Sunday January 22, 2012
Malibu, California
Sun is peaking, but rain to come
Per my last post, I went to Santa Monica Fish Co recently. And to my surprise, they had "sanma" or saury which is very hard or impossible to find in grocery stores. Santa Monica Fish Co carried it because they cater to a lot of the Japanese restaurants. It was wild and from Norway.
Saury is similar to mackerel but I find it to be milder. In Japan, its an autumn fish, but I guess in Norway, you can get it in the winter. And unlike in Japan, it has been gutted and cleaned. Saury like mackerel and salmon are very high in Omega 3s but one must not eat a lot of it as sadly, it could have some mercury. But its a great tasting fish and highly recommend it.
As some of you might know, while on assignment in Tokyo, I took cooking classes at ABC Cooking Studio at Tokyo Midtown. One of the classes was to make Saba no Shioyaki (Salt-grilled Saury). It was a one hour class and well, 30 minutes of it was gutting and cleaning the fish. I could not believe it! I balked at doing it and the instructor said that it is a necessary skill for women if they want to be good housewives. Of course, I had a mild argument with her Japanese style (no yelling, etc) but at the end she said that all Japanese men expect good housewives to have these skills. So I ended it by stating I have no intentions of becoming a good housewife but for the sake of team, I'll gut and clean the damn fish. It was so gross, that I contemplated in giving up all fish, meat, etc and become a vegetarian (that did not last long though LoL!).
Anyhow, thank god, for fish stores in America where they will clean the fish for you. So I made a miso marinade which works great for strong fish like saury, mackerel, cod, salmon etc. The marinade also preserves the fish, and the best flavor happens when you marinate it for 2-3 days. Here's the recipe for my misozuke (miso marinade).
Recipe(all measurements are approximate)
Mix about 1/4 cup white miso (preferably from Kyoto*), 1/5 cup mirin**and and 1/3 cup palm sugar**. Add a splash of sake(rice wine), blend well and cover fileted saury with the marinade. Place in non reactive dish and marinate for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.
When ready to cook, wipe excess miso off the fish (do not wash), grill or broil until done.
Serve with sliced lemon, grated daikon and high grade soy sauce **. Rice and Miso soup will complete the meal. I made miso soup with organic Shanghai bok choy and spring onions. Delicious and healthy.
Marinating the saury in the miso mixture
Grilled Saury
Shanghai Bok Choy
Kyoto Style Miso Soup
* I learned how to make this in Kyoto. Kyoto style miso is "white" and sweeter.
** Use Hon-Mirin and soy sauce that does not have sugar in it. You can get it as high end natural food stores and high end Japanese grocery stores. Palm sugar has very low glycemic index so is healthly and also is great for Asian cooking
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