Los Angeles, by way of Japan · Nobu’s signature since 1987

Black cod with miso

Name: Black cod with miso
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Los Angeles, by way of Japan
Ingredients: 4 pieces of black cod (sablefish), 180 g each, skin on; 150 g white miso; 75 ml sake, 75 ml mirin; 60 g sugar; Pickled ginger, steamed rice

Sablefish marinated for days in sweet white miso, then roasted until the glaze caramelises and the flesh flakes like butter. The dish that built a global empire.

Rich8

Umami10

Fresh3

Spice1

Sweet6

The wine

A junmai daiginjo sake, an off-dry Riesling from the Mosel or a Gewürztraminer; the sweetness of the glaze wants a little sweetness in the glass.

Nobu Matsuhisa adapted a Kyoto technique, fish cured in miso and sake lees, for the diners of Los Angeles in 1987, using the rich black cod of the Pacific. The result, sweet, savoury, caramelised outside and silky inside, became the most copied fish dish of the last forty years and the reason Nobu restaurants stand in Marbella, Ibiza, Munich, London, Dubai and Miami.

Every Nobu, Matsuhisa and Zuma in this guide serves its version; Nikkei Nine in Hamburg and Zuma in Dubai and Miami cook it on the robata, and the dish has entered the vocabulary of kitchens that have nothing to do with Japan. Its secret is time: two to three days in the marinade, then a short, hot roast.

At home it is the easiest luxury in this list: a good piece of black cod or, failing that, salmon or halibut, a marinade of white miso, sake, mirin and sugar, and patience. Roast until the edges blacken, serve with pickled ginger and steamed rice.

The home recipe · Serves 4

Ingredients

4 pieces of black cod (sablefish), 180 g each, skin on
150 g white miso
75 ml sake, 75 ml mirin
60 g sugar
Pickled ginger, steamed rice

Method

Bring the sake and mirin to the boil for 20 seconds, then whisk in the miso and sugar until smooth and let it cool.
Coat the fish in the marinade, cover and refrigerate for two to three days.
Wipe off the excess marinade and roast at 220 °C, or under a grill, for 10 to 12 minutes until the surface caramelises and blackens at the edges.
Serve with pickled ginger and rice; the fish should flake at the touch of a fork.