Kingfish…King?

Posted on Sep 27, 2013 in Hiroko's Blog, Recipes

kingfish Blue Moonkingfish filletsalt grilled kingfishMiso kingfish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel a bit guilty to continue to post another discovery of delicious wild fish when the resource of the ocean is getting less and less, and consuming locally caught wild fish has become scarce for the majority. But,…..

This week I found a wild Kingfish at Blue Moon. Another fish which I have never encountered in my life. Fishmonger’s comment on its fatty and delicious meat and relatively inexpensive price – $3.50/pound – pursuaded me to purchase the fish. As you can see in this photo Kingfish has a distinctive look. Its body is covered with several bold ink brush like strokes. The flat chin bears barbel. Like the previously discovered Crevalle Jack kingfish is said to be a good fighter in water and is commonly found from the Chesapeake Bay to New York.

After scaling I filleted the fish and found white flesh like porgy and sea bass. But during filleting I felt quite an amount of oiliness through my knife. So, I decided this fish should be suited to Saikyo miso yaki cooking. I marinated half of the fish in the miso marinade and remaining half left as is for shioyaki grilling in order to check the true flavor of the fish.

Two days ago I tasted Shioyaki kingfish. It was really great. Noticeably richer and sweeter flavor than porgy and sea bass. Here you can see I served it with shishitogarashi pepper and plum sauce.

Tonight I cooked the miso marinated kingfish. It was so good. I will look for the kingfish next Wednesday at Blue Moon, so that I can marinate it again in the miso. The beautify of miso marinating is that it prolongs the edible time of the fish. I can also freeze the marinated fish for much later consumption.

When you do Saikyo miso yaki no matter which fish you use – black cod, cod, kingfish or salmon – here are the tips for successful preparation.

1. Do not use sugar in the miso marinade.

Saikhyo miso marinated grilled black cod or other fish served at restaurants here in America tastes away too sweet. I feel like eating sugared fish candy, but not savory fish dish. In Japan the miso marinade includes only white sweet miso, whose natural sweetness comes from aging, mirin and sake. For making the marinade I recommend Great Eastern Sun’s Mellow White Miso sold under Miso Master brand. Great Eastern Sun produces miso which is unpasturized (it is really rare to be able to get unpasturized one in America), is no GM, is Kosher, is produced in an authentic Japanese miso production method and uses domestic ingredients. Miso Master miso is available at ordinary American food stores and supermarkets.

2. Salt the fish before marinating it.

This is one of the most important process which you never forget. Salting removes excess water along with some strong fishy flavor from the fish. Properly salted, rinsed and wipe-dried fish does not exude unnecessary, off-tasting water to the marinade, so the fish absorbs flavor from the miso marinade in the most efficient way.

3. Watch and control the heat of the stove top when cooking marinated fish. Marinated fish burns quicker than un-marinated fish. When you use broiler, once the fish acquired a golden color on both surface, loosely cover the fish with an aluminum foil during the rest of the cooking.