The Peppermaster: Blueberry Miso Vinaigrette

I sampled every single maple- and dairy-free vinegar and sauce at the Peppermaster tent in the Plateau Farmers' Market. That's about 20 different condiments. Afterward, everything burned, and I hadn't liked any of the hot sauces at all, "peppermaster" though he self-proclaimedly was. Instead I bought a blueberry vinegar that was incredibly pungent on its own. It had made me wrinkle my nose at it, but that's what a vinegar should be. You don't buy a vinegar because it's smooth, after all.

So how can a peppermaster get away with selling a blueberry vinegar? He calls it blueberry vinegar with black pepper. You don't really taste the black pepper, and it's about the same (or worse, because the black pepper wouldn't be as freshly grated) than having a pure blueberry vinegar and grating fresh black pepper into it (since the pepper is a little muted by the vinegar), but it's really hard to find a really good blueberry vinegar. It's even less common to be able to sample one before buying.

This vinaigrette dilutes the vinegar with yogurt and sweetens it with honey. Feel free to use agave nectar or sugar instead, but I actually have a blueberry honey so that worked nicely.

Blueberry Miso Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
2 tbsp miso
1 tbsp blueberry vinegar (or apple cider, or rice wine vinegar, or other vinegar)
3 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tsp honey
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
2 tsp olive oil

Because of the yogurt in the recipe you don't need a lot of oil. I just give it a splash. Actually I'm pretty loose with most of the ingredients. As long as you taste it after to see what it needs more of, you're golden.

First mix the miso and vinegar to get the clumps out of the miso, then add everything except the oil. You can shake it or stir it or whisk it to combine. Then add the oil in a stream as you stir to emulsify it. The vinaigrette only lasts a few days in the fridge, so use it up fast or make a half recipe. It works really well as a dip for vegetables (especially carrots and tomatoes, or any sweet vegetable), and it worked especially well for raw, shaved beets with a tiny bit of orange juice on salad.

Miso-Marinated Cod with Sake and Lychees

I looked for black cod, but it wasn't available in Newfoundland. Atlantic cod, however, was a different story. I could get about 2lbs of it for $6...how is that reasonable? I mean, it's way too reasonable. It can't possibly be sustainable.

For this dish you need to make a marinade and then a sauce for the cooked fish. Make the marinade first because you'll need 3 tbsp of it for the sauce. The lychee juice was leftover from making the lychee frozen yogurt and since it's hard to find mirin in Newfoundland I thought it would be a good substitute. It sounds very exotic and it was a very delicious substitution.

Miso Marinade
1/4 cup sake (don't buy anything fancy or special. A cooking sake or the standard big bottle of Hakutsuru is fine)
1/3 cup lychee juice or mirin
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup miso (preferably "shiro" miso - white miso)

Whisk together the miso and sugar in the top of a double boiler (I used a stainless steel mixing bowl placed on top of a medium saucepan. Fill the sauce pan with a little water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low to keep the water at a simmer). Add the sake and lychee juice, and whisk to combine.

Cook and whisk over simmering water, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves and the colour begins to darken (about 30 to 45 minutes). That's what the recipe says, but mine didn't darken so much. I used a different kind of miso and it was already fairly dark. So I just let it cook for 45 minutes and I was fine. You can't do this directly in the saucepan because miso shouldn't be boiled. It kills the good things in it, or so I thought. The double boiler is annoying, but worth it. After 45 minutes, remove the bowl from the saucepan and the saucepan from the heat and let it cool. Reserve 4 tbsp for the sauce below (the recipe only calls for 3 tbsp but keep 1 tbsp extra aside in case you need to make the sauce sweeter by adding more) and pour the rest of the cooled marinade over the cod in a large sealed container or covered casserole dish. Make sure all the cod is covered in the marinade, and if it isn't completely covered, try to remember to turn it at least once during its marinating period to make sure every part of the fish gets to luxuriate in miso. Place the fish in the fridge overnight or for at least 30 minutes.

Lychee Sauce:
1 cup dashi or fish stock
1/2 cup mirin or lychee juice
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
3 tbsp Saiko Miso (above)
1 tsp yuzu juice (or lemon, or lemon mixed with grapefruit and orange, but it's only a teaspoon so don't worry about it)

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat (here I don't understand why you can suddenly boil the miso. Sure, it's only supposed to be a simmer, but I don't quite get it. Perhaps the double boiler above is just so the sauce doesn't burn from direct heat over the long cooking time?). Let simmer gently for about ten minutes and taste. You want a good balance of salty, sweet and tangy. To make it sweeter add more Saikyo Miso (make sure you've reserved an extra tablespoon before pouring it over the fish. You can't use it once its touched the fish, since the bacteria won't be killed from any more cooking), or a bit of sugar (if you didn't reserve enough miso. I forgot to reserve extra and got stuck with less flavourful sugar). Be careful adding extra yuzu for more tang. It can be very pungent, so a little goes a long way.

Cooking the fish:
After making the dumplings you'll have a pot or two of boiling water. Remove the cod fillets from their dish in the fridge when you start cooking the dumplings. This will bring the fish to room temperature but won't let it sit at room temperature long enough for any bacteria to take over. When you're done with the dumplings, add the fish to the steamer apparatus, cover the pot(s), and let the fish steam about 5 minutes over simmering water (medium or medium-low heat). The fish is done when the flesh flakes easily with a fork and is no longer translucent. It shouldn't be tough or dry either. If the fish isn't done, just let it steam for a minute or so longer.

To serve the fish, remove it from the steamer to a serving platter and pour some or all of the Lychee Sauce on top.