Japanese miso marinated fish
Japanese miso marinated fish
Miso marinated grilled fish is a classic Japanese dish. It may seem difficult to make at home, but it’s surprisingly easy and delicious. Salty and a little sweet flavor of marinade makes the fish special. It is very simple to make, but you need to start 1 – 3 days before cooking the fish.
The steps are following : sprinkle salt over the fish and leave for 15 minutes, clean and dry the fish, make miso marinade, marinate the fish and put it for 1-3 days in the fridge, after that remove the marinade and grill the fish.
Some points to get better result
Use fish with skin
Usually I use the fish with skin. When you grill the fish without the skin, the fish will fall apart. In the Netherlands major supermarkets started to sell salmon with skin several years ago. Before that I could find only fillet which was without skin. Hence I mostly buy salmon with skin nowadays.
Use high oil content white fish or salmon
I tried to make miso marinated fish with salmon (with skin) and cod fillet (without skin). Both fishes were tasty, but I thought salmon was more suitable than ordinary cod. Because the high oil content fish gets better result for miso marinade. Moreover you hardly overcook high oil content fish. It might be difficult to find high oil content white fish, such as Spanish mackerel (Sawara in Japanese), black cod. However salmon works very well.
Low salt content miso
You can use any miso for the miso marinade, but if there is too much salt, the fish may become salty or hard, so it seems good to use white miso (shiro miso). Normally white miso contains less salt than other sorts of miso. When making with other sorts of miso it is better to add a little more sugar. If you like to know about miso, click the links below.
Sprinkle salt before marinating
The fish has a relatively high water content, so salt it beforehand to remove excess water and fishy smell. If you marinate fish without this process, you will end up with a fishy miso marinate.
The marinate time
Recommending to let it marinate for at least 1 night to 1 day or more, and up to 3 days. The longer you marinate, the stronger the taste. When I use salmon, I marinate it for 2 -3 days. It depends on the type and size of the fish.
Japanese miso marinated fish
Equipment
- Plastic bag or container with lid
- Oven or fish griller
Ingredients
- 4 piece Salmon with skin (or high oil content white fish with skin)
- 1 tablespoon Salt (corse salt)
- 125 gram White miso (low salt content miso)
- 1.5 tablespoon Japanese sake or Chinese rice wine or sherry
- 1 – 1.5 tablespoon Sugar
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt on both sides of the fish and leave for 15 minutes.
- Pour water into a bowl and gently rinse the fish in the bowl to remove salt.
- Pat the fish thoroughly dry with paper towels.
- Place all ingredients (white miso, Japanese sake, sugar) in a bowl and mix well.
- Put a little miso mixture in a plastic bag or container, place the fish and spread the miso mixture evenly above and below the fish by a rubber spatula. Even when stacking fillets on top of each other, it is important to ensure that miso mixture is inserted between the fishes. Remove the air and close the plastic bag or cover the container with lid. Place the plastic bag or container in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days. The miso mixture must be absorbed by the fish.
- If the fish has miso remaining on it, it is easy to burn, so you can either wash it quickly and dry with paper towels, or just wipe the miso mixture with kitchen paper without washing.
- Preheat oven to 190 – 200 C. Bake the fish for about 15-20 minutes or until cooked through and edges are slightly browned. If you have a fish griller, grill at medium heat and pay attention not to burn the fish.
You may need to try a few times to make it your own. But the deliciousness is worth it.
If you have bought miso paste and there is any miso paste left, you can make delicious Japanese miso soup. Please click the link below.
Thanks for reading and Bon Appetit!