7-Day Old Fish, Miso, Sake and Mirin

Okay, I finally made the marinade tonight and the cod is soaking in it as we speak.

After spending 5 hours longer at the office than I was planning to, I was going to go to the Tribeca Film Festival, but my boyfriend decided to be a saint and said, "Let's go home and relax honey. You look tired." Thank you, honey!

So I sat down to read some great new books I borrowed from the library today, including: How to Eat, by Nigella Lawson; Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison; The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook; The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Reading through their brilliant descriptions, I became inspired and decided to get over my exhaustion.

I decided to tackle the cod. First, I cut off a tiny piece and tried to steam it in the microwave, just to make sure that the fish wasn't too fishy. Well, I ended up microwaving it too long, so it turned into fish jerky. But.. after that I decided, what the hay, I already bought all the ingredients, I should just do this!

So I put 3/4 cup of sake and 1 cup of mirin into a saucepan; these I boiled for about 20 seconds on high heat. I lowered the heat, then I dumped in 2 cups of white miso. I pulled out the whisk and dissolved the miso into the soup. After it seemed dissolved, I dumped in 1 1/4 cup of sugar and switched the heat to high. The recipe indicated it should yield 3 cups of miso, but for some reason it looks like I've got about 5 cups of mixture.

Did I make a mistake? I let the mixture cool for about twenty minutes, then I "slathered" the fish with miso, or rather buried it since there was so much mixture.

Okay.. so now its time to wait. I'm supposed to marinade it for 3 days in the fridge then-- its time for cookin'!

I'll let you know how it turns out.. Nobu, don't let me down!