This recipe is a recreation from Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook Cravings: Hungry for More! I absolutely adore this recipe and make it constantly. The recipe was inspired by Nobu’s famous Black Cod, where the cod is marinated in a special miso marinade for four days and costs a whopping $43 (at time of posting). This is a time saving & low cost way to enjoy a similar dish at home. I typically like to scale up the amount of the sauce, so that I can use all of the Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter, but that is totally optional. You can make this as written in the book, or add more fish & snap peas and scale up the sauce. I have listed the ingredients list both ways below. If you don’t use all the butter for the sauce, the remainder can be used to sauté vegetables, or you could toss vegetables in the butter and roast it in the oven!
Ingredients:
For the Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter:
- 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup white (shiro) miso
- If you can’t find miso at the grocery store, a great alternative is Miso & Easy broth concentrate
- 2 tablespoons chives, finely minced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground preferred
- Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
For the Sweet Miso-Butter Cod with Snap Peas:
As listed in the book:
- 2 6 ounce pieces of cod, center cut preferred (for thickness)
- Salt and pepper, for seasoning the fish
- 6 tablespoons Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter (made above), at room temperature
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1/4 cup sake
- 1 tbsp water
- 8 ounces snap peas, ends trimmed & checked for strings
To use all of the Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter:
- 1 1/2 pounds of cod, cut into desired portions (this will likely have varying thickness, which is fine!)
- Salt and pepper, for seasoning the fish
- Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter (made above), at room temperature
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1/3 cup sake
- 2 tbsp water
- 10 ounces snap peas, ends trimmed & checked for strings
Directions:
- To make the Spicy Garlic-Miso butter, place the room temperature butter in a bowl. If it is not soft enough to the point that poking it with your finger would easily leave an indent, heat it up in the microwave at 10-second intervals until it is softened, but not melted. Add the miso, chives, pepper and cayenne. Mash the butter with a fork to mix in all of the ingredients, until it is fully incorporated. If you are making this ahead of time, it can be refrigerated, but make sure to bring it back to room temperature before using it for the dish.
- Before you begin, turn on your broiler and adjust your oven racks so that one is in the center of the oven. If your broiler has settings, set it to medium or low. (It will be helpful to know how your broiler behaves for this, because no oven is alike. Personally, I have to set my broiler to high, but you are better off starting low and increasing the setting or moving your oven racks as needed, instead of accidentally burning your food.)
- Season your fish with your desired amount of salt and pepper.
- Heat a pan that can be transferred to the oven over medium heat. (If you do not have a pan that is oven safe, that’s okay! Use a regular pan, and then before moving to the oven, transfer everything to a baking dish.)
- Add the Spicy Garlic-Miso butter to the pan along with brown sugar, sake & water. Stir to incorporate all the ingredients, and allow the butter to fully melt. Let this come to a simmer.
- Put the prepared fish in the skillet and cook for roughly 4 minutes, spooning some of the sauce on top of the fish. Allow it to cook until the bottom half of the fish is opaque.
- Add the snap peas to the pan. If you have room in your pan, place the snap peas alongside the fish. If you don’t have enough room, add the snap peas and gently transfer the fish so that it is sitting atop the snap peas. If you are using a non-oven safe pan, put the snap peas into a baking dish, then transfer the cod to the pan, and pour the sauce over everything. (Remember that cod is a delicate fish, so you will need to do this carefully. Don’t fret if some of the fish breaks off, or splits in half. It happens to the best of us! It will still taste delicious!)
- Spoon more of the sauce over the fish and snap peas so that it is nicely coated.
- Place your pan into the oven under the broiler. You want everything to be caramelizing, and the sauce should be bubbling. (You want to really pay attention to the fish when it is under the broiler! Don’t walk away! If you notice the sauce is not bubbling, move the rack closer to the broiler, or increase the setting of the broiler. Conversely, if it is burning or blackening too quickly, lower the setting, or move your rack away from the broiler.) You will continue to cook until everything is nicely caramelized, and some of the snap peas and spots on the fish are charred or starting to blacken. In total, this will take about 4 to 8 minutes, but depending on the temperature of your broiler and how long it cooked on the stove, this may take more or less time. You want the fish to be opaque, and easily flake with a fork, or be 145°F when you insert an instant-read thermometer.
- Remove the pan from the oven & serve!
Dorlicious 