a meal with no photos

before leaving for spring break, i made a small filet of chilean sea bass in a white miso paste. it's normally black cod miso, what you find at most good japanese restaurants, but unfortunately there was no black cod at the market.

the sea bass (which also not a good fish to buy for the environment) was the best they had, i thought about halibut, but the texture wouldn't work. the miso paste itself was easy to make, and the fish is normally supposed to sit in the paste for at least 2 days to really absorb the flavor of the sweet miso. but i only had 5 hours, which still worked out fine. it was just more subtle than it might normally be.

along with the fish, i made a cho-gae tang (korean clam soup with spinach). it starts by making a simple clam broth (clams boiled in water). i took our the clam meat pretty early on, in order to prevent them from getting too tough. i let the shells boil away in the water to give it a healthy clam flavor. there was also a touch of beef broth to give it a little depth and some fermented soybean paste (the good homemade stuff). i tossed in some jalapenos to give it some late kick. i strained it all through a sieve and some paper towels to make it a super clear broth.

i chopped up some spinach and blanched it. along with the spinach and the clam meat, i chopped up some mushrooms, garlic and green onions. i tossed them all into the now clear broth and brought it to a boil again and it was ready to serve.

very simple and clean - good for the body with the iron from the spinach and the calcium from the clams. i forgot to tap photos because i was running a little late on time, but next time.