Have you ever tried pacific black cod (also known as sable fish)? It’s a delicate, fatty fish, sustainably fished, filled with good Omega-3s, and absolutely delicious. The Whole Foods in my neighborhood has been carrying it with regularity. Here is a beautifully simple way to prepare it, taught to me by my friend and avid fisherman Hank Shaw.
The fillets are simmered in a Japanese-style broth of sake, soy sauce, rice vinegar, oil, and ginger. While the fillets are cooking, you spoon the simmering sauce over the top of the fillets so that the top gets infused with the sauce as well. The fillets are then topped with toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onions.
Hank brines his fillets first, to firm up the flesh before cooking. I could go either way with this. If you have time, brine the fish (instructions are in the notes to the recipe), if not, just be more careful with handling the cooked fish, as it is rather delicate.
Pacific Black Cod or Sable Fish
If you have a favorite way of preparing Pacific black cod, please let us know about it in the comments!
Pan Simmered Pacific Black Cod Recipe
PrintPacific black cod (sablefish) have long pin bones along the sides of their fillets that are difficult to remove before the fish has been cooked. Once the fillets have been cooked, however, they are easily removed with tweezers or needle-nosed pliers.
Pacific black cod falls apart easily. If you want your result to be more firmly textured, brine the fillets in a salt brine of 1/4 cup of salt to 1 quart of water plus 2 cups of crushed ice for 20 minutes.
Sea bass fillets also work with this recipe. Sea bass fillets are thicker though, so you would want to simmer them on both sides for several minutes until cooked through.
Ingredients
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds skinless black cod fillets
- 1/4 cup sake
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup canola, rice bran or other neutral oil
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
- Dark sesame oil, for garnish
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal, for garnish
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Method
1 In a large sauté pan, mix the sake, rice vinegar, canola oil, soy sauce and ginger. Bring to a simmer on medium to medium high heat.
2 Lay each fillet in the pan. Use a spoon to baste the tops of each fillet until you see the flakes of the fish separate a little, which should take about 30 seconds to 1 minute per fillet.
Let the fish simmer for 3-6 minutes, depending on how thick they are. Estimate 3 minutes for a 1/4 inch-thick fillet, up to 6 minutes for an inch-thick fillet.
3 Gently move the fish to individual plates. If you want, use (clean) needle-nosed pliers or tweezers to remove the pin bones in the fillets.
4 Increase the heat on the sauce and boil vigorously for 1 minute, stirring constantly to reduce the sauce. Spoon a tablespoon or more of the sauce over each fillet and discard the rest. Drizzle a little bit of sesame oil over each fillet, then garnish with the green onions and toasted sesame seeds.
Serve immediately.
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Links:
Nobu's Miso Marinated Black Cod, from The Kitchn
Black Cod with Summer Vegetables, from Use Real Butter
Black Cod with A Salad of Beets, Carrots and Radishes, from Cannelle at Vanille
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I love sable fish. It I a flakey , buttery , doesn’t smell, look or taste like fish. I get mine from Alaska shipped in & they have 0 bones.
It is a little like sea bass in texture. It takes very little effort to fix.
Salt pepper & lemon pepper if desired. I pat mine dry & rub olive oil on it with a soft paper towel. No need to put grease in a skillet.
Just spray PAM in your pan & cook with a medium temp for 2-4 minutes. When looking flakey carefully turn it over with a spatula .
Cook other side the same way. Frying or baking is not for this fish!
Enjoy & hope you like it better!
Thank you very much for this! I love this recipe and use it all the time for black cod but also for salmon and halibut. I always brine if I’m using black cod or salmon since it firms up the cod and gets rid of the albumin for salmon.
Another preparation for sablefish, aka black cod, that we really like comes from the book Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. I found one place that has the recipe on-line, but if you’re interested in simply SE Asian food, this is a great book to add to your collection. It uses 1 pound of fish and a 1/2 pound of fresh ginger. I know that sounds like a lot of ginger, but it’s really, really good and so satisfying. However, since we don’t have any ginger… i’m making your recipe tonight, Elise!
Made this tonight with sea bass, about 1″ thick, so cooked about 4 minutes on each side. Then removed the fish from the pan, turned up the heat, and tossed 10oz baby spinach in and tossed it around in the sauce as it wilted. Didn’t let it cook down all the way, just made sure it was warm. Served the fish on a bed of wilted spinach and poured what was left of the sauce on top.
Beautiful. Just tasty and beautiful.
Love black cod and had a great piece recently at a gourmet restaurant in Mendocino. But there were a ton of pin bones in it.
Shouldn’t the chef have removed them prior to serving? Other than that I absolutely loved the taste and texture of the fish.
Planning on trying your recipe AND removing bones prior to serving!