Miso Glazed Hake

On writing rapidly and forgoing recipes.

When I was in middle school, I had a teacher who started class once or twice a week with “Rapid Writing.” Essentially, this was five minutes of nonstop writing; you couldn’t stop and think, you could could only write. Pure stream of consciousness. At a certain point, I distinctly remember just writing “lalalalalalala” for about a page, since nothing was coming to me, and I took not stopping exceptionally seriously.

While the merits of this approach to writing are debatable¹, one thing it did do well was get you writing. Much like the NaNoWriMo approach of “just start writing,” rapid writing takes the stress out of what you want to write about. Have memories of 6th grade English Language Arts on the brain? Write about that. Want to delve into the pros and cons of the government supporting innovation in the field of biotechnology? Have at it, Hoss. It doesn’t even need to be cohesive or tie together at all; pineapples are mostly a tropical fruit, anyway.

Sometimes, cooking can be like rapid writing. You settle down in the kitchen to make dinner, but you, for whatever reason, don’t know where to start. I think the easiest way is to, well — start. Granted this only works if you have some idea of where you want to end up², but for the most part, the simple act of starting to chop veggies, heat up the oven, season your protein — it’s all you need to get your culinary juices flowing.

This week’s recipe, a miso glazed fish, came out of that process. I knew roughly that we had fish³ , that we had some veggies, and I didn’t want fish tacos. Opening up the fridge, seeing a tub of miso paste, and already having chopped some bok choy sold me on it. The recipe is roughly based on a NYT Cooking “No Recipe,” which, I think, is roughly based on this one.⁴

So grab your mixing bowl, grab your whisk, and just get started.

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In a bowl big enough to fit all your fish⁵, combine a spoonful or two of miso paste⁶, a couple glugs of soy sauce, a splash of oyster sauce⁷, a spoonful of your favorite chili paste, and a pour of rice cooking wine⁸. Mix well to combine, then add in the fish. Let sit, covered in the fridge, for up to an hour.

While the fish is marinating, pre-heat your oven to 375(F). Line a sheet pan with foil, smear with butter, and when the oven is at temp, take the fish out and shake off any excess marinade. Place on the sheet pan and cook for about 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish, until it’s cooked through and flakes when scraped with a fork.

Serve with stir-fried vegetables over rice, sweet potatoes, or sesame noodles. Whatever floats your boat.

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Assuming you have the ingredients on hand, this is a pretty solid weeknight dinner option. As always, feel free to get creative with the marinade. Use teriyaki or hoisin sauce as your base, mix and match chili sauces⁹, or or add some grated ginger and garlic. If you’ve been following CWD for long enough, at this point, I would think you should feel comfortable enough in the kitchen to experiment a little. As always, if you have questions, drop me a line or reply in the comments. Happy to help.

With that, I’ll let you start mentally preparing yourselves for the weekend. While a wet fall is always welcome¹⁰, it’s looking like we’ll have a nice crisp weekend up here in the Massachusetts's Bay Colony. With Halloween just around the corner, maybe make sure you have some pumpkins placed strategically around the house¹¹. Before you know it, spooky season will be over, Thanksgiving will be on deck, and Christmas around the corner. Time certainly flies when you’re having fun!

I’ll leave you with a reminder to get outside, clean your grill, and to not look directly at the sun, even if it’s at a depressingly low angle to the earth. See ya next week.

PS: Here’s photo of some nice looking meatballs sent in from a reader! Always love to see what you’re cooking, so feel free to send your kitchen wins and woes.

1. I did use Rapid Writing to great effect as a Teach for America teacher after college, however. It was a great way to get 5-10 uninterrupted minutes of silence at the start of class, and the kids loved it.

2. You can’t score without a goal!

3. It was Monday, after all — Cape Ann Fresh Catch Day.

4. Here’s a brain-tickler for you: Who owns a recipe? I try to tell you where, roughly, anything we cook here originates. If I riff on mushroom risotto recipe that was published on the Brooks Brother’s blog circa 2009, is it mine, or some intern’s?

5. We used hake, since it’s what came in our fish share, but any firm-ish white fish will do.

6. Something like this works well.

7. Omit or sub with fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or even coconut aminos.

8. Or sherry.

9. We’re very much into Fly by Jing’s crisp chili oil right now.

10. I think?

11. We certainly do.