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1
Salt the fish portions lightly on all sides and leave for 5–10 minutes. Rinse under cold water and pat dry. The surface should feel slightly firmed and no longer wet to the touch.
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2
Peel and finely grate the kabura until it is almost a paste — no coarse shreds should be visible. If desired, lightly salt the grated mass, allow the released liquid to accumulate for 2–3 minutes, then squeeze it out firmly. Fold in the lightly beaten egg white until the mixture is just cohesive. The paste should hold a gentle mound when pressed.
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3
Divide the fish among four individual steaming bowls. Pack the grated kabura mixture over and around each portion, forming a smooth, compact mound that fully buries the fish. No fish should be visible. This is where the dish lives or dies: if the kabura is too coarse, too wet, or too loosely packed, the mound will collapse and water into the bowl during steaming rather than cooking as a unified mass.
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4
Place the bowls in a steamer over steadily simmering — not violently boiling — water. Steam for 8–10 minutes. The surface of the kabura mound should be just set and opaque, no longer raw-looking; it will have pulled gently away from the bowl's edge and the fish beneath will be just cooked through.
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5
While the mounds steam, combine the ichiban dashi, mirin, and usukuchi soy in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir the dissolved kuzu or arrowroot, then pour it in a thin stream into the simmering dashi, stirring constantly. The ankake is ready when it coats a spoon lightly and falls from it in a continuous sheet — neither glutinous and heavy nor thin and watery. Remove from heat immediately.
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6
Remove the steamed bowls from the steamer. Pour the ankake sauce around and partially over each mound at the moment of service. Lay yuzu peel julienne and mitsuba sprigs on top. The yuzu's citrus-floral scent should rise immediately; if the aromatics were added earlier, this signal is lost.