My girlfriend who lives in Kamakura is a fabulous cook. Her kitchen was tiny but the food she produced from that space was unbelievable and she taught me many of her recipes.
Kamakura is on the coast about 30 miles from Tokyo. Because of its location, local fresh fish is readily available. Where I live now, unless you go to a specialty shop the fresh fish quality can vary. Also, with our busy schedules, I have to resort to frozen fish. So, although the recipe says Talapia, go ahead and use what is readily available in your area – a white fish would work best, but actually any fish will be fine.
Fish Misozuke Recipe
Miso flavored grilled fish
Ingredients
- 6 talapia fillets – defrosted. Or any other fish.
- 8 tablespoons Miso paste – blend ½ white and ½ red miso
- 8 tablespoons Sake -Japanese rice wine
Instructions
- First wash the fish under cold water and dry it with a paper towel.
- To make marinade, in a bowl, dilute the miso with sake.
- In a Ziploc bag, place the fish and the marinade together. When you zip it up, try to release as much air as possible and let it marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
- You can even leave it for 2 nights and it will still be fine.
- To cook: Heat your oven on broil for at least 10 minutes. Remove the fish from the miso and wipe as much marinate off the fish. Brush with oil and grill until done, which is approximately 7 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. If you like both sides done, then flip, brush with oil and grill for another 2 minutes.
Notes
Miso is Japanese bean paste, the base for miso soup. There are many kinds of miso but generally come in three catagories: red, white and a blend of red and white. Zuke, comes from the verb tsukeru, which in this situation means marinate.
The recipe my girlfriend taught me was to marinate the fish in only miso, but because we are watching our sodium intake, I have diluted it with quite a lot of sake. Similar to lemons, sake kills the fishy smell. I now prefer this flavor, but maybe it’s because I’m just used to it now.
Since this fish is marinated in miso it already has a salty flavor, so you don’t have to add anything else to it. Squeezing a lemon or lime on it is nice too.
Photo: Pixabay
