This One's For Kate

As I was leaving the store the other day I got a text from my best friend, Kate, “I need another blog post, one about food, I’ve read the tomato one multiple times and I need something new.” So Kate, this one’s for you. 

There’s something magical about the striper run each season. (Striper, rockfish...whatever you call them they’re delicious.) When those beauties arrive off the coast it’s all I can do not to shove Joseph out the door and onto the boat to try to catch some dinner. He never objects of course. 

So when he finally caught a couple last week after weeks of coming up short we were both so ecstatic, a flood of recipes came running into my head. Look how excited he is :)

After some narrowing down I settled on one of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh fish in the spring. Over wilted spinach from the garden in a miso broth. Gather your ingredients, spinach, ginger & green onions come first. 

Isn't Joseph's spinach so pretty? Anyway, clean and chop your spinach, removing any thick stems. Peel and mince 1 T of ginger. Thinly slice the dark and light green parts of 3 green onions and set aside. Mince the remaining white parts and place in a  small bowl. 

The miso and mirin are the only kind of strange ingredients in this and depending on where you live they might be hard to find. The mirin, a sweet rice wine, is available in the Asian section of most supermarkets and it's a great ingredient to keep in your pantry. I found the miso on a trip to Whole Foods in the refrigerated section, near the yogurt. The only place I've seen it locally is at Grub Grocery in Rehoboth (next to the Cultured Pearl) but it might be available at any of the health food or organic stores in the area as well. It keeps forever in the fridge and a little goes a long way.

Whisk 1 heaping T of the miso with 1 cup of water until mostly dissolved and set aside. Place your chopped spinach and sliced green onions in a large saucepan and cook over medium high heat or until the spinach is mostly wilted.

Add the mirin, cook until dissolved, then add the miso and water mix and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and let simmer slowly while you prepare the fish. 

Mix the minced white parts of the onions, the miso, minced ginger and grapeseed oil in a  small bowl and spread it over one side of the fish. 

Sprinkle the panko over this mixture and press to adhere. 

Place these panko side down in a hot pan with the remaining grapeseed oil. You can definitely use vegetable oil instead but I like the grapeseed oil here because it has a high smoke point and not very much flavor so it won't detract from the flavors of the ginger spread or the rockfish. Cook the fish panko side down until golden brown and then carefully flip. You have two choices at this point, finish it in the oven or add a little water, cover it and steam it like I did. I've done it both ways and honestly it comes down to whether I remember to preheat the oven or not. It's great either way but I went the steam way this night. 

Cook, covered or in the oven until the fish is just cooked through, taking care not to overcook it or it will dry out. If you have a tough time determining when fish is done, use a meat thermometer in the center thickest part of the fillet. It should reach 138º-140º. When your fish is done, remove it from the heat. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, divide the spinach and green onions between two shallow bowls and pour the miso broth over. Top each bowl with a piece of the fish and enjoy! (Preferably with a glass of cold white wine, in a painted TaDa wineglass!)

Here is my recipe for the rockfish, adapted from epicurious.com Check it out and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

xo,

Blair & The TaDa Girls

Rockfish with Wilted Spinach and Miso Broth

Serves 2

For the spinach & broth:

large bowl of spinach

3 green onions, dark and pale green parts, whites reserved

1 heaping Tbsp miso

1 cup water

2 Tbsp mirin

For the fish:

2 fillets of Rockfish (or black cod or sea bass)

1 Tbsp minced ginger (or you can totally cheat and use the tube of 'fresh' ginger from the herb section of the produce department)

1 Tbsp miso

4 Tbsp grapeseed oil, divided

1/4 cup panko

Reserved white parts of green onions from above

1/3 cup water

Clean your spinach really well and remove any thick stems. Chop it into a rough chop. Thinly slice the dark and pale green parts of the green onions and set aside. Whisk the 2 T miso with the 2 cups of water in a small bowl. 

Add the spinach and green onions to a large saucepan over medium high heat. Toss gently until spinach is wilted, 2-3 minutes. Add the mirin and cook until dissolved. Pour the miso and water mix over and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer while preparing the fish.

Rinse your fish under cold water and pat very dry with paper towels. Mince the white parts of the green onions and mix together with the ginger, miso and 2 T grapeseed oil in a small bowl. Spread the ginger mix on one side of each of the fillets. Sprinkle with the panko and press to adhere. 

Heat the remaining oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Place the fish in, panko side down and cook 4 minutes or until panko is golden brown. Turn fish over, pour in water, reduce heat to medium and cover. Continue cooking 5-6 minutes or until fish is cooked through. 

Divide spinach and green onions between shallow serving bowls, pour miso broth over and top with fish. Serve immediately.