Name: Mackerel in Bean Sauce (Saba No Miso Ni )
Yield: Serves 4.
Cuisine: Japan
Ingredients: ½ cup water; 5–6 inches konbu (kelp for stock making); Small knob of fresh ginger (about size of thumb); 4 tablespoons sugar; 5 tablespoons Sendai miso (dark bean paste); 2 tablespoons saké (rice wine); 2 teaspoons salt; 4 small mackerel fillets, about 2–3 ounces each, with skin intact

Preparation info

Serves
4
.

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

At Home with Japanese Cooking

By Elizabeth Andoh

Published 1986

About

This pungent bean sauce garnished with fresh ginger is perfect with firm-fleshed mackerel. Here the fish is blanched and poached, then simmered in a fast-reducing sauce. The result is tender, richly flavored fish that would be particularly good served with hot white rice and a cold, tart vegetable salad.

Ingredients

4 small mackerel fillets, about 2–3 ounces each, with skin intact
2 teaspoons salt

Method

Rinse the fish fillets gently under water and pat them dry. Sprinkle the salt over the fillets and let them marinate for 10–15 minutes. Use tweezers to remove any small bones.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Blanch the salted fillets until they are firm and white, and quickly remove them. Gently rinse off any scum that might be clinging to the fish.

In a small saucepan p