Braised mackerel in tomato sauce with bitter melon
Shio-koji marinated mackerels cooked in summer representing vegetables of fresh tomatoes and bitter melon. Packed with healthy fats of mega3 from mackerel and not only it is healthy but also is full of rich flavor and deliciousness from shio-koji!
1.5tbspShio-koji - look for "nama (raw) " sio-koji **
For the sauce
2tbspextra virgin olive oil - for frying fish and for the sauce, 1tbsp each
2clovesgarlic - sliced
1/2onion - chopped
1/3medium size bitter melon - see the instruction
1large size fresh tomato - roughly cut into cubes
1/2tbspShio-koji to taste - see the note***
pepper
Instructions
Marinating mackerel;***
- if you cook in the morning; the night before, place the mackerel in the container and coat each piece with shio--koji. - if you cook at night, do the same thing above in the morning or during the day.Keep the the container in the refrigerator and marinate the fish for about 6 hours.***
Make sauce and cook fish
First prepare bitter melon.- Cut bitter melon in half vertically and take off the seeds (spongy part) with spoon.- Slice it into about 2 -5 mm thickness. - In a bowl place sliced bitter melon and salt, softly 'knead' it and leave them for about 10 minutes. (use 1 tsp of salt for one bitter melon)
While soaking bitter melon, prepare mackerel and other vegetables as instructed above in the ingredient list. To prepare mackerel, take the fish container out of the fridge and take off the excess shio-koji from mackerel.Heat the 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pan at medium heat, add the mackerel with skind facing down. Cook both side of surface so that the skin becomes "crunchy". (just cook the surface. It does not have to be cooked through here)
After 10 minutes, lightly rinse off bitter melon with fresh water.
Heat olive oil in the pan, add garlic and onion and sautee until they becomes fragrant. Add prepared bitter melon and chopped tomato sautee them for about 1 minutes.
Place mackerel in simmering sauce, and cover the pan and cook another 10-12 minutes or until water comes out of vegetables and mackerel is cooked through.
Uncover the pan, season with shi-koji and salt (if needed) and pepper. If you do not have shio-koji just lesser amount of salt. ***Enjoy!
Notes
*if you cannot find mackerel you can try with salmon, snapper or yellowtail fish.** when you purchase Shio-koji, look for "nama (raw) shio-koji" because they have active enzyme in it.*** I strongly recommend to use shio-koji because it does make difference in taste, texture, and the flavor of whole dish as well as nutritional value of this dish. But if you are unable t find it you can still make this dish without it and use just salt instead. You do not need to marinate so just sprinkle salt over the fish and leave it for 5 minutes before cooking. And take off the excess water that comes out of fish before frying in the pan. Use 1/8-1/4 tsp salt when seasoning the sauce.You can buy Nama Shio-koji HERE!