recipe 58: miso sad vacation is almost over!

A lot has happened this week! Most notably, I only spent one day in my cube at the office and spent the rest of the week either in Florida, California, or at the Feast of St. Ann's in Hoboken, which Tristan and I frequented for meals not once but twice. It has been a week of culinary masterpieces from grouper sandwiches in Florida http://frenchysonline.com/locations/frenchys-original-cafe/ to short rib grilled cheese in Santa Monica at the Huntley Hotel http://www.thehuntleyhotel.com/ to scene-y sushi http://www.sbe.com/katsuya and marketplace Italian in LA http://www.sbe.com/mercatodivetro to scrumptious taco truck tacos in LA http://twitter.com/tacoselgallito/ to sausage and peppers at St. Ann's. I was going to go to hot yoga this morning because I really needed to after all of this amazing (read: gluttonous) eating. But that didn't end up happening and I'll go ahead and blame the jet lag. So Tristan was there for part of this trip but not for all of it and I realized that when that Eagle Scout is present, I'm more likely to a) be on time for planes, b) know what time zone I'm in, and c) not get lost. When he's not present, I spin around like a whirling dervish and still somehow manage to get stuff done, albeit while sweaty and flustered. My life would be totally streamlined and efficient if I could bring him to work every day, imagine! Aside from all of the exciting eating, I got to spend high quality time with my very dear friend Mehreen, her family, and baby Z, and also my very dear friend Priya, Jamie, and baby D. I decided that in about 20 years, I'm setting up baby Z and baby D. That is final, Mehreen and Priya, final! Babies Z and D will be going out on a date in approximately 2032. And if they need some prodding, Aunt Tiffy will send them this exact blog link predicting the future. It has been memorialized! My match-making abilities have been wildly successful before (ahem, Meredith and Erik- I expect a shout-out at your wedding, perhaps not everyone has seen the shout-out on your wedding website, thanks)!

Anyway, moving along to miso, which is the actual subject of this post... Priya and I ate the most amazing miso black cod at Katsuya, and this reminded me of my roller coaster of a relationship with miso paste. When I stumbled upon the vast miso paste section at my favorite Japanese grocery store http://www.mitsuwa.com/tenpo/newj/eindex.html, I decided that I needed to buy some. I declared: "I think I might love cooking with miso! I loved my law school semester abroad in Tokyo! I ate miso stuff all the time! We're buying this!" Here is what "this" looks like:  

That container is bigger and more daunting in real life than it is on this blog. Sometimes I mistake it for peanut butter and that always ends in disaster. The missing portions of miso are accounted for by two very failed attempts at miso recipes that shall never be spoken of again, and one AMAZING recipe that will be posted forthwith. The AMAZING recipe will be made today for Tristan's sister-in-law Lana, who is a pescatarian and won't be eating the steak that everybody else will be eating. That's right- vacation is not over yet. There's still some grilling in today's future. There's also the season finale of The Bachelorette, which will be viewed in an out-of-my-home-setting-because-Tristan's-snarky-commentary-will-not-be-tolerated-during-the-season-finale. Here I come, Mehreen! Juice up the flatscreen! Who's going to win? My money has been on Arie since the first episode, although a lot can be said for Jef's consistently steady climb. We shall see!

This post has been very long. I attribute that to spending the past week doing stuff that can actually be publicized. And now finally... behold miso salmon with orange and scallions, adapted from Steamy Kitchen: http://steamykitchen.com/21477-miso-salmon-with-orange-and-fennel-recipe.html

MISO SALMON WITH ORANGE AND SCALLIONS (serves 4)
Ingredients:
-4 salmon fillets
-salt and pepper
-2 T miso paste
-1 T honey
-2 T sake (or, I suppose, dry white wine)
-ginger to taste (I use chopped up pickled ginger that I also purchased at the Japanese grocery store)
-1/2 of an orange, sliced
-10 scallions, chopped

Instructions:
1) marinate the salmon with the salt, pepper, miso, honey, sake, and ginger for at least an hour or overnight
2) preheat the oven to 375 degrees
3) layer the orange slices and the scallions on a baking sheet (no cooking spray necessary, oddly enough)
4) layer the salmon on top and drizzle on any extra marinade
5) bake for 15-18 minutes, until desired level of doneness

Here is an artsy version of what it should look like before it goes in the oven...

And here is a less artsy version of what it should look like before it goes in the oven...

NOTE: this can also be grilled- mix the scallions into the marinade and grill the salmon on the grill. Grill the oranges alongside the salmon, and then place them on top of the salmon while the fish finishes cooking. The grilled version is equally delicious!