This melt-in-your-mouth, Miso Black Cod Recipe is made with the most delicious miso marinade ever! Allow 1-3 days for marinating.
This melt-in-your-mouth, slightly caramelized Black Cod Recipe, is buttery and rich with a subtle sweetness and delicious umami flavor. It’s one of my all time favorites. The secret to this mouth-watering recipe is the fish.
Black cod, sometimes called Sablefish marries perfectly with the marinade of white miso paste, mirin and sake- and because of its high oil content, is difficult to overcook or dry out.
You can serve the black cod simply with a side of veggies and or rice, and be perfectly content and satisfied. Or if entertaining, fancy it up a bit, and plate it with pickled daikon, little “nests” of sake braised kale, and a brushing of flavorful white miso aioli. Totally up to you.
What you’ll need for Miso Black Cod
- Black Cod – sometimes called sablefish. Do not substitute Cod or true cod, which are both very different from buttering Black Cod. Sea bass would be an OK substitute.
- White Miso Paste – the subtle flavor of white miso doesn’t complete with the fish.
- Mirin
- Sake
- Sugar
How to make Miso Black Cod
Make the marinade: Miso, sake, marin and sugar are brought to a simmer on the stove. This becomes the marinade.
Marinate the fish for 2 hours, or ideally for better flavor, 24-36 hours.
Shred kale, or bok choy.
Serve the fish simply with Sake braised Kale….
Or plate it elegantly, and serve with pickled daikon ( or ginger) and a quick Miso aioli. I also add sauteed mushrooms.
Plating doesn’t have to be intimidating. Have a plan. Do a practice plate.
For this presentation, simply brush the miso aioli across the plate, either in the middle or to one side. Place the daikon along the line. Then fill in with little nests of braised kale ( twirl it on a fork like you would pasta) staggered, then pieces of the black cod (it will naturally flake and fall apart). You could serve this with a little side of rice on the side, or sauteed mushrooms.
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Miso Black Cod
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: fish, main, seafood,
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: Japanese
Description
Miso Black Cod buttery black cod in a delicious miso marinade- allow 1-3 days of marination time for best results.
Ingredients
Units
- 1 lb Black Cod
Miso Marinade:
- 3 tablespoons mirin
- 3 tablespoons sake
- 1/3 cup white miso paste
- 1/3 cup sugar
Optional Miso Aioli
- 2 Tablespoons marinade
- 2 Tablespoons mayo
- 1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Optional Quick pickled daikon (or sub pickled ginger)
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup peeled sliced daikon radish
- 1 tsp kosher salt
Optional Sake Braised Kale
- 1/4 C sliced onion
- 2–3 cups shredded Kale (thinly sliced)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- splash Sake
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Marinate. In a small saucepan, heat the mirin and sake and simmer 30 seconds to cook off the alcohol. Whisk in the white miso and the sugar until smooth and dissolved. Transfer the marinade to a large baking dish and let cool (reserve 2 tablespoons of marinade in a separate small bowl if wanting to make the miso aioli) . Add the fish to the cooled marinade, sprinkle with a little salt, and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate 1-3 days.
- Cook. Preheat the oven to 400°. Gently scrape off the marinade from the fish, into the baking dish, and don’t rinse the fish. Heat a little oil in a heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat. Place the fish, skin side up, in the skillet and sear until golden and caramelized, about 2-3 minutes. Turn over, and crisp up the skin, 2-3 minutes. Spoon a little marinade over the top of the fish then place fish in the oven to finish baking for 8-10 minutes, until flaky and golden.
- Serve this with Furikake rice and a veggie side dish!
Notes
- Broiling the fish can give it a nice deep color- but the marinade burns very quickly and easily. Leave 6-8 inches between broiler and fish, and watch it like a hawk!
- Optional Aioli: Mix all in a small bowl. Add sriracha if you like spicy.
- Optional Pickled Diakon: Bring all ingredients to a simmer in a small pot, until sugar dissolves, remove from heat and chill.
- Make Optional Kale “Nests” – Heat a little oil in a heavy bottom skillet, over med high heat. Saute onion until just tender, about 2-3 minutes. Turn heat to med, add kale. Stir and let it wilt, 3-5 minutes. Splash with a little sake, let it burn off, season with salt and pepper.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 24
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 889.1 mg
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 5.5 g
- Fiber: 2.4 g
- Protein: 1.2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
I usually make a quick saute of asparagus, green beans, sugar snap peas, dliced baby bok choy, shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced leeks, water chestnuts with shaved garlic and ginger until tender but still crisp. I also add fresh grated ginger to the miso mixture. After marinating the fish, I reduce the marinade by half and brush the fish with it in the last few minutes of cooking. A delicious meal! And I always make extra, good at any temp.
Do you have a recipe for the side dish? It sounds delicious!
Love it!
This looks wonderful, but is the portion you plated enough to serve as a main course? Or should this be served as part of several dishes? Thank you!
Part of several dishes. 🙂
Question, what could you use in place of the sugar in the marinade? Stevia? Or would that make it taste weird? I’m really trying not to feed my gut sugar.
Hi Lisa, Stevia would make it taste weird. Could you use honey or maple? it needs the sweetness. 🙂
Nice!
Made this with Chilean sea bass and bok choy, tripling the recipe, for a dinner party with 9 guests last night. We did 8 courses, and this was definitely the crowd favorite! The marinade is absolutely incredible. We did 3-ounce filets with no skin, and decided not to heat the marinade to save some time (the alcohol cooked off later anyway). We used a little too much oil in the pan and had to pat off the filets before plating. Used a mix of baby and non-baby bok choy, to cut down the bitterness a bit, but that was probably unnecessary in hindsight. Basically copied the plating, but added a few dots of the aioli because it was so yummy. Thanks so much!
In one of the photos there is something drizzled across the dish, but not in the other photos. Is that just the miso aioli?
No, the Miso aioli is brushed on the plate. The drizzle was a soy “syrup” I was playing around with. 😉
Ah, thank you! The plating of this dish is STUNNING. I’ve never had black cod, but want to make it just for the pretty factor. 🙂
Sea bass would be an okay substitute (maybe?), but nothing close to black cod, which for me here in Toronto is a BIG splurge purchase once in awhile. Such an incredible dish! This looks amazing.
Sea bass would work too because it is an oiler fish. Yes, Black Cod is very expensive here too….definitely a special occasion type of dish. 🙂