Miso Cod

Miso Cod with Buttered Garlic Mushrooms

Having a relative light workload for the day, I began to ponder by early afternoon what I should be putting in my trough for dinner tonight.  Chinese take-out?  Quick burger?  Instant noodles?  None of the choices seem too appetizing at the moment.  I decided to whip up something at home and went to Whole Foods after work for inspiration.  Wandering aimlessly through the aisles, I finally came up to the Seafood counter and found the object of search.  Having remembered that I had some leftover miso paste in the fridge, I originally wanted to cook some Chilean Sea Bass with a miso glaze.  But seeing that the fish was $19.99/lb., I opted for the cheaper regular Cod fillet at $7.99/lb. (hey times are tough!), even though I wasn't sure how Cod would hold up the miso flavor.  With my entree in hand, next was to find a suitable accompanying side dish.  A nice arugula salad came to mind, but that was forgotten when I saw a fresh mixed collection of mushrooms.  The menu was set.

I raced home and began to prep for the miso marinade for the fish.  Usually I would use a Chilean Sea Bass recipe that I found on the Food Network website, but given that this was Cod and I didn't have a lot of the ingredients (like mirin or rice vinegar), I decided to wing it and just make my own marinade concoction.  I mixed a spoonful of miso paste with some soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, corn oil, and white pepper and soak the cod with the mixture.  After about 30 minutes in the fridge, I plopped the fish on a baking pan and baked the fish for about 12 minutes, flipping it once midway through.  While that was cooking, I heated up a pan with unsalted butter and some minced garlic.  Threw my mushroom mix in the pan and about 3 or 4 minutes later, my sauteed mushroom were ready. 

As you can see from the pic above, the plate was not the most aesthetically pleasing, but the taste was overall ok.  I would probably cut back a bit of the soy sauce next time given that the fish was a tad too salty.  Other than that, the fish was sweet and the miso was not overpowering.  The mushrooms were buttery goodness.  It's not too bad for a quick weekday dinner for one from a novice cook.