Grilling with Miso Glaze!

Miso-glazed proteins seems to be a fad right now.  Every upscale restaurant in LA has some sort of miso-glazed salmon, black cod, sable fish, and so on.  It is also WONDERFUL on grilled vegetables, such as Japanese eggplant, or grilled tofu.  I am into this fad 100%.  I think it's delicious and lucky for us, it's easy to make.

Miso itself is a thick paste, usually derived from the fermentation of soy beans (though many other grains may be used) with salt and an agent known as kojikin, which facilitates the fermentation process.   Due to the specific kojikin used, the salt content, the duration of fermentation process, and the fermentation vessel itself, miso paste can be fairly diverse.  Red miso and yellow miso and the two most common, however many blends to exist.  Typically, miso is mixed with broth (hon-dashi) and is the foundation for miso soup.

With such a deep and intricate flavor, the versatility of miso goes well beyond soups and stocks.  As a glaze (grilling of course), it imparts a lot of that deep flavor directly into your protein, without the need for a lot of extra work.  In other words, it's easy.  The miso glaze recipe I am going to give you is exactly how I would produce this in a restaurant.  You can be assured that with 4 simple ingredients and a hot grill, you will have a meal to remember.

Miso Glazed tri-tips

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 7 minutes
Yield: 3-4 portions

Ingredients:

2 tbsp cup red miso (can be found any good grocery store or asian market)
2 tbsp mirin (sweet rice wine vinegar) or sweet sake can be used
1 tsp light brown sugar sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 bunch scallion, thin sliced on a bias
1 1/2 lb sirloin tri-tip sliced thin against the grain
wooden skewers, soaked in cold water

Method:

Whisk the miso with the mirin or sake, sugar, and soy sauce.  Taste it (as mentioned, not all miso is the same) and add a little more sugar or mirin if necessary (it will be a little salty).  Place the thin strips of beef on the skewers.  Using a brush, lightly coat the beef with half of the glaze.

Heat a wood grill to HIGH heat.  Make sure the grates a cleaned and well oiled.  Grill the beef, quickly, about 2 minutes each side.  Brush the remainder of the glaze on the beef while they are grilling.  They are cut thin, so they will cook fast.  Remember, the miso has high sugar content, so they will char quickly.  Remove from grill, arrange on a warm platter, garnish with scallions and serve right away.  Serving this with the pickled cucumbers from this post http://chefnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/09/lamb-gyros-with-pita-hummus-feta-and.html is a perfect fit.

Enjoy.