Good Fish_ Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast - Becky Selengut [55]
9 minutes per inch of fish (measured at its thickest point). Set the fish aside and keep it warm.
Add the butter to the pan and scrape up any remaining bits.
When the bubbles of the butter diminish, add the reserved almonds and cook until they brown, along with the butter, 3 to 4 minutes.
To serve, place a piece of fish, skin side up, in each of 4 wide bowls. Ladle some broth around the fish. Place a piece of squash and a piece of leek in each bowl. Drizzle some almond brown butter around the fish. Top with fried leeks and serve.
PAIRING: A chardonnay, such as Manuel Olivier Haut Cotes de Nuits Blanc 2006, Burgundy, France, or an Orvieto.
tataki’s “faux-nagi”
For the black cod:
1 pound black cod fillet, skin
on
Salt
For the sauce:
¼ cup low-sodium or regular
soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
1½ tablespoons sake
1½ tablespoons mirin
½ cup dried bonito flakes40
(also known as katsuobushi)
2 tablespoons water
For the marinade:
2 tablespoons sake
2 pieces kombu40
For serving:
1 teaspoon potato starch41
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1½ cups cooked sushi rice
1 sheet nori, cut into ½-by-3-
inch strips (optional)
I’ll be honest with you. When I heard that unagi was an unsustainable choice39 I went to the closest sushi bar and buried this new knowledge in thirty pieces of unagi nigiri. When I came down from my soy-soaked eel high, I felt like I was ready to go without. But I wasn’t too happy about it. Until along came chefs Raymond Ho and Kin Lui at San Francisco’s Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar—one of only four sustainable sushi bars in the United States—who developed this dish, which I adapted ever so slightly for this book. This brilliant dish takes its cue from the buttery richness of eel and, in my opinion, does it one better, with a more consistent texture and better flavor.
SERVES 4
To prepare the black cod, season both sides of the fillet generously with salt. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the sauce.
To prepare the sauce, mix all of its ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard the bonito flakes. Set aside.
To marinate the black cod, remove the fillet from the refrigerator and unwrap. Rinse the salt off with very cold water. Blot the fish dry with a paper towel. Wet a new paper towel with the sake and use this towel to moisten the kombu. Sandwich the fillet between the two pieces of sake-moistened kombu. Rewrap the fillet in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 to 40 minutes. Unwrap, remove the kombu (to prevent too strong a flavor), and return the fillet to the refrigerator in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap.
When you are ready to serve, reheat the sauce. Mix the potato starch with the water. Add half of this mixture to the sauce and wait until it thickens, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes. Add more if necessary to thicken the sauce to the consistency of jam. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
Slice the fillet into ¼-inch rectangular slices (as appropriate for nigiri). Lightly char one side of the fish with a small butane torch (or sear very briefly in a hot saucepan). Paint sauce on the fish with a small pastry brush. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
You can serve this dish one of two ways: Form nigiri by molding the rice into logs, laying the fish slices over the rice, and wrapping the narrow middles with nori “belts.” Brush the tops of the nigiri with more sauce. Alternatively, spoon the rice onto 4 plates, lay the fish slices on top of the rice, and drizzle sauce over the fish.
PAIRING: Junmai-shu sake or a domestic pinot gris.
rainbow trout
I went trout fishing for the first time last summer, though the use of the word “trout” might be a tad bit generous. Technically I caught more trees, shrubs, and