Tag: mirin
Chinese Style Beef Stew with Chinese Broccoli
This dish is delicious. I had some lovely stew beef pieces in my freezer which I bought from Eataly in NYC. If you haven’t been to this huge space filled with delicious food- you must go. I admit, it is overpriced but there is a certain thrill about being in a place surrounded with amazing cooked food and ingredients to cook delicious foods. I love spending a few hours in there and buy fresh pasta, meat and cheese from there. A while ago I bought Prosecco jelly to be served with cheese. I was very curious to try it and it was delicious…
Anyway, I wanted to make a stew and decided on an Asian style dish. I started thinking of the spices and came up with Chinese five spice powder, a cinnamon stick and tamari for the savory component. I also chose shitake mushrooms, green onions and ginger- and also mirin. It is used in Japanese cuisine and is a sweet rice wine- it has a very distinct flavor- perfect for what I was looking for. Well, the stew was amazing. I decided to serve it with some soba noodles and sauteed Chinese broccoli.
Try this different kind of stew- you may never make your old one…
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Miso Marinated Salmon
I love miso flavored anything. I first had the alaskan butterfish marinated in white miso at Ming Tsai’s restaurant, Blue Ginger in Boston. It was so fabulous that I replicated it at home with great success. Alaskan butterfish or black cod is quite expensive and is definitely not for a regular weeknight meal. I wanted to use similar flavors and try it with another fish. Salmon came to mind since it is one of the healthiest fish to have and it is not as expensive.
I bought fresh Alaskan salmon at Whole Foods. I am a little leery about using the farm raised variety, especially since they add color to make the salmon pink- I really don’t like that idea at all. I would rather have salmon less often and pay more for the wild variety.
I bought a big piece and and marinated it with white miso, tamari and a little mirin. The flavors are wonderful together and compliment the fish really well. I also made a fried rice with the fish – I had fresh corn and bok choy in the fridge and decided to combine the two in the rice (recipe to follow on Monday).
It was great healthy meal. My daughter does not like salmon- at all. So, I had her try a bite (she hated it) and then gave her the fried rice and made a chicken sausage for her on the side. She is usually such a good eater that I didn’t have a problem with her not enjoying the fish. It is probably the only fish she doesn’t like. All in all it was a successful meal.
- 4 salmon fillets (6 oz each, about an inch thick)
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 2 tablespoons tamari
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon butter
Mix the miso, tamari, sugar, honey and mirin together and marinate the salmon for 2-3 hours.
Arrange fish in a shallow dish lined with aluminum foil. Spoon the left over marinade evenly over the fish. Distribute the butter evenly over all the fillets.
Broil 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
Serve with fried rice.
Miso Marinated Black Cod with Bok Choy Fried Rice
This is now my favorite fish- all time favorite!! My husband has been obsessed with it for many years- actually since he ate it at Blue Ginger- Ming Tsai’s restaurant in Boston. I recently found it at our local fish store. I was so excited to bring it home and cook with it. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so, I decided to look at the Ming Tsai’s recipe. Since it was quite complicated, I used it as my inspiration. I bought white miso paste- which I have discovered, is a great ingredient to use. It gives the dish a very mild and complex flavor. I marinated it in miso, mirin, ginger and sugar. Kept it in the fridge over night and then broiled it. It melts in your mouth- the most delicious, buttery flavored fish you will every have- guaranteed!
When we were at Blue Ginger recently, I ate their other signature dish- Lobster fried rice. It was very flavorful and delicious. The flavor that stuck in my mind was the butter in the jasmine rice- it came through really well, especially with the lobster. I wanted to replicate that for the bok choy fried rice I was going to make. I decided to saute the rice with a combination of oil and butter and then cook it in chicken broth. Once the rice was cooled off, I took the left over fish marinade and used it as the base flavor. I added the bok choy with salt and pepper. It is a very simple dish- but extremely flavorful. The fish marinade gives it a great earthy flavor. The buttery rice goes really well with the chopped bok choy. If you have never cooked with this vegetable- you must! It’s delicious- it reminds me of eating cabbage and broccoli rabe. The crunch is great and the flavor is mild and goes great in Asian dishes.
My husband was thrilled to eat this meal- reminded him of the Blue Ginger experience! Now, it is an expensive fish to buy but it is a lot cheaper than what you would pay at a restaurant. With the money you save, you can buy a great bottle of wine and make it a fantastic meal!