Miso-marinated Alaska black cod recipe

Wow your mates with this Miso-marinated Alaska black cod recipe with soba noodles and green tea broth from Dave Watts, winner of the Good Food Guide’s Chef to Watch accolade in 2013. There’s a lot of ingredients but they turn into a truly delicious dish.

Serves 4 as a main course

Cooking time: 1 hr 15 mins plus 12 hours marinating time

Ingredients:

For the marinated Alaska black cod

4 Alaska black cod fillets, pin-boned with skin left on

200g miso paste

40g rice wine vinegar

75g mirin

40g sake

75g light soya sauce

For the green tea broth

40g kombu, chopped and rinsed

1l water, cold

6g green tea leaves

30g bonito flakes, or 7g dashi powder

Chinese greens

4 pak choi

1 head of Chinese leaf, 4 large leaves only

1 dash of sesame oil

Salt

Soba noodles

160g soba noodles

Salt

You’ll need the following equipment

Blender

Chinois

Method:

For the marinade; add all of the ingredients, aside from the cod fillets, into a blender and blitz until they are all nicely incorporated.

Put the fillets into an appropriately sized container, making sure they are not squashed but are close together. Pour the marinade over them to submerge. You could also put the cod fillets to a re-sealable bag, squeeze out as much air as possible so the marinade is completely surrounding the cod. Leave in the fridge for 12 hours to marinade.

For the green tea broth; add the kombu to a pan with the water, bring to the boil then immediately remove from the heat. Put to one side, allowing to steep for 5 minutes.

Add the green tea leaves and bonito flakes, or dashi powder, to a large pan. Pass the kombu stock through a fine chinois into the pan. Bring to the boil and again immediately remove from the heat. Allow to steep for 5 minutes, then pass through a fine chinois, taste and put to one side until you are ready to serve.

For the cod; preheat the grill to its highest setting, make sure the oven tray is sitting 10-12cm below the element.

Take the cod out of the marinade, let any excess marinade drip off but do not wipe it away. Put the fillets on a parchment paper lined tray skin-side up. Place under the grill.

Grill for 5-6 minutes. This timing is for thick pieces of cod the timing may need reducing by 1-2 minutes if it is a smaller portion. Leave to rest for a few minutes, allowing the residual heat to finish cooking the fish.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the soba noodles for 2-3 minutes. Refresh in iced water.

In the meantime prepare the Chinese greens. Remove and discard a small amount of the base from the pak choi, separating all the leaves. Cut some into thin and thick strips and leave some of the leaves whole for presentation.

Cut the Chinese leaf leaves into thin and thick strips of a similar size. Cook all of the vegetables in some salted boiling water for 5-10 seconds so they retain their crunch. Drain and toss in a dash of sesame oil, season with salt.

To serve; reheat the soba noodles in the green tea broth for 1 minute. Arrange the noodles on a plate with the cod and vegetables. Spoon over some of the broth. Serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy of Great British Chefs. Visit their site for more Alaska salmon recipes.