Black cod with miso

Eating alone can be a glory or a drag. Shoveling things out of a bowl with a spoon to your mouth in front of your favorite television program; standing next to the refrigerator with a plate in one hand and telephone wedged on the other shoulder; sitting quietly at your dining table with a candle lit and nicest silver on it can all qualify as the sweetest or most dreadful things in the world, depending on your mood. I tend to agree with Jean-Paul Sartre that other people are not always such great company. More often than not, I like eating alone.

But it was not of my own volition that I ate this alone. Black cod, sometimes called sablefish (though, confusingly, they are not necessarily the same animal), is expensive, and a friend and I had decided to try our hands out it.  Or rather, try my hand: I would cook the cod; he would furnish the wine. But something or other came up, and dinner couldn’t happen. Like company, of course, fish stinks after three days, and this particular preparation should be marinated for at least a day. By the time our dinner got called off, that expensive fish was already doing its thing in my fridge, and I had far too much of it for just one person.

A bit of googling suggests that black cod with miso is  particular to a certain fancy (and fantastic) Japanese restaurant. In contrast to this, I understand miso-marinated fish to be a traditional Japanese preparation. Marinating in miso preserves the fish, and the method has remained particularly popular with the fattier fishes (black cod, sablefish, and salmon are all appropriate here), as the pungency and sweetness of the white miso can cut all that fat very nicely. So for the dinner date that never was, I ate my fish alone, which was, it must be said, a bit of a drag. The second night, though, crossing my fingers that this miso preservation thing worked inside my refrigerator in addition to rural Japanese fishing villages, I cooked his fish, ate it too, and that was glorious.

Black cod with miso

Adapted from Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku

As per always, I think small portions of animal-based foods are best for health as well as our environment, and for this preparation in particular I really truly think that ¼ pound per person is the farthest you should go. Like salmon, black cod is very rich in flavor and, frankly, very fatty. Anything more than a very small serving would be a little overwhelming. And yes, like salmon, they are the faddy fats, so you can feel virtuous about this dish if you like. Nice things to go with it might include: escarole steeped in dashi, pickled ginger, steamed rice.

½ pound black cod  | ½ cup white miso (preferably Saikyo miso)  |  2 t mirin  |  1 t grated zest of lemon, lime, or freeze-dried yuzu

Pat fish dry with paper towels. Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl. Spread this on all sides of the fish, and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Marinate in the refrigerator, as long as 48 hours. The fish will change color somewhat, and the texture will become firmer as it marinates.

To cook: Heat the broiler. Wipe off as much of the marinade as you can, and portion the fish. Broil for 6 minutes total, flipping the fish after 4 minutes.

Serves 2