Miso marinade over cod fillet

Miso Glazed Cod sounds fancypants but it's actually fairly easy to make. Essentially, all you need to do is make the miso marinade -- a blend of rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cayenne, olive oil, and of course, miso. Miso is a fermented soybean paste (the soybeans are funkified by the introduction of a rice fungus called kōji, then mixed with water and sea salt).

The sweet, umami-filled marinade is slathered over cod fillets and then broiled to develop a nice bubbly golden glaze. The dish is then baked off until the fish is opaque in center and the meat flakes off easily.

Miso Cod Prep

Miso Marinade

I like to serve this dish with some sauteed baby bok choy and rice steamed with a beaten egg thrown in. Or, try pairing it with a salad tossed in a ginger-sesame dressing. The miso glaze is also fantastic for tofu. Prepare the dish the same way, just swapping out the fish for extra-firm tofu slices. Both versions are great for an easy, light dinner.

This time of year is all about soup, what with cold season in full swing. You know how it is... you drag yourself home from work, head full of cement, and all you want is something warm and comforting to eat that will make you feel better. If you're looking for lighter soup that's nourishing and easy to digest -- as opposed to a thick, rich stew -- you might consider having a big bowl of miso soup. More interesting that your plain old chicken soup, miso is comfort food with a little international flair.

For those uninitiated in the ways of Japanese cuisine, miso is made from fermented soybeans and other grains, which are made into thick paste that is rich in protein and nutrients. While there are many different kinds of miso, the two you're most likely to find at your local grocery store are red miso and white miso. Red miso is saltier, having been fermented longer, and white miso is a little lighter in flavor. For making miso soup, you want to pick up a tub of white miso, also known as shiro miso. Note: This stuff lasts forever in the fridge. Seriously. I think my tub of miso is over a year old and it still tastes the exact same. Also, a little goes a long way, so don't buy a huge vat of miso unless you plan on willing it to your grandkids.

Another important ingredient in miso soup is dashi, or Japanese soup stock. Dashi is the base of many Japanese soups and sauces. While you can just buy dashi mix from the grocery store, I highly recommend making your own dashi -- just like chicken stock, it's way better when made from scratch! Dashi isn't vegetarian by default, but you can find veg dashi at Asian grocery stores.

Miso soup is a particularly good soup to eat when you're sick, due to its ample protein and high electrolyte content. Plus, fermented foods are easier to digest if your gut is sluggish from the virus du jour at your kid's school, so if you're just generally feeling the ick, a bowl of miso soup might be the one thing that will make you feel better.

There are several places in the Bay Area to get an incredible bowl of miso soup:

Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese Restaurant
1686 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 981-1213
-and-
762 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 252-7825

Okoze Sushi
1207 Union St
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 567-3397

Kahoo Ramen
4330 Moorpark Ave
San Jose, CA 95129
(408) 255-8244

Gombei Japanese Restaurant
193 Jackson St
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 279-4311

Norikonoko Japanese Restaurant
2556 Telegraph Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 548-1274

O Chamé
1830 4th St
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 841-8783

Some Japanese restaurants still use a packaged dry mix, so if you're going somewhere else, I'd call ahead to make sure you're getting a quality bowl of soup made with fresh ingredients. Pre-fab miso soup is ok, but once you've had the real thing, you'll never go back.

Speaking of the real thing, why don't you try making miso soup yourself at home? It's super easy, and will be leagues better than most of the stuff you'll find in restaurants.

Homemade Miso Soup Recipe
Makes: 2 bowls of soup

Ingredients:
1 6x6-inch piece of kombu, soaked 30-minutes to overnight in 5 cups of water

3 tablespoons bonito flakes

1/2 pound silken tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 tablespoons white miso paste

1 spring onion, sliced, for garnish

Method:
1. After the kombu has soaked overnight, bring the seaweed and its soak water into a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, then allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Add bonito flakes and remove from heat.
2. Allow soup to steep for another 10 minutes, then strain the broth into another pot. Bring to boil over a medium-low heat. Add tofu and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Ladle out about 1/2 cup of broth into a small bowl and mix in miso paste until it is completely dissolved and there are no lumps. Pour the miso into the rest of the broth and stir well. Place over medium heat just until the soup begins to simmer, then remove from heat and ladle into bowls. Top with sliced onion for garnish.

Still feeling sluggish? Here are a few other soups that will make you feel better. They're great if you're perfectly healthy, too:

• Homemade Chicken Soup
• Mom's Turkey Soup
• Tortilla Soup
• Vegetarian Split Pea Soup
• Gluten-Free Matzoh Ball Soup

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

"A girl's gotta eat!" quips Jaden Hair, self-taught cook, creator of the popular food blog Steamy Kitchen, and most recently, author of The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

This is the kind of sass and practicality that makes Jaden's work so enjoyable and relatable. Her new book is dubbed, "101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner" and features fast, simple, and delicious recipes passed down from her mom and inspired by her fellow food bloggers.

I first met Jaden at the BlogHer Food conference a few months ago, and was struck by her focus, drive, and of course, her sparkling personality. Judging from her expansive multi-media reach (Jaden is workin' it -- not only does she have a blog and book, she also writes a weekly column for the Tampa Tribune and has a syndicated show on Tampa Bay's CBS10), it's hard to believe that she's only been at this whole food thing for 2 ½ years.

(Other than feeling a little bad about myself) I find inspiration in her hustle. It was a pleasure chatting with Jaden, and I found myself nodding and smiling as her enthusiasm flowed through the phone line.

It wasn't until she moved away from California to a suburb of Tampa, devoid of good Asian markets and her mother's home cooking, that Jaden learned to cook. She earned her culinary degree via a $448.63 cell phone bill, and when I read her dedication on the front page of her book ("To my Mom, who spent thousands of hours reciting family recipe over the phone...and to my Dad, who patiently translated when our Chinglish didn't suffice."), I was reminded of my own inadequate Chinglish...and all the times I called my own mom from the grocery store, or begged her to just estimate how much soy sauce/rice vinegar/black bean sauce she used in a dish so I could piece together some semblance of a recipe.

Steamy Kitchen honors the passing down of recipes from generation to generation, from friend to friend, and recognizes that in doing so, it becomes more than just a recipe, but a tangible expression of family and community. I love that. I also love that the cookbook lends a real-life perspective on learning how to take what you have available and adapt it to your family meal. And, I love that this is a "homegrown" cookbook, written, styled, and photographed by Jaden herself. (True fact, the photos where you see her hands preparing a dish were taken by her 4-year-old son via tripod, wireless remote clicker, and chocolate bribe.)

Below is a recipe for Firecracker Shrimp, straight from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. It is a recipe that has become a regular at Jaden's dinner parties, and she warns, they rarely make it to the table because guests stand in the kitchen snagging them as they cool on the rack. The recipe is originally from Rice and Noodles by Mae Gabriel, a blog that inspired Jaden to take food photography seriously.

A good indication of the other dishes in The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, these Firecracker Shrimp are enticing and accessible. And, I'm fairly certain they won't be making it past the cooling rack at my next party either.

Firecracker Shrimp, Photo by Jaden Hair

Firecracker Shrimp
From The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair

Serves: 4-6 as appetizer

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon cornstarch or flour
¼ cup water
24 medium tail-on shrimp, shelled (leave tails on) and deveined
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sweet chilli sauce, divided *Recommended brands: Mae Ploy and Lingham (thicker, spicier and less sweet than Mae Ploy)
12 eggroll or fresh spring roll wrappers, cut in half diagonally and covered with plastic wrap or a damp cloth
High-heat cooking oil for frying

Preparation:
1) In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the water to make a slurry.
2) Lay the shrimp flat on a cutting board and using a sharp paring knife, cut a few nicks on the inside curve of the shrimp. Be careful not to cut through the shrimp. Pat the shrimp very dry.
3) Season the shrimp with the salt and pepper. Pour ¼ cup of the sweet chilli sauce on a small plate. Hold the shrimp by its tail and dip both sides of the shrimp in the sweet chilli sauce. Avoid getting the tails wet (if the tail of the shrimp is wet with marinade, it will splatter in the hot oil). Let the shrimp marinade for 10 minutes at room temperature.
4) Use paper towels to pat the shrimp slightly, to soak up the extra marinade. Some of the sticky sweet chilli sauce should still be on the shrimp.
5) Roll the shrimp in the halved wrappers, following the instructions below.
6) In a wok, deep fryer or large sauté pan, add 1 ½ inches of oil and heat it to 375 degrees F. Add the firecracker shrimp a few at a time to the oil and fry until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes. Drain on a baking rack and serve with a side of sweet chilli sauce for dipping.

Option: Add a thin slice of mango with the shrimp with wrapping to make Firecracker Mango Shrimp.

Step by Step Wrapping

Rolling the Shrimp Wrapper
1) Lay an eggroll or spring roll wrapper on a dry, clean surface as shown. Lay a shrimp with the tail sticking out.
2) Bring the left corner of the wrapper over the shrimp and being rolling left to right. Make sure that you are rolling tightly. As you roll, bring the top corner o the wrapper down and over the shrimp. Again, make sure you leave no open pockets of air. Big air pockets and holes will allow oil to seep in.
3) Continue rolling towards the right. Dip your finger or a pastry brush into the cornstarch slurry and pain the final corner. Roll to seal. Lay the roll seam side down on a dry plate or tray. Repeat with the rest of the shrimp and wrappers. Keep all uncooked Firecracker Shrimp covered with plastic wrap or barely damp towel.

Let's face it. Leaving one's comfort zone is intimidating at best and often downright scary. It doesn't matter what you're doing -- traveling to a new place, trying a different career, or cooking food from a different culture -- entering into the realm of the unknown can sometimes seem like more trouble than it's worth.

This is why I avoided cooking any type of Asian food for years. My childhood training in my mother's Italian kitchen made dishes like prosciutto pie, homemade ricotta cheese, and handmade pasta seem easy compared to delving into the unknowns of curries and fish sauce. I preferred sticking with olive oil instead of trying peanut oil. It didn't help that I never even tried real Chinese food until I was in college. When I was a kid, Chinese food equaled Chow Mein Night, where the chow mein came out of a can and was served with Uncle Ben's minute rice -- mom kept the arborio for risotto and rice balls. I loved Chow Mein Night mostly because we were allowed to eat our dinner on trays in the living room while watching TV, but was always left feeling slightly queasy at the mass of baby shrimp and stringy vegetables on my plate. (My friend Shirley, on the other hand, grew up in an alternate Korean universe, where they would occasionally have Italian night. This meant her mother would cover the kitchen table with a red-checked tablecloth and serve spaghetti with jarred marinara sauce on top. We were destined to be friends.)

Yet once I was introduced to Asian cuisines, they topped my list of favorite foods. I distinctly remember eagerly trying hot and sour soup for the first time. I was in a little strip mall restaurant in Goleta, a town just outside Santa Barbara where I went to school. I was fascinated with the lovely shapes of the tree ear mushrooms and couldn't get enough of the mixture of vinegar and black pepper. And then there was the Kung Pao, General Tso and so much else, the flavors waking up taste buds I never knew I had. It was all very tame stuff as far as Chinese food goes, but the experience was enchanting and completely eye opening to me. I didn’t explore Thai, Korean, Japanese or Vietnamese foods until after college when I lived in L.A. Again I started with docile dishes, but soon graduated to sucking shrimp heads that had been cooked in spicy sauces. Yum.

But as much as I came to love eating all types of dumplings, savory noodles, and curries, I never really tried my hand at cooking anything more basic than stir-fry until after I had my kids nine years ago. By this time I realized that making dumplings was a lot like making raviolis, and simmering Asian sauces was no more difficult than the multitude of Italian dishes I had made over and over. So I was excited to receive a copy of Food Made Fast Asian when I was working on some Williams-Sonoma books. Inside were easy instructions for making everything from dry-fried string beans with pork to Thai green curry shrimp and lemongrass pork. After trying a few dishes out on my family, I began to feel more confident using fish sauce, hoisin, coconut milk, and peanut oil. I then branched out and tried Asian recipes from other sources, and finally started to experiment on my own. It took a while, but I finally gained enough confidence to vary ingredients and spices to suit my family's tastes instead of blindly trusting unknown and untried recipes each time.

Following is a dish I created one day when I had fresh Pacific Halibut and a hankering for something made with fish sauce and lime juice. I wanted some crunch so coated my marinated fish in corn starch and then fried until crispy. To add extra flavor, I combined soy sauce, fish sauce and lime with a dash of sugar and then simmered the already-cooked fish in it. If your family can handle some heat, I recommend adding some chile paste to the mix. The dish is simple and uncomplicated to make and an easy way to work in some fish sauce if you've never tried it before. I call the dish "Vietnamese-style" simply because fish sauce and lime are often used in that country's recipes. But let's be serious, as you've probably guessed by now, I am in no way an expert on Vietnamese cooking -- or any Asian cuisine for that matter. But we all have to start somewhere. I am unabashedly in love with Asian foods and eager to make them at home, much as my friend Shirley, who was raised on kimchi, now makes some fantastic pasta dishes.

How about you? Still stuck in your cooking comfort zone or have you stretched your repertoire and tried dishes that were once foreign? I'd love to hear some stories.

Vietnamese-style Crispy Halibut

Serves: 4 people

Although Pacific Halibut works great in this recipe, feel free to substitute another type of fish fillet. Almost anything should work, including shrimp or scallops.

Marinade
Ingredients:

1/4 onion
2 Tbsp ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp water

Crispy Fish
Ingredients:

2 lbs Pacific halibut cut into fillets
1/2 cup corn starch
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

Finishing Sauce
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp water
1/2 tsp sugar
chile paste to taste (optional)

Preparation:
1. Puree the onion, ginger and garlic cloves for the marinade and then mix in the soy sauce, fish sauce and water.

2. Cover halibut with the marinade and refrigerate for at least one hour. When ready to cook, scrape the marinade from the fish.

3. Heat a large pan until it's hot and then add 2 Tbsp vegetable oil plus 1 tsp sesame oil.

4. Gently coat each halibut fillet with corn starch and then lay in the hot oil. Fry for 2-4 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of your fillets) and then turn. Cook the other side.

5. In a separate pan, heat the finishing sauce ingredients until everything is combined and the sugar has disolved. Turn off heat.

6. When all fillets have been cooked through, lay the fish in the pan with the finishing sauce mixture, turning the burner onto medium heat. Gently sauté the fish in the sauce for about 30 seconds on each side and then serve.

7. Serve with steamed or fried rice.