Miso-Glazed Fish

I found this wild Alaskan cod in the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's and thought I'd try doing something different with it (other than breaded and fried). At the moment, I don't have any drinking saké in addition to the mirin I use for sauces. I mean really, mirin is a seasoned saké, typically brewed sweeter than what you'd drink out of saké cups. For its replacement in this recipe I used Chinese red rice wine.

The flavors that I'm imagining this dish to taste like is outweighed by the salt from the miso paste. I think refrigerating the raw fish in the marinade overnight is too long. At most, it should marinade for an hour; otherwise you'll lose the essence of the Alaskan cod entirely. This marinade can accommodate up to 24 oz of fish, or four 6-oz fillets.

Serves 2.

Ingredients

3/4 lb wild Alaskan cod fillets
1/4 c Chinese red rice wine (or fine saké)
1/4 c mirin
2 tbsp yellow miso paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. In a small pan, bring mirin and rice wine to a boil and whisk in sugar and miso paste. Remove from heat. Whisk in sesame oil and set aside to cool.

2. Wash and gently pat dry the cod fillets.

3. In an 8" x 8" glass baking dish, pour in a portion of the marinade so that it coats the bottom of the dish. Gently lay the fillets on top. Then, pour the remainder of the marinade on top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Place fish skin side up under the broiler, about 6" from the heat. Broil for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the surface browns and starts to blacken in some spots. Can finish in the oven for up to 5 minutes more depending on the thickness of the fillets.

The fish is done when the flesh turns opaque and can be easily pulled apart with a fork.

This recipe is adapted from the NY Times. 

Wild Game Meat in the greater Seattle area

King County: Butcher Shops, Meat Markets, and Fresh Seafood

After three years of living in the southwest region of Washington state, I relocated (for work) to the Seattle area. Not surprisingly, since this is a very urban metropolitan area with scattered farms on the fringes of suburbia, there are even fewer choices for fresh game meat and nearby butcher shops that can offer up meats and cuts that you just can't get at a Whole Foods or other specialty retail grocery store with a meat counter.

Here's what I have found so far:

Bill the Butcher
7990 Leary Way Northeast, Redmond, WA 98072?
(425) 636-8901
http://www.billthebutcher.com
Meat standards: Organic (No herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or steroids; Fed with organic grass or grain that is not genetically modified), Natural (No herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or steroids; No genetically modified feed. Humanely raised and harvested animals; Pastured and as local as possible.)
Meats: organic and natural beef, free range local poultry, natural pork, wild game (not specified on website), sausages
Other products: raw milk
Hours: Tu-Sun noon-7pm, closed Mondays
Other locations: Woodinville, Seattle (NE 45th St, E Madison St, and 34th Ave W)
 
Bob’s Quality Meats
4861 Rainier Avenue South  Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 725-1221
http://www.bobsqualitymeats.com
Meat: beef, buffalo, lamb, poultry (chicken, turkey, game hen, eggs), oxtails
Whole animals: lamb, goat, rabbit, chicken, smoked turkey
Game meats: duck, venison (ground),
Dairy/Cheese: butter; American cheese, Swiss cheese, Boudin
Other specialty: pancetta, hard salami, beef jerky, oxtails, pork blood
Hours: M-F 9am-7pm, Sa 9am-5pm, closed Sundays

Don and Joe’s Meats (at Pikes Market)
85 Pike Street  Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 682-7670
http://www.donandjoesmeats.com
Meats: sausages, beef, lamb, veal, offals
Seasonal meats: turkeys (fresh & smoked), duck, geese, pheasant, quail, rabbit
Hours: M-Sa 9am-6pm, closed Sundays

Fresh Sea Food
Pure Food Fish Market / Pike Place Market
Seattle, WA 98108
Local (Seattle Area): 206-622-5765
http://www.freshseafood.com
Seafood: salmon (fresh & smoked), halibut, crab, shrimp, lobster, squid, shellfish (clams, mussels, scallops), caviar, Columbia River white sturgeon, whole rainbow trout, whole golden trout, sushi grade ahi tuna
Steaks: Hawaiian mahi mahi, Hawaiian ahi tuna
Fillets: monk fish, ling cod, dover sole, pertrole sole, catfish, Alaskan black cod, Alaska true cod, Pacific red snapper, Chilean sea bass
Hours: Mo-Su 7am-9pm

University Seafood and Poultry (u-district)
1317 Northeast 47th Street  Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 632-3900
http://www.universityseafoodandpoultry.com
Meats: poultry & eggs (duck, duckling, pheasant, quail, geese, game hens, turkeys)
Seafood (fresh): king salmon, steamer clams, live Maine lobsters, Pacific oysters, mussels, perch, halibut, sockeye salmon, etc)
Hours: M-F 930am-530pm, Sa 930am-5pm, closed Sundays
Misc: Free parking next to the 76 gas station

World Famous Pike Place Fish Market
86 Pike Street  Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 682-7181
http://www.pikeplacefish.com
Seafood: salmon (fresh & smoked), white fish, Dungeness crab, live shellfish (Penn Cove clams, Manilla clams, Pacific oysters, mussels, Kumamoto oysters), fresh (but not alive) shellfish (Alaskan king crab, snow crab legs, shrimp, Alaskan spot prawns, sea scallops, bay scallops, smoked mussels)
Hours: mo-Sun 6am-6pm

Foil baked trout

This is a pretty simple recipe and can be done in less than a half hour, provided that the trout is already gutted and cleaned. And, as long as the oil doesn't leak out of the foil packet, clean-up is easy. Assume serving size is one trout per person. I would recommend using olive oil on both sides of the fish to keep the skin from sticking to the foil.

Ingredients

1 trout, cleaned
fresh or dried herbs: thyme, parsley, garlic, poultry seasoning, whatever is available
lemon slices (optional)
unsalted butter, up to 1 tbsp
olive oil
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Tear out enough aluminum foil to wrap the fish in a rectangular package and lay fish, scored diagonally on both sides, in the center. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the fish before adding herbs, salt and pepper.

2. Place two lemon slices, fresh/dried herbs, and butter inside the fish. You can also sprinkle a salt-free seasoning blend on both sides of the fish, or season with some sea salt and black pepper.

3. Wrap fish with aluminum foil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Kitchen Note: Moonfish

This fish, a random shopping cart item at Fubonn, gets its name from having a whitish, almost opalescent sheen to its rather smooth skin. Because of its thin frame and lack of exterior armaments (scales, spines), one would assume this is a fish found in tropical or temperate waters. It actually looks like something one might find in an exotic aquarium. But, nonetheless, I found it in the freezer aisle at the Asian grocery store.

The fish would probably taste great skewered and roasted over an open fire. It has lots of small bones and there isn't a whole lot of meat to it. Eating it reminded me of perch, an equally bony fish that is the equivalent of a sunflower seed (lots of work, little reward). I've only cooked up the first of the two that came in the pack and it tastes ordinary, like the "white fish" you'd find in a breaded, fried fish fillet.

I braised (poached?) it in some olive oil and Chinese rice wine with a sprinkling of Himalayan pink salt. That was probably not the right approach for the fish. It might have been better to bake or steam it because the skin stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Ahh, what to do with its companion...

[Updated: 12/2/2010] When this fish cooks, it smells a lot like the "fish powder" condiment (not furikake) that is used on Chinese rice porridge (xi fan, also known as congee). For the second fish, I cooked it over rice in the oven. In retrospect, I think that moonfish would make a great fish stock type of fish because it's very bony and with the right mix of spices and salt, you'd get a very flavorful broth out of it.

I made the brown basmati rice (a long grain) the way Alton Brown does, heated in a foil-covered baking dish at 375 degrees F for about an hour. Because I am cooking for one, I don't really like reheating leftover rice, so I try to minimize it to a meal or two.

In my pantry, I have Mexican saffron which is several iterations cheaper than real Spanish saffron (from Spain). I picked up a few ounces of it several years ago, probably from hole-in-the-wall spice shops in California.

1 c. brown basmati rice
1 1/2 c. water
pinch of saffron
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp sea salt

In a small saucepan, bring water, saffron, butter and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over rice in a baking dish.

Wash the moonfish and gently place on top of the rice. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for an hour. The essence from the fish adds a nice layer of depth to the rice that makes it more flavorful.

If you have sweet potatoes on hand, these bake in the same amount of time at the same heat setting as the rice.

I made a special sauce for the fish, which is a variant on the soba noodle sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
2 tsp brown sugar
1 clove of garlic, minced

Bring ingredients to a simmer for about two minutes (long enough to infuse the sauce with garlic flavor) and pour over fish.

Steamed Whole Tilapia

There are three chain ethic supermarkets in southern California near where I live: Ranch 99, Vallarta, and Jons. Meats, seafood, spices, seasonal fruits, and odd-things-to-try-out, etc., are very inexpensive here. At the latter two places I can buy a lot of whole tilapia for a very good price. The following is a relatively generic, but simple way to steam tilapia. I'd imagine that this preparation style is common to asian households.

Ingredients:

1 whole tilapia, thawed and cleaned
2 stalks green onions, sliced
1-2 slices of peeled ginger, thinly sliced
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (red or white, doesn't matter)

Before the fish is steamed, you need to make two slits on each side of the fish (through the flesh to the bone but not cutting through the fish, this helps it steam evenly and cook faster). Pour the wine over the fish and place the ginger and green onions on top.

The average whole tilapia will be under a pound, total cooking time is about 20 minutes. This seems like a long time, especially for fish, but I skip the process where you let a steamer come up to temperature then put the fish in. The flesh of the fish should be of a white-ish color when fully cooked. Promptly remove from heat and serve.

Whole fish pairs with steamed rice (brown, white, or "wild"). It goes pleasantly with a dry riesling wine, like Columbia Crest (which you can usually get from Trader Joe's).

I eat this with a sauce that has equal parts rice wine vinegar and light soy sauce.

Pan-Fried Fish Fillets

Drowning a fish in any sauce is just to cover up the not-so-fresh feeling the fish has. The whole wheat flour gives texture and some crunch. How to tell when the fish is done? Well, if it can be easily stabbed through with the edge of a spatula, it should be done.

The idea here is to prepare the toppings in a sauté pan and set aside. Topping #1 strangely tastes like pizza sauce and when I made it the first time it was eaten faster than the fish.

Note to self: make more topping next time. Because salt is one of those spices that to just want to hint at in a fish dish, I add it after the fish is done cooking, sprinkling it on the top of the finished product.

3 tilapia fillets or 2 catfish fillets
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. grape seed oil or butter

Topping #1:
6-8 large black olives, finely chopped
1 stalk green onion, sliced thinly
1 tbsp. organic red vinegar
1 tbsp. light soy sauce

Topping #2:
2-3 sundried tomatos, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
thin slices of ginger

Butter gives great flavor to fish. Grape seed oil will not burn at higher temperatures. It's a good oil to work with for an amateur cook, but it does not taste good raw (for salads and marinades stick with olive oil).

Do not use frozen fillets for this recipe. Thaw first!

1. Rinse fillets and pat dry. Coat fillets with flour on both sides.

2. Heat oil on skillet on medium heat. Add fillets, if they both fit. If they do not, then cook one at a time and adjust for oil.

3. Average cooking time is about 5-7 minutes per side on a medium fire. The thicker the fillet, the longer the cooking time. Do not exceed 10 minutes per side, you'll get a rubbery tasting fish regardless of fillet thickness.

4. Arrange neatly on a clean plate. Put topping on top of fish. Enjoy.

Topping preparation:

1. Heat a small skillet. Add oil. Add green onions (topping #1) or garlic and ginger (topping #2).

The idea here is to flavor the oil. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir fry. Remove from heat and set aside until fish is done.