Do you remember your first true love? I remember mine. It was my 21st birthday and some friends took me to eat at Nobu in New York and I had the miso black cod and fell in love with it. I would marry it if it meant I could have it every day. But before you get an unsavory mental image of me making out with a piece of broiled fish let me share some good news with you- I have kind of figured out how to make a pretty good approximation, and I have learned some important ingrediential facts that will help you make it, too.




This is a recipe that I adapted from Wolfgang Puck's adaptation of Nobu Matsuhisa's original recipe. It's not hard to make in terms of time or numbers of ingredients, but you have to plan a couple days ahead for the marinating, and it can require some legwork in the procurement of the proper ingredients. And if you don't get the proper ingredients, it's not worth making, I have tried. So there are a couple of important things to realize:

• About the black cod... black cod is not cod at all. It is also known as sablefish or just sable. Sometimes it is known as butterfish because of its buttery texture BUT a whole bunch of other things can be known as butterfish so that's not a safe thing to ask for. There is no good reason for it to be called "black cod" because, 1) there is an actual cod variety called black cod that we don't eat, and that is nothing like the kind we do eat, and 2) the properties that make it so delicious in this dish--namely, that it is so tender and flaky--are the exact OPPOSITE properties of regular cod. Cod is prized for its density and firmness, which is why it's used in fish and chips and other applications that don't work with delicate fish. So the nomenclature is completely screwy. At any rate, you should be able to find it co-branded as sablefish and black cod at Whole Foods. That was the only place I was able to find it. 

• About the miso You need white miso paste for this. The best kind is called Kyoto white miso (that's not the brand name but the type.) You will probably have to get it at a Japanese or specialty market. It's actually not white, it's light caramel in color, but that's the type.

Miso Black Cod
this amount is for 4 people. If you make more, up to 8, you can probably get away with the same amount of miso sauce- you don't have to double.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup dry sake (you can use a cheap kind)
• 3/4 cup mirin
• 1 cup white miso paste
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 black cod fillets - about 6 ounces per person is a reasonable amount
• pickled ginger for serving
  

Method:

• Put the sake and mirin in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil gently for about 20 seconds.
• Stir in the miso and cook over medium low heat until it's dissolved.
• Add the sugar and turn up the heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
• Put about 1/2 cup of the miso sauce aside, cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge to use as garnish later.
• Pat the fish fillets dry with paper towels. In a non-reactive dish, spread a bit of the miso sauce in the bottom (I like to use a glass 9x13 pan.) Lay the fillets in the sauce in one layer and smear a bunch more of the sauce on top. If you have more fillets put those on top and spread more sauce on. The fillets should be completely covered on both sides.
• Cover tightly and put in the fridge for at least 24 hours, up to 3 days.
• To cook, preheat a broiler to high. Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
• Wipe the bulk of the miso off the fish with your (hopefully freshly washed) hands, and put the fish on the paper. Put under the broiler until the top is brown and caramelized. You may have to move the fish pieces around on the pan to get them evenly browned but do it carefully as the fish is delicate.
• When the fish is opaque, it is done. If the top is browned but the fish is not quite done, take it out and turn off the broiler. Put the oven to 400 and cook the fish in the oven for another couple of minutes until it's opaque all the way through.
• Serve with pickled ginger and a bit of the reserved miso sauce.