#2 | running it back
Welcome to post #2 of tomorrow! Today is about cooking fish, writing, and sleep.
About writing
A few weeks ago, I resolved to begin writing again. I keep thinking that every single blog post has to be equivalent to a draft of a narrative essay, but have come to the conclusion that what's more important (for now) is sheer quantity, just to get back into the habit of writing.
What mostly lured me back into writing was the need to document. Another birthday passed me by, and I began to think about all of the memories slipping past me.
The prime lens through which I've viewed this concept is cooking. Cooking has become a big hobby of mine in the past 1.5 years, but I'm not very scientific about my process. I always read a batch of recipes before attempting a new dish, but modifications always happen and I forget to write them down, along with how I felt about the end result! I realized that I need to do this, or else I'll never progress. Or at least, it will take much longer than necessary.
The other lens is just a general worry that I will look back in 20 years and realize that I have forgotten so much. The more I use social media, the more my attention span wanes. I have so many moments where I'm experiencing a beautiful moment with friends and consciously think, "I want to remember this. Will I?"
I got dinner with a couple of friends at my favorite cocktail bar and sensed that familiar thought creeping in. I hate that sometimes I can't simply bask in the light of a moment. My brain has to constantly remind me that I'm human, and therefore time is always ticking.
Things I've been thinking about
1. Staying hungry, but being okay with less.
My roommate and I recently had a long conversation on our couch about the practical mentality of adulthood. Something he brought up was maintaining ambition while not beating yourself up over failure or stagnation--in contrast with the naive mindset of thinking that you can truly accomplish anything and everything you want. In one way, it's sad that as a kid you're full of so much promise simply because adults tell you such, but on the other hand, that's not a sustainable mindset for life.
2. Cooking saikyo yaki
A few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I went to a local Japanese restaurant and I ordered the salmon, which was cooked perfectly and had a light miso flavor. This reminded me that for a while I've been meaning to try making shiozake or salted breakfast salmon, but I've never actually eaten it myself, so I decided to try saikyo yaki, or miso salmon instead because I'd been intensely craving a miso marinated fish for whatever reason. Shrug.
I actually had some frozen steelhead fillets to cook, so that's what I used for this recipe, but it didn't really make a difference. I'd imagine it would taste the same with salmon, if not better. I made 4 pieces of salmon with this recipe.
- The first step is to slice the fish in pieces about 2 cm thick and salt them for an hour to get the fishy smell out.
- Next you make the marinade. You're supposed to use a special miso type called saikyo, but I used white miso. I followed the instructions in this YouTube video, which calls for a 1/3 cup of miso, 1 tbs of sake, 2 tbs of mirin, 1 tbs of sugar, and 1 tsp of soy sauce.
- You can let this marinate for 2-3 days. I did it for two. By the time you take it out, it should be noticeably firmer than before.
- Wipe all of the marinade off and then bake according to this recipe, which for posterity is 7 minutes at 320 and then 5 minutes on the broil setting at 420.
I would say I modified this by doubling the amount of sugar and probably doing a bit more soy sauce. I do think that the skin could have been crispier and the taste of mirin was a little strong, so perhaps next time I'll broil it for longer and reduce the mirin a bit. I didn't mind it, but it was a noticeable flavor.
Here's a photo from when I made it!
That's all for today! I'm keeping it short and sustainable. I'm going to play video games now, lol.