Aloha!
We may be just back from Spain, but before we dive into all of our Iberian food adventures, we first want to take you someplace else: Hawaii.
We mentioned last month that we took a Hawaiian fish-cooking class this winter, thanks to a gift certificate we had received as a Christmas gift. We never had aspirations to learn Hawaiian dishes, but when we went on the cooking school's website to choose a course, the one sort of jumped out to us. Four fishes dishes, prepared in traditional Hawaiian ways? Why not! So we took the class, loved the food, and then promptly tucked away the recipes with great intentions of later making them at home. But then we got all busy, and then we went away, and our Hawaiian aspirations got put on hold.
Once we got back home this past week, we were eager to see friends, so we invited Drew and Ralph over for dinner to catch up. It was a perfect spring evening -- cool and breezy -- and we planned to have dinner in the back yard.
It seemed like just the right occasion to try out our favorite dish from our Hawaiian cooking class: Miso-Glazed Mahi Mahi with a Macadamia Nut & Sake Cream Sauce.
This was a good entree to serve at the end of a busy Sunday. We prepped everything before Drew and Ralph arrived, marinating the fish and getting our mise all in order for sauce. Once we were all seated in the backyard, the fish went into the oven, and one of us popped into the kitchen to quickly put together the sauce, meaning that we weren't away from the table for long.
Similar to our experience at the cooking class, we served our version of this Mahi Mahi on a bed of purple mashed potatoes. At the class, the potatoes were amazing. Ours? Not so much. The texture was all off. We're not sure what we did wrong (we just boiled them, mashed them by hand and dressed them up with butter, cream, salt and pepper). But something went awry (perhaps we just overcooked them?). Still, the cream sauce saved the day, (literally) covering for the potatoes.
But the fish was just as we had remembered: flavorful, thanks to the glaze and rich, thanks to the cream sauce. Perhaps putting a cream sauce on a fish is cheating, but if so, we're guilty as charged.
It's darn good.
Now we've just got to get ourselves to Hawaii. Have you been? How was the food? We'd love to hear all about it.
Miso-Glazed Mahi Mahi with a Macadamia Nut & Sake Cream Sauce
Adapted from chef Kaimana Chee, instructor at DC's Culinaerie
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
For the Miso-Glazed Mahi Mahi:
4 mahi mahi filets, about 1 1/2 lb total
4 Tablespoons red Japanese miso
2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
For the Macadamia Nut & Sake Cream Sauce:
2 Tablespoon chopped shallot
6 Tablespoons butter, divided
4 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
4 Tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons sake
2 teaspoons macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Make the miso glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together miso, sesame oil, brown sugar and soy sauce. Place mahi mahi an oven-safe glass dish and cover with miso glaze; let marinate for at least 15 minutes.
After marinating, place fish in the oven and cook until it becomes opaque and flakes slightly with a fork, 12 to 15 minutes.
While fish is cooking, make the sake cream sauce: In a small saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add shallots and ginger and saute until slightly soft, 2-3 minutes; do not allow butter to brown. Add sake and macadamia nuts, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add heavy cream and stir. Remove from heat and add remaining butter (cold) to thicken the sauce. Drizzle over finished mahi mahi.