２． Separate the crab meat into small strips, cook them briefly in a small amount of sake and cool. Add the crab meat to (1) and mix using a rubber spatula.

３．Place a portion of (2) on a sheet of plastic wrap, wrap it into a ball and twist the end of the plastic wrap tightly. If the end of the wrap is too long, cut it shorter. (See Photo 2) Repeat the same procedure to make several round cakes wrapped in plastic wrap.

４． Place (3) in a shrink bag, but not too close to one another. Vacuum pack it at 100% in soft-air mode.

５． Dip the bag in boiling water to reshape the fish cakes, and soak in ice cold water. (See Photo 3) Left Photo* Before reshaping, Right Photo* After reshaping

６．Heat (5) in a steam oven at 80℃ until the center temperature reaches 75℃ for approx. 30 minutes.

７． Chill (6) to 3℃ within 90 minutes, and store.

８． o serve, reheat (7) and remove the fish cakes from the bag and plastic　wrap. Place them in serving bowls, and top with the arrowroot-starch jelly　soaked in seasoned stock, carrot, spinach and pine-needle citron. Heat the　stock and add the turnip after grating. Season the stock and thicken it　with the arrowroot starch to make the sauce. Pour the sauce over the fish　cakes and other ingredients in the serving bowls, and serve.

Note:

• here are two conventional ways to vacuum-pack fish cakes. One is to vacuum them before placing in a bag. The other way is to freeze them before packing. However, they turn out hard employing the first method, while they tend to become spongy using the second method. If the ground-fish cakes are formed into balls as in this recipe, wrapping them with plastic wrap and twisting the ends tightly will prevent the fish cakes from being completely vacuumed. Although they become deformed once, they will regain their smooth round shapes by dipping them in hot water because they are in a shrink bag.
• The reason for heating the fish cakes to a relatively high temperature at the center is to sterilize them. Because every tiny piece of ground fish or meat is exposed to air, be sure to heat it through, as bacteria may exist inside. We should follow the instruction from the Welfare Ministry to "heat food at least 1 minute at 75℃." In this recipe, especially, there is a good possibility for aerobic bacteria to propagate itself in the air that remains in the fish cakes. Therefore, make sure it is heated to 75℃ or higher.