Misoyaki Butterfish

Misoyaki is the Hawaii name for a Japanese technique — saikyō-yaki, fish cured in sweet white miso — and butterfish here means black cod, or sablefish, which is neither cod nor from Hawaii but has more fat than almost anything else in the case. That fat is why it works: two days in miso pulls moisture out and pushes sugar and salt in, and the fish still eats silky. In the islands this is special-occasion fish, the thing you order at Nobu or at the old Japanese restaurants in Honolulu that were doing it fifty years before Nobu existed.

The cure is the recipe. The grill is a finishing move and a fragile one — miso is loaded with sugar and protein and it will burn black in under a minute over direct heat. Wipe the marinade off, cook indirect at 350-375°F, and let the residual coating caramelize slowly. Kiawe's mild smoke is the right call; a heavier wood fights the miso instead of sitting under it.

Ingredients

• 4 black cod (butterfish) fillets, 6-8 oz each, skin on
• 3/4 cup white miso (shiro)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 3 Tbsp sake
• 1 Tbsp shoyu
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• Pickled ginger and lemon wedges to serve

Cook Sequence

1. Simmer the mirin and sake 2 minutes to cook off the alcohol, then whisk in the miso, sugar, shoyu and ginger off the heat until smooth. Cool completely before it goes anywhere near fish.
2. Blot the fillets dry, coat every surface in marinade, and refrigerate in a covered dish 48 hours. At 24 hours it's underdone; past 72 hours it turns salty and firm.
3. Wipe the marinade off with your fingers or a paper towel — leave a thin film, no more. Clinging paste is what burns. Let the fish sit out 15 minutes to take the chill off.
4. Set up two zones and hold 350-375°F on the indirect side with 1-2 kiawe chunks going. Oil the grate twice; black cod is delicate and sticks like it's trying to.
5. Fish skin side down on the indirect side, lid closed, 12-15 minutes. Do not move it, do not flip it. The skin protects the flesh and the top caramelizes under the lid.
6. If the top hasn't browned by then, slide it over direct heat for 45-60 seconds with the lid open and your eyes on it. It goes from amber to black fast.
7. Pull at 135°F — the flesh should separate into big translucent flakes under light pressure. Rest 5 minutes, serve with pickled ginger and a lemon wedge.

Round Out the Plate

• Coconut Rice — sweet rice under a sweet-salty fish
• Cucumber Salad — the acid this plate is missing