Black Cod with Hoisin and Ginger Sauces
Are you salivating yet?
You should be — because “Black Cod with Hoisin and Ginger Sauces” is one of those gifts of a dish.
It’s incredibly easy, made with a succulent fish that’s forgiving should you accidentally overcook it, and amped up with a compelling sauce that’s a whirlwind of ginger, honey, garlic, chili paste, hoisin and soy sauce.
In short, it eats like classic Chinese steamed fish with ginger and green onions — but has a much more powerfully tasting presence.
The recipe is from Henry’s End restaurant in Brooklyn via Epicurious.
I snagged some lovely black cod fillets (also known as sablefish) via Four Star Seafood delivery. Then, all I had to do was stir together the chili paste and hoisin, before spooning it over the fillets that I had seared on the stovetop that finished cooking in the oven on high heat. After all of 5 minutes, the fish was done — flaky and moist. Then, just spoon over a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, green onions, honey, and garlic before serving.
Even if you goof, and accidentally mix everything together and spoon it over the fish before it goes into the oven — which I admittedly did the first time I made this — the dish will still come out great.
Serve with steamed rice and some sauteed Asian greens, and you’re good to go.
Black Cod with Hoisin and Ginger Sauces
(Serves 4)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon honey
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 1/4 teaspoons hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 (7-ounce) Alaskan black cod fillets
Steamed rice
Whisk first 6 ingredients in small bowl. Do ahead: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring ginger sauce to room temperature before serving.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir hoisin and chili paste in another small bowl. Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add cod, skin side up. Cook 2 minutes, then turn cod over. Spoon hoisin mixture over fillets, dividing equally. Transfer to oven and bake until fish is just opaque in the center, about 5 minutes. Place 1 fillet in each of 4 hallow soup bowls. Spoon ginger sauce around fish and serve with steamed rice.
From Henry’s End restaurant via Epicurious
More Fabulous Asian-Style Fish Recipes to Try: Broiled Fish with Lemon Curry Butter
And: Broiled Sesame Salmon Bibimbap
And: Miso-Glazed Fish
And: Oven-Steamed Fish
Plus: Pan-Fried Fish, Green Onions, and Chiles
This looked good/interesting on paper, but the whole family thought the sauce was much too sour (vinegar-y.) I’m not sure, but if I were to make it again, I’d probably halve the vinegar {or less) and double the honey.
The hoisin/chili sauce mixture waa nice though.
Nevertheless, the sauce definitely needs more balance.
Hi DJ: You could definitely do that. It’s a very assertive sauce for sure. So, feel free to tweak the amounts to your personal taste.
This must be a joke. 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1/4 cup rice vinegar for 4 7-oz fish? No way! A waste of ingredients, especially the expensive sea bass, and all that sauce.
Hi Monica: It does make a generous amount of the soy sauce-mixture, about 3 tablespoons per serving of fish. That’s nice if you want to enjoy it with fluffy rice to catch all the residual sauce. However, you could also cut the sauce in half.