If anyone is still reading, thank you. It’s the week of Thanksgiving and I feel like it’s been months since I’ve written. Bad writer’s block and somehow it’s the end of the year! I’ve been moved to words by something that so many people have already covered, the very Japanese fish counter at (of all places) the new Wegman’s in Astor Place.
Fish. I’m Japanese, I love it, but I don’t cook enough of it. I usually buy groceries from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, and the selection is limited. As in, I cook a lot of salmon, usually a slow sear on low heat with vegetables, seasoned with soy and sake. But of course the farmer’s markets in New York are so amazing, and David came back from Union Square one day with filets of trout from Hudson Valley Fisheries and an assortment of mushrooms, hen of the woods, oyster, and all of the other funky fungus that they sell at the gren market. I marinated the trout in a saikyo style (my friend Lisa mentions that she marinates enough fish for a week or so - such a good idea), with white miso and sake and cooked the first two pieces with some of the mushrooms on a pan with the lid on. It’s simple and clean and so evocative of autumn in Japan, when mushrooms are on every menu and the fish is so plentiful, so for the next two, I decided to make a dish that I didn’t eat much of growing up, but that felt right: I cooked the fish and mushrooms on top of rice in a clay pot so that the fish and the mushrooms would perfume the rice.
You do not need to cook your fish with mushrooms and could bake, broil, or grill your marinated fish. Gindara, or black cod is the most traditional use of the marinade as made famous by Nobu. I highly recommend making it yourself so that you can adjust the seasoning to your liking and not have to fork out like $40 or whatever it is restaurants charge these days.
I don’t have a rice cooker right now and use my clay pot for everything, and this is a (very rough) recipe. On another note, do you measure when you cook? I absolutely do not, with the exception for measuring out rice when I cook, but realize that some people do.
Ayu! Wegmans
Anyway, Trout (or another mild fish) Saikyo Marinade with Mushrooms and Rice
Cut your trout (or any fish) into 1/4 lb (single serving for you) pieces and cover with a dollop of white miso and a splash of sake. I also like to add a small piece of kombu. Mix and coat fish and let sit for at least one day.
Measure out however much rice you would like, wash, drain, and cover with enough water so that it comes up to the first joint of your finger. Place fish on top and scatter with mushroom.
Put on a lid, put on high heat, when it is boiling, lower to a bare simmer and set timer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat after 10 minutes and let sit for another 10 minutes.
On another day, I waltzed over to the Wegmans to be greeted by fish whose names I did not recognize (and written in Japanese, too!) and a Japanese (and Japanese-speaking) fish counter salesman. Lost, I asked for a recommendation as to what fish to buy for shioyaki (grillled - I don’t know why, as I don’t really have the gear for this) and a nitsuke (braise) and walked away with some aji (horse mackerel) and a variety of sea bream that I can’t remember. It’s quite an expansive fish counter, I went with my dad another day and he was also impressed. I realize it hasn’t been open for very long and hope that it continues.1
No words on the shioyaki, as I tried to cook the aji on a carbon steel pan rather than a grill, .which I do not own. I wouldn’t recommend this for an apartment as it smokes fairly aggressively although 10/10 would do this if I had an outdoor hibachi set up, which, another aside, I saw as part of a very discreet 2 demonstration in Boerum Hill.
Snow Peak demonstration of a hibachi that would be so perfect for grilling fish
The other fish I prepared in the simple soy-ginger braise that my family prepared (and still prepares) often growing up. Essentially, you simmer some sake in a pot with slices of ginger and a splash of soy, add your fish, and slowly simmer until ready. While it is traditional to sweeten this slightly by using mirin and/or sugar, I can’t find any real mirin in New York (although I’m sure it exists) and use (as my mother now does) pieces of dried Medjool date instead. As I was hoping for a one-pot meal, I also added a bouquet of greens from Lani’s farm.
Soy and ginger simmered fish
Simmer a splash (let’s say a quarter cup) of sake and 3-4 slices of ginger in a pot. Add a splah (let’s say 2 tablespoons) of soy. Also add 1-2 medjool dates and some umeboshi if you have.
When simmering, add a handful of greens (untraditional) and your fish (let’s say 1 lb) and simmer with lid on until done.
Rice simmered in broth
The ginger does a lot of work in tempering any fishiness and will leave a flavorful liquid.
To the liquid, add some leftover cold rice and simmer until it has absorbed the liquid. Add an egg and mix to combine. This is ojiya, the best way to combine leftover broth and leftover rice into another meal.
Random Notes
I’ve not been thrilled with restaurants these past couple weeks. From an inedibly salty soba from a well regarded new shop in Greenpoint3 to the most leaden matzoh ball in Park Slope, it’s been many reminders that no one can cook the food I like better than me (obviously).
Having said that, Osteria Carlina in the West Village was perfect for a quiet dinner with my dad the other day. The atmosphere is cozy and the staff are friendly.
This enormous sourdough cinnamon roll from Lodge bakery in LA!
Also, this bowl of noodles from Sofun noodle bar. So perfect after a session at the Cliffs.
I also loved the desserts at Princess of Shoreditch in London, a restaurant that Nikkitha explained is much more of a late night dive than a proper restaurant. And in fact when we first arrived, it felt very much like a pub and nothing more. Yet on the second floor is a separate space that serves things like blackberry buckwheat souffles! Have I seen such desserts in NYC? Not recently.
Desserts at Princess of Shoreditch
As David has also invited approximatey 25 (but what feels like 250 given we live in a Brooklyn 1br) for Thanksgiving, I have been feeling much holiday panic (my mother, upon hearing the size of the guest list, wisely said she would host her own Thanksgiving hah). The upside is that it gives me an excuse to bake: the William Greenberg apple almond cake is cooling on the counter4, a batch of poppyseed paste was tested (and already eaten), and a garlic scallion babka (courtesy of Bengingi), is in the freezer. Anyway, more on that another time as this already feels like an opus. Below though, is a photo from Rosh Hashanah of the apple-honey babka (a hybrid of Smitten Kitchen and Jayne Cohen recipes) because the lighting was just so perfect.
As my dad notes, the JPY is practically free right now and Japan is keen to offload fish now that China has stopped buying. Will this endeavor continue after these circumstances have expired?
The most beautiful and the most ridiculous outdoor shop I have ever seen that makes REI look like Walmart, albeit they do also sell their gear at REI. The Snow Peak demonstration was part of a Chanoyu Week matcha event, when various practitioners of matcha (organized by Yoshitsugu Nagano) prepared matcha throughout the day for participants. The Snow Peak demo involved a beautiful hibachi grill and kettles as well as a table over which the representative prepared bowls of matcha. Just what one needs to camp!
I was skeptical after seeing that one of the menu items seemed to look more like a seafood bowl than soba, but wanted to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, there continues to be 0 good soba in NYC.
Made with 14 oz and not 16oz of almond paste as this stuff comes in tubes of 7oz.