It’s been awhile I’ve cooked out of a book. I almost forgot how fun it is to go to the market with a list and try to find ingredients or make adequate substitutions on the fly. This recipe is from Tyler Florence’s “Eat This Book”. Tyler is a guilty pleasure. I don’t know if the recipes are even his. He’s not respectable as a restaurant chef. And friends have told me that he’s a cokehead and a womanizer. But I don’t care because I like the simple, fresh shit he does on the television and he doesn’t have a personality to distract me.

Yesterday was my day off and I wanted seafood. And I didn’t want to do my simple, no-frills pan roasted fish, a starch and two veg. So I found this recipe and I hadn’t cooked Japanese in awhile. And it’s one of my favorite cuisines because it’s fresh and healthy and fun. Disciplined! It’s always in season, warming in the winter and cooling in the summer.

You start out making a dashi (which is just a base stock made out of kombu [kelp] and dried bonito fish). This is the difference between restaurant miso soup and when your cracker ass tries to make it at home by just sticking some miso paste in water. Dashi adds a lot of flavor and depth to your miso.

If you are lucky enough to live close by an Asian grocery or a Chinatown, I’d suggest getting your ingredients (including the fish) there as they will be four times as expensive in a round-eye devil store.

For two peoples, you will need:

• 2 6 oz. center cut fillets of a flaky whitefish with the skin on (Tyler uses black sea bass, but we opted for the more delicious, the much more oily and much more expensive sablefish, aka black cod)
• 1 lb of fresh udon (Fairway didn’t have fresh any fresh noodles besides their shitty Italian stuff so I got a pack of traditional dry udon - not that bastardized rice or whole wheat stuff)
• 8 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced in half (you also want to remove the woody stems - I bought the pre-cleaned and pre-sliced ones as they were cheaper)
• large handful fresh cilantro
• 2 scallions, sliced thin
• 2 heads of baby bok choy, cut in half lengthwise
• 2 inch nub of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced very thin
• 3 6-inch pieces of dried kombu
• 1 1/2 cups of dried bonito flakes
• 2 + tbsp. light white or yellow miso paste
• sesame oil

• Equipment: A wok and a bamboo steamer basket dealie. If you are racist and do not have these things, I suppose you can use a large deep skillet or pot and a metal steamie basket dealie.

First, the dashi. Take three quarts of water, the kombu and the bonito and put it in a medium stock pot over medium heat. Turn off the heat before it comes to a boil and let it sit for a few minutes.

While letting the dashi simmer, cook your noodles (if they are dried). Dried udon usually comes preportioned because the Japanese are awesome like that. I cooked the entire package (three portions) so I could have leftovers. Rinse them in cold water and oil them with enough sesame oil so they don’t stick. While your dashi is working and you waiting for your noodles, set up your mise en place - which is a fancy way of saying measure, clean and prep your other shit and have it ready to go.

Strain all the shit out of your dashi and put one quart of it in your wok and let it come to a simmer. Whisk in your miso paste and taste if you need to add more according your salt preferences. Chuck in your mushrooms. Cooking spray the bottom of your steamer. Season both sides of your fish with salt and pepper and lay them skin side up in the steamer. Place your ginger strips on top of the skin. Sprinkle most of your cilantro over the fish. Season and cram the baby bok choys in the steamer basket. Place basket in wok and cover.

Cook until fish is done, which could be anywhere from five to fifteen minutes - depending if your liquid is simmering or boiling and what kind of fish you use. (As you can see in the first photo, I ended up overcooking the bok choy, but it ended up being okay as it was some shitty organical stuff that was extremely stringy - that’s what I get for buying it at Fairway.)

Take basket out and chuck the udon (fresh or precooked) and scallions in the miso and cook for about a minute or until everything is nice and hot and the noodles are tender. Serve in large shallow bowls. Sprinkle additional cilantro on top, or even some sesame seeds. Eat, enjoy, feel good.

Click here if you want to read the OG recipe.

Allegedly a little douchey, but delicious.