Braised Black Cod

은대구찜[eun-dae-gu-jjim]
It takes about 6 hours to get to my parents' place in Southern California from Oakland (where we live). When we are visiting my parents over the weekend, we usually drive down on Fridays after work and arrive there around the midnight. My parents are usually awake until then, so we chat for about an hour before we go to bed. Because of a long drive from the night before, we usually wake up late the next morning. And by then, my mom and dad had already come back from a fish market in Newport Beach, and mom is busy in the kitchen preparing much anticipated her specialty dish, braised black cod. This has been more or less a routine whenever we are visiting.


My parents usually leave home for the fish market around 6 o'clock in the morning when we are deep in sleep, so we never had a chance to tag along to the fish market or to take pictures of my mom cooking until now. But this one time, I was determined to wake up earlier than usual to join them.


That's my dad getting some fresh crabs for an appetizer. Yes, steamed crabs are only an appetizer to the braised black cod.

This dish is something that Min and I look forward to whenever we are visiting my parents'. It is very special because you can only use fresh fish, not frozen ones. Some restaurants use frozen cods, but it can't compare to fresh cods. This dish is not one of the most photogenic dishes, but it has to be one of our favorite dishes made by my mom. It's totally worth a 6-hour drive.

Ingredients for 6-7 serving:
black cod (3lb)
daikon radish (1/2)

Ingredients for sauce:
green onion/scallion (5-6 stems, chopped)
onion (1/2, chopped)
garlic (2-3 cloves, minced)
chili powder (1/3 cup)
sesame oil (1 tbl)
sesame seeds (2 tbl, roasted/ground)
fish sauce (1 tbl)
oligo syrup/corn syrup (1/3 cup)
soy sauce (1/3 cup)

1.

Prepare a fresh black cod. Chop the fish into chunks about 1/2" thick.

2.

Slice a daikon radish about 1/2" thick and cover the pan like in the picture.

3.

Place black cod chunks over the radish slices.

4.

You need the following ingredients for the sauce.

5.

Plus chopped onions.

6.

And chopped green onion and minced garlic. My mom normally grind the garlic in large batch then freeze in small cubes or rectangular shapes for individual uses.

7.

Mix everything together from Step 4,5 and 6.

8.

Spread the sauce over the cod slices.

9.

Heat over high at first and then at medium for about 15 to 20 minutes until the fish are all cooked.

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