the blade, and there was no distinctive sound of the bone cutting (honegiri). | 7，Boil the fish meat lightly until it changes color. |
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| 3，After the bone cutting (honegiri), the sungiri (3cm cuts) are made. | 8，Remove from hot water before overcooking. |
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| 4， The state of the fish meat after the sungiri (3cm cuts). | 9，Drop into ice water to chill. |
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| 5， Product for the otoshi made by the bone cutting (honegiri) - served with pickled plum | 10，The Otoshi product from Rock Greenling. - served with pickled plum |
In fact, I once cooked greenlings, but I haven't handled them for a long time, so I have no memory of whether I do the bone cutting (honegiri) or not, which is embarrassing. There is information on the Internet that says it is better to dothe bone cutting (honegiri) when cooking greenlings, but I thought the bone cutting (honegiri) was not necessary when it came to rock greenlings.
The back body and belly body were separated, and both did the bone cutting (honegiri). One was left raw for the otoshi, and the other was made into the otoshi. I thought it would be fun to make the otoshi's product into nanbanzuke, so I cooked it, and I will describe the process below.
In the following process, some readers may wonder about the steps. The cut vegetables are placed on the serving plate first, but please don't worry about this as it is a method unique to our house. The purpose is to allow the vegetables to absorb the Nanban vinegar well, to heat the vegetables a little, and to allow the vegetables to absorb the oil and flavor of the fillets.
| Rock Greenling Nanbanzuke process | |
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| 1，Place the bone cutting (honegiri) of Rock Greenling into a bowl of equal parts potato starch and flour. | 5，Once golden brown, remove from the oil and drain. |
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| 2，Sprinkle flour all over the fillets. | 6，Prepare cut carrots, green peppers, paprika (red and orange), onions, etc. |
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| 3，Leave it for a while until the powder is absorbed into the skin. | 7，Arrange the vegetables on the serving plate. |
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| 4，Deep fry in oil at 170℃ until golden brown. | 8，Place the drained fillets on top. |
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| Finally, pour over Nanban vinegar and place the vegetables that were underneath on top. | |
The Nanbanzuke of Rock Greenling, which I did the bone cutting (honegiri), was quite different from the Nanbanzuke of horse mackerel, a blue fish that I usually eat, and I was able to taste a new Nanbanzuke of white fish. As a result of the bone cutting (honegiri), the texture was soft, and the flavor of the Nanban vinegar was thoroughly absorbed into the fillet, and I felt from the very beginning that it was as if the horse mackerel Nanbanzuke had been left overnight to soak in the flavor and become even more delicious.
Rock Greenling Sushi and Sashimi
Next is sushi and sashimi. As for the problem of what to do with the small bones of Greenling, I thought that I could solve it by slicing the flesh thinly when making sushi and sashimi, so I thought that the problem of small bones would not arise.
| Rock Greenling's sushi and sashimi production process | |
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| 1，Remove the skin from the back using the uchibiki technique. | 1，For sashimi, the back body is used after the skin has been removed. |
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| 2，Back body after skinning. | 2，Position yourself on your right side, place the fish skin-side down, and begin cutting it using the sogi-tsukuri technique, placing it on a 24cm diameter round thin plate. |
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| 3，The belly body has also been skinned. | 3，Rotate the round thin plate slowly to the right, place the sashimi on the left, and continue doing the same thing. |
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| 4，Place the belly body skin side down. Then turn your body to your right and cut the sushi pieces. | 4，Finish cutting the sashimi about three-quarters of the way around the outside, then place the rest on the inside. |
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| Four of the nine pieces are rock greenling nigiri sushi topped with pickled plum. | Sogitsukuri sashimi served on a thin round plate |
Rock Greenling's nigiri sushi, including the sushi topped with pickled plum, was delicious. However, when it comes to sashimi, I thought it would be better to cut it thick like hiratsukuri, or to broil it with the skin on, rather than usutsukuri.
The reason is that the flesh of rock greenling seems to have weak fibers for a white fish. For example, the fish was so soft that it was difficult to use the left thumb to lift it up to create a three-dimensional effect when serving it on a thin round plate, and the meat was so soft that it was basically impossible to feel any texture.
Is the decline in Greenling resources their own doing?
Well, I would like to bring this month's issue to a close soon, but this issue has left us feeling incomplete and not entirely satisfied. As I mentioned above, it was not the Greenling I wanted to get, but the alternative Rock Greenling.
Now that Greenling has become one of the most luxurious fish, it seems that it is possible to purchase them alive in an aquarium to meet the needs of restaurants and other establishments. However, if I were to take that approach, I would be afraid that I would lose interest in the seafood retail readers who are interested in the content of FISH FOOD TIMES. After all, the author thinks that if possible, it would be best to limit the fish to those that take a basic route through fish markets, etc.
In other words, when I think about the future, the Greenling is already on the red list in Fukuoka Prefecture, and I have no idea when I will be able to get it again. Why has this fish become so hard to come by?
The characters for Greenling are Ayu-nami (sweetfish). During the spawning season, the males have territories and court the females, just like the river fish Sweetfish. After the females spawn, the males protect the eggs and guard them from predators. Despite this habit of protecting their eggs, other males attack and eat eggs laid by other females of the same Greenling. Taking advantage of this habit of eating the eggs of the same Greenling, there are fishing methods using special rigs with a hook attached immediately after a spindle-shaped weight, and fishing methods that lie in wait for Greenlings that come to catch the eggs and harpoon them.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the decline in the Greenling's stock is that the Greenling has a penchant for eating the eggs of the same fish species.
I once saw a shocking scene on a TV program. In Africa, when wild lions were searching for females during the breeding season, a female with several young cubs was accompanied by a male lion who was in the breeding season and attacked the mother lion and her cubs, targeting only the cubs and killing them all. It was a shocking scene in which the male lion left the lioness alone, instead of killing her, mated with her, and produced a new cub.
The author thought that the habit of greenlings eating the eggs of other greenlings that are not their own blood is similar to the African wild lions killing their own cubs that are not their own blood. This is an instinct that lies deep within animals, and perhaps it just so happened that the African wild lions were protected and survived, while the Japanese greenlings were not protected, and conversely, their habitat deteriorated and they ended up on the Red List.
This could be said to be something that Greenling brought upon himself due to his own habits, and if it is based on the instincts of the animal Greenling, it may be something that is beyond human control in the natural world.
What about humans, who are the same species? How do we instinctively view people who are not of our blood? Ukraine and Russia seem to be close racially, but...
An opinion and the communication are to iinfo@fish food times
Date of updating 1 Jun. 2025
