Gordon Ramsay’s miso cod is skin-on fillets in a sticky white miso, mirin and ginger glaze, baked hot and fast at 240°C for 15 minutes. The recipe comes from Quick and Delicious, serves four and takes 30 minutes with a quick cucumber pickle.
He cooks miso cod four different ways across his books and his restaurant menus. In the book he writes that white miso has “a wonderfully deep, savoury richness”, and keeping a tub in the fridge can start many meals. This is the fastest of the four.
The marinade gets just 10 minutes, and position does the heavy lifting. The fillets sit flesh side down, so the glaze soaks into the cut face rather than the skin. There is no flipping either, the oven handles both jobs.
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Gordon Ramsay Miso Cod
Course: DinnersCuisine: JapaneseDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes15
minutes310
kcal30 minutes
A sticky Japanese glaze on everyday cod fillets, finished with a blowtorch anywhere the oven leaves it pale. The whole plate, pickle included, lands inside half an hour.
Ingredients
- For the Miso Cod:
5 tbsp white miso paste
2 tbsp mirin
1½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
3cm (1¼ inch) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
4 x 200g (7 oz) cod fillets, skin on and pin-boned
350g (12 oz) Tenderstem broccoli, trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil
- For the Cucumber Pickle:
1 cucumber
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
Large pinch of salt
- To Serve:
Pickled ginger
2 tbsp furikake seasoning
Directions
- Preheat: Heat the oven to 240°C (220°C fan/475°F).
- Marinate: Combine the miso, mirin, sugar, soy sauce and ginger in a shallow dish just big enough for the fish. Coat both sides of the fillets, then leave them flesh side down in the marinade for 10 minutes.
- Prep the broccoli: Place the broccoli in a single layer on a small baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat.
- Make the pickle: Slice the cucumber into very thin rounds with a mandolin or food processor. Mix with the rice vinegar, sugar and salt and leave for 10 minutes.
- Bake: Put the fish on a small baking tray on the top shelf, with the broccoli tray alongside, and cook for 15 minutes.
- Finish the glaze: If any patches of glaze have not browned, run a blowtorch over the surface until evenly coloured.
- Serve: Drain the cucumber and plate the cod with the broccoli and a spoonful of pickle. Add pickled ginger and a sprinkle of furikake.
Notes
- White miso is the sweet, pale one, sold as shiro. Miso Tasty and Yutaka both make one, stocked in Tesco and Sainsbury’s near the sushi ingredients, and the generic own-brand jars are usually the stronger shinshu type. For the parcel method his other version uses, the fish en papillote guide covers the folding and sealing.
FAQs
What do you serve with miso cod?
Ramsay builds the sides into the recipe: roasted Tenderstem broccoli, quick-pickled cucumber, pickled ginger and a scatter of furikake. The pickle is doing real work, cutting the sweet glaze with vinegar.
His parcel version calls for steamed rice instead. His basmati rice method is the one to reach for, cardamom, star anise and a 1:1.5 water ratio, since he calls basmati the king of all rices.
Can you use regular cod instead of black cod?
That question runs backwards for Ramsay, because this recipe already uses regular cod on purpose. In Healthy, Lean and Fit he explains that Nobu’s famous miso black cod “is actually made with sable fish, which isn’t cod at all”.
Sablefish is hard to find here, so he built his home versions around the cod at every counter, the same everyday fillets his pan seared cod cooks skin-down in a pan. His restaurants do serve the real thing, sliced black cod in a sake and yuzu marinade.
How long do you cook miso cod?
Fifteen minutes at 240°C for this version, on the top shelf so the glaze catches. His restaurant black cod runs 9 minutes at 180°C. The parcel version takes 10 to 12 minutes, the method his miso Chilean sea bass borrows for thicker fillets.
Doneness beats the clock every time. The flesh should flake at a nudge and look just opaque in the centre, because cod keeps cooking for a minute on the plate.
How long should miso cod marinate?
Ten minutes here, and Ramsay is deliberately breaking his own rules. His parcel version asks for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days, while both restaurant recipes demand a full 24 hours.
The trade is heat for time. A 240°C oven builds in minutes what a long marinade builds slowly, so longer never hurts if the fridge has room.
Is miso cod healthy?
By his own numbers, yes. Healthy, Lean and Fit prints the parcel version at 171 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving. His note says it suits anyone watching their weight.
This glazed version lands around 310 calories with the sugar and oil, still light for a dinner. The sodium is the honest catch, because miso and soy both carry plenty.
Do you need sake for miso cod?
Not for this one. The home glaze gets its rice-wine sweetness from mirin alone, which is easier to find and needs no substitution maths.
Sake belongs to the restaurant version, 100ml of it in the black cod marinade with yuzu zest. A splash in this marinade brings the two closer if a bottle is already open.
