Sake kasu is the lees from making sake, and comes as a thick paste. It has a wonderful aroma of rice and alcohol, and makes a great marinate for white fish. You can in fact, find fish ready marinated this way in some Japanese shops. This recipe will work perfectly well with miso.
In this simple recipe, the fish fillets are skewered and grilled to give the best result.
Ingredients and Prep
You need of course to start with some lovely white fish fillet. In this case, I am using a seabass fillet from Ah Hua Kelong.
I am particular about the way my fillets are done – serious! Some guys don’t do it well. This fillet had been nicely done, and pin boned.
Cut the fillet in manageable pieces.
It helps if you slit the skin, this helps to reduce the curling of the fillet as it cooks – the skin shrinks more than the flesh.
I make a series of long, shallow cuts close to each other – they will create a nice effect upon cooking.
The sake kasu (you can use miso) comes as a thick paste. I add equal parts of sake and mirin to it, to thin it out so it becomes spreadable. The sugar in the mirin adds sweetness and colour when the fish is grilled.
You can let the fish marinate, but its also quite alright to cook almost immediately
This marinate has a tendency to burn so in this case I spread the marinate only on the undersides of the fillets, as I intended use only the top grill.(i.e. the heat is applied only from the top, or skin, side).
Skewering
Yes, of course you can just pop the fish fillet into an over, on a tray or dish. However, I used a skewering technique for a very specific reason – to suspend the fish in mid-air, so that there is no danger of the marinate burning on the hot dish, and sticking.
The skewering can take a bit of practise. Press the fillets, skin side down, gently against a broad. The skewer should be close to the skin, but ideally not break it. I “float” the skewer just above the board. It is best to skewer from the thicker end (at the top of the fish) towards the belly.
Ideally, the skewers should from a “V”.
The point where the two skewers meet provides a convenient place to hold the assembly. The two skewers should emerge close to the corners at the belly side of the fillet. This way, the thin flesh of the belly is well supported.
By placing the skewered fish onto a deep tray, the fish is now suspended in air – only the skewers are in contact with the rim of the tray. There is nothing, apart from the skewers, for the fish to get stuck to.
Cook!
With the fish marinated and skewered, all you have to do is fire up the grill.
And in goes the fish!
This is how it looks after about 10 minutes. I smeared on a little more of the marinate, to the skin side this time. You can see here the attractive pattern from the slits made in the skin.
You can return the fish to the grill for a further 2 or 3 minutes, but here I finished with a blow torch.
Thicker fillets may need to he turned and grilled again, but these fillets were thin and were already cooked through.
Nevertheless, there is still excuse to use the blow torch!
Plate and Eat
It is quite delicious with pearl rice.
Eat!
Dubeers on Facebook – hope you enjoyed this! Like Dubeers on Facebook for more recipes and food facts!
Additional notes
Using Miso – If you choose to use miso, I suggest you look for white miso (shir0 miso). If you are unfamiliar, try to get the lighter miso – I don’t think a dark miso (ada miso) will work too well. It’s also important to get “pure” miso that does not come with dashi. Miso is often sold mixed with dashi, these are meant for instant miso soup.
On skewering – I have tried this only with skin-on fillets. I assume the skin provides structure to the delicate fish and holds it together. Success with this technique could take more than one attempt – the worse that could happen is the fish falling to the tray in pieces. You can still eat it.
Skewering the tail section – notice that three skewers were necessary, and the direction of the skewers is along the body of the fish. The other fillets were skewered perpendicular to the body of the fish.
Moving/turning the skewers – when you turn or move the skewered fish, hold firmly at the point where the skewers cross, being careful not to move the skewers relative to each other. Otherwise you will break the fillet.
Alright – once again, its fine to just place the fish on a tray! I suggest not to use aluminium foil so you can carefully scape and free the fish from the tray.