I really wanted milk bread this morning and I was planning on experimenting with miso marinated fish. Since it was an experiment, bought two small pieces of black cod and monk fish to see if either of them could handle a miso marinade, also they were on sale. I usually don’t put the outcome in the opening paragraph but today I am putting it up front. If you are not incorporating fish into bao, you are missing out. I will say that the black cod was better than the monk fish, but that is probably personal preference.
For the bao, I followed my recipe from Bao Char Siu but rather than do a 24 hour ferment, I just did about a 4 hour. Also, I am trying to just use my hands to shape the dough rather than a rolling pin. It makes the bao have different textures because of different thicknesses.
For the miso marinade:
- 2 Tbsp red miso
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
Marinade the fish for a few hours.
For a topping, we went with a cabbage-apple slaw:
- 1/2 green cabbage, finely sliced
- 1/2 red cabbage, finely sliced
- 1 Granny Smith apple, finely sliced
- 4 green onions thinly sliced
- small handful of Thai basil, thinly sliced
For the dressing:
- Juice from 1 lime
- 2 Tbsp miron
- 2 Tbsp canola oil
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 inch ginger, grated
Just mix everything together and set in fridge for at least an hour to let the flavors mingle.
Our toppings were:
- Giant green onion, thinly sliced
- Cilantro
- Thai basil
- Sriracha
There was a bit of a competition tonight as my wife and son competed for food stylist of the night. My son did a better plate other than the parchment paper:
My wife did the top photo but also wins for best hand held:
Here was my entry:
I encourage you all to try something new. This was fun but I will also say that the marinade needed the complement of the bland bao in order to balance. That was some strong stuff.
Working Dad Cooks 