Shame it’s out of focus!

My Japanese friend Sachiyo took me to the Japanese supermarket here to teach me how to pick the best ingredients for beginner Japanese cooking. One of the things I wanted to make is this delicious miso cod, which I always choose in restaurants. I chose Silver Cod, from Hokkaido and very expensive it has to be said,  but you can use any flaky white fish, like snapper, halibut or grouper, or even mackerel and salmon. I recently used sea bass for a dinner party as cod is so expensive here, and it worked fine.

Sachiyo advises using white miso paste for fish and red for mackerel and pork, but I bought a mixed one which she says is fine for all cooking.

Serves 2

2 pieces of cod
3 tbsp miso
2 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sake (optional)

1. sprinkle salt over fish and leave it for 30min.
2. wipe excess water from fish with kitchen paper.
3. mix 3 table spoons of miso and 2 table spoons of mirin (and 1 tea spoon of sake if you have), and pour over the fish.
4. leave it at least one night or  up to 2 days in fridge.
5. remove as much miso  mix from the fish as you can before cooking, but don’t wash it.

If you use oven, preheat at 200℃ and cook for 15min.  You can cook with a pan as well, put baking sheet before putting fish to prevent it from burning too quickly.  Its very easy to burn, don’t go away when you are cooking.

Optional additions to miso mix: Yuzu, garlic(grated), ginger(finely sliced and cut into match like strips), spring onion(chopped)

Serve with white rice and vegetables – I made some Japanese mushrooms stir-fried with sesame seeds…