Catch 35 is a great little two-restaurant “chain” in Chicagoland. Our town, Naperville, is fortunate to be the home for one of their locations (the other being downtown Chicago). I have two favourite dishes on their menu and “Pan Roasted Chilean Seabass in Hawaiian ginger scallion sauce” is one of them. I guess I was also lucky that it was a favourite of another patron who asked for and received the recipe for this dish, which I thought I’d try with a couple of modifications, and a revision to bring this down to “consumer” quantities.
First thing to “fess up” is that I couldn’t get Seabass. Not any kind. So this is a kind of “poor man’s” alternative using cod fillets. Chilean Seabass is a lovely white fish but quite expensive, and it seems, not always available. Those in the know would suggest that Chilean Seabass tastes like cod, and our local supermarket had some good looking specimens in the fresh counter. With a little imagination they could certainly look the same, and I went for a couple of fillets from which I could cut some really thick “steaks”. Good Plan B for this time anyway.
The recipe calls for a few components.
- The fish itself, which in the official recipe is seared then cooked in the oven at 400F until it’s reached the correct internal temperature (135F).
- Some vegetables sautéed in garlic, oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar.
- The main “Hawaiian” or “Hot” ginger sauce.
- …and some sort of accompaniment if the sautéed vegetables aren’t enough. I went for some simple noodles tossed in soy sauce and sesame oil (my own idea).
I discovered a couple of things, which I’ve tried to compensate for in the recipe card. Firstly, the Catch 35 chef cooks for 12-16 people ! So, my quantities certainly allowed for enough sauce for a few meals after ! Secondly, the sauce can be made well ahead of time and taken off the meal “critical path” so to speak. So next time, I’ll definitely make the sauce up front and keep it until ready to assemble the dish.
For the fish I also wanted to use the Kamado Joe. The Joe Junior proved to be a great little asset and just the right size for smoking four fish fillets to perfection, especially when combined with a couple of other tools. The “Meater+” as always was a great temperature monitor to make sure we got to the optimum 135F internal temperature and no higher, and I also experimented with some Weber Cedar Wood Papers just to play around with a new technique.
Weber Cedar Wood Paper Wraps Soaking the wood wraps before cooking
KJ Smoked Asian Cod with Hot Ginger Sauce and Sesame Noodles
Equipment
- Kamado Joe Junior
- Cast iron pan
- Wood paper wraps (optional)
Ingredients
Hot (Hawaiian) Ginger Sauce
- 1 oz grapeseed or olive oil
- 2 dried whole chillies minced
- 2 tsp ginger minced
- 2 tsp garlic minced
- 1 oz black bean sauce
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1½ cups water
- 2 oz maple sugar (or palm sugar)
- 1 oz cornstarch
Asian Cod
- 4 fillets Atlantic Cod skinless, boneless, quite thick
- 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- salt to taste
- szechuan pepper to taste
- ½ orange
Sauteed Ginger Scallion Vegetables
- 1 oz grapeseed or olive oil
- 4 scallions sliced into strips
- 1 yellow pepper sliced into strips
- red pepper sliced into strips
- 6 shiitake mushrooms sliced
- 1 oz ginger chopped fine
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
Soy Sesame Noodles
- Egg noodles cooked
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
Instructions
Hot (Hawaiian) Ginger Sauce
- In a saucepan, heat the oil to medium/high and sautee the chillies, ginger and garlic until warmed and aromatic.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add in the black bean sauce, sweet soy sauce, fish sauce and rice vinegar. Stir to combine.
- Add in 1 cup of the water, reserving the other half cup. Stir.
- Add in the sugar. Stir and bring to the boil.
- In a small jug or cup, combine the cornstarch with the half cup of water to form a paste. This will be used to thicken the sauce.
- Slowly combine the cornstarch paste into the sauce, stirring all the time to ensure the paste does not form lumps.
- After a few minutes stirring, the sauce should have thickened to a light syrup consistency.
- Depending on how finely you minced the chilli, ginger and garlic, feel free to strain the sauce if preferred.
- This sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until needed.
Asian Cod
- Pre-soak the wood paper wraps in water for one hour beforehand.
- Preheat the Kamado Joe to 400°F and set to indirect cooking.
- Cut one portion of fish per person from the whole fillets. Choose the thickest "steaks" from the fillets.
- Season with salt and szechuan pepper.
- Wrap one fish portion in a wood wrap and tie with butcher's string.
- On the grill, above the deflector plate, place the four wrapped fish steaks.
- Cook the fish until an internal temperature of 135°F is reached. This should take 20 minutes or so.
Sauteed Ginger Scallion Vegetables
- While the fish is cooking in the Kamado Joe combine the ginger, light soy sauce and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl.
- Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and quickly sautee the scallions, peppers and mushrooms.
- Add in the ginger/soy/vinegar mix.
- Add in the Hot (Hawaiian) Ginger sauce made earlier (strained or unstrained). Stir fry.
- When heated through and while the vegetables are still crispy, remove from heat and cover.
Serving
- In a separate bowl, combine some cooked noodles with the toasted sesame oil and light soy sauce.
- Remove the fish from the Kamado Joe when internal temperature reaches 135°F
- Remove the fish from the wood wrap. Spoon over the Hot Ginger Sauce and some vegetables and serve with the noodles. Garnish with coriander.
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