We'll be doing a few cross-posts with our friends at the newly launched Marco Polo Seafood - an online purveyor of high quality seafood. We've been customers for a while and have tried their scallops, scampi, and lobster, which are all excellent. Go check them out!

For our first recipe we'll be looking at something of a modern classic, Nobu’s Miso-Marinated Black Cod Recipe. This serves four people. 

Ingredients

1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin
4 tablespoons white miso paste
3 tablespoons sugar
4 Alaskan Black Cod fillets, about 220 grams each

Directions

Three days before you wish to eat, perhaps at the start of the week, make the miso marinade and marinate the fish.

1. Bring the sake and mirin to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat.
2. Boil for 20 seconds to evaporate the alcohol.
3. Turn the heat down to low, add the miso paste and whisk.
4. When the miso has dissolved completely, turn the heat up to high and add the sugar, whisking constantly to stop that the sugar from burning on the bottom of the pan.
5. Remove from heat when the sugar is fully dissolved. The cool to room temperature.

Preparing the Cod

1. Dry the black cod fillets thoroughly with paper towels.
2. Cover the fish with the miso marinade and place in a dish or bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
3. Leave to marinate in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.

Cooking the Cod

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Preheat a grill or broiler.
2. Lightly wipe off any excess miso clinging to the fillets (don’t rinse it off).
3. Place the fish skin-side-up on the grill and cook until the surface of the fish browns and blackens in spots, usually about 3 minutes.
4. Flip and grill until the other side is browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Then transfer to the oven and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, until fish is opaque and flakes easily.
5. Serve up your delicious Alaskan Black Cod and eat.

Cork Culture Wine Pairing:

Sometimes the simple old adage can apply: whites with fish, reds with steak. But just like how the textures of fish can differ – how firm salmon is on the bite compared to the crumbly nature of sea bass – so too do white wines vary in terms of complexity of aroma and intensity of flavour.

With a thick fillet of black cod, which should be crisp and firm on the outside and then softer and more translucent in the middle, we want a more rich and full-bodied white wine to match the texture of the cut.

Black cod is known for having an almost buttery richness, so we also want to look for a slightly oaky but aromatic white wine from a hotter region. Oaky white wines will have a vanilla character that will complement this note perfectly.

For this pairing we’ve chosen a wine from the southern Rhône Valley called La Truffière by the organic winery La Ferme du Mont, which is 50% Grenache blanc, 40% Viognier, and 10% Clairette – all white grape varietals used widely in the region.

Grenache Blanc and Viognier have fresh notes of apples, apricots, and flowers, which won’t overpower the delicacy of the miso sauce, as the wine should always just be the accompaniment to the meal!