You have all just became my bestest friends in the world...hehe
I love sushi of all kinds. I'm not too partial to using mackerel, because the flavor is just too wildly strong to me, but I enjoy most everything else.
I have my own sushi freezer. When using raw fish or any raw meats, it's wise to first place it into minus four degrees fahrenheit or colder for a minimum of 7 days. This will kill any parasites that are in the meat.
How you handle raw meat is very, very important for the other type of harm it can do to you. Bacteria. The way sushi chefs prepare a block of raw meat is to first freeze it as described above. This is mandatory in the USA with only a few exceptions. Then, the meat is cold thawed in ice water until it is just firmly frozen.
The block is placed on a sanitized wooden surface and the first outside cuts of 1/16th of an inch are made, with the outside pieces caught and moved to a new area, as to not contaminate the rest.
Then, after the first four cuts are made, (end, end, side, side), the block is moved to a clean spot and place so that the last two sides can be cut.
Then, the block is moved once more to a sanitized surface where it can be used as any type of sushi. All of the outer surfaces have been removed with clean procedures and the parasites have been killed via freezing at the proper temperature and time duration.
By doing this with any meat except pork, you can make it safe to eat raw. Pork has other problems that make it unsuitable for raw consumption.
My sushi freezer maintains a minus 15 to minus 25 temperature. I keep my fish in it for a minimum of 10 days to make sure. It's a counter-top freezer that holds about 5 pounds of meat.
I live in Florida, about a mile from the ocean, so I catch much of my sushi meat. Mostly "Whiting" (Southern Kingfish), and it's nice white meat is sweet and delicious raw or cooked.
I also use fresh fish from the market, but prep all of it as described above. Keeping your knife and counter surfaces absolutely clean between steps is the most important part of prepping raw fish for sushi.
You folks can hurt me with all this sushi talk. I'm so hungry now that I might just crawl into the fridge and not come back out until it's empty!
This will be my favorite thread on the entire site!
Ohhhh yum yum yum yum yum!