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04/16/08 |
                
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Ling Cod Misozuke w/accompaniments Yields 4 perfect dinners タラ味噌漬けと揚げ出し豆腐と枝豆
4 ea. 6 oz. fillets of ling cod 16 oz. red miso some cheesecloth For tofu batons: 1 ea. 16 oz. pkg. firm tofu 1/2 c. rice flour mixed with 1/2 c. corn starch For edamame puree and garnish: 2 ea. 16 oz. bag edamame 1/4 c. yuzu juice 2 T. wasabi powder 1 3/4 c. water 1/2 c. sour cream 1/2 c. heavy cream For agedashi stock: 1 1/2 c. water 1/3 c. dark soy 1 1/2 t. hon-dashi salt to taste
In a 9x9 Pyrex baking dish, spread half of the miso on the bottom and lay down a single layer of cheesecloth. Place ling cod fillets on cheesecloth, add another layer of cloth and add the rest of the miso. Allow fish to marinate in your fridge for about two days before you get started with the rest of the dish. To prepare tofu batons, cut your 16 oz. package of tofu into 16 sticks and coat with rice flour/corn starch mix. Set aside. To prepare edamame puree, steam or boil one of your bags of edamame until very soft. Mash the bejeezus out of them, and mix with yuzu, wasabi, water, sour cream and heavy cream. Put everything into a food processor until "smooth," which it won't be because...you'll need to run everything through a strainer to get the edamame skins out. Taste for salt and chill. For the agedashi stock, combine soy, water and hon-dashi in a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce heat and hold warm. Now it's time for the real cooking. Take your last bag of edamame and chuck them into a rigorously boiling pot of heavily salted water and cook for 3-5 minutes (more than that if they're still in the shell). Drain, and give 'em a good pinch of salt for seasoning. Remove your ling cod from its miso tomb, give it a quick rinse and pat dry. Heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat with a bit of canola oil in it. When the oil moves like water, add your fillets and sauté for about two minutes. Flip it over and sauté another two minutes. At this point, you can toss the whole mess into a 450 degree oven while you prepare the tofu batons. Give these guys about 10 minutes to cook all the way. In yet another skillet, heat about a half-inch of canola, soy or peanut oil over medium-high heat until the tip of an inserted chopstick gives off a good amount of tiny little bubbles. At this point, add your tofu sticks and pan-fry until golden brown on all sides. Of course, if you have a deep fryer, you can do them in there at about 350 degrees. When brown, set them on some paper towels to dry. To plate, pour about 1/2 cup of the agedashi stock on the bottom of your serving dish. With your tofu batons, make a little Lincoln Log structure and place your boiled edamame in the middle. Top with your fish and drizzle the plate with your edamame puree.
Note from GG: This exact scenario came up at Ray's for our Dine Around Seattle menu in November of 2005. Chef Pete, in his infinite wisdom, gave the construction of said scenario to me seeing as how I'm a Japanese food nerd. So I scoured my books and came up with this recipe...more or less. Pete was concerned that folks might not like the "miso-y" flavour of pure misozuke, so I had to thin the marinade out quite a bit and reduce its marinating time to about two hours. If you ask me, that ain't miso marinated ANYthing, so I reverted it for here. I'm happy to say that it came out awesome, and everyone loved it, even though I tasted it and it didn't taste anything like miso. There's still much work to be done. This dish actually combines two Japanese dishes: misozuke and agedashi doufu. The former I've explained above, while the latter translates to fried tofu in soup (age=fried, dashi=soup, doufu=tofu), and is a traditional appetizer in Japan. There are two ways to make it, one using dark soy and the other using light soy. The difference in recipes differentiates where the agedashi doufu is coming from, either Osaka or Tokyo. Osakans use dark soy while Tokyoites use light soy. Neat, huh? As for the edamame puree, you'll have a bunch left over, but I don't think you'll have difficulty in finding uses for it. Personally, I think it'd make a REALLY interesting dip for chips.
This site was last updated 12/20/06 |
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