Recipe: Misoyaki Grilled Fish

Many of us have enjoyed Miso soup (味噌汁) at Japanese restaurants. The soup is simple and light in contrast to clam chowder, yet its taste is so rich. While sipping the Miso soup, you wonder what makes the soup so special that all Japanese restaurants serve Miso soup to their dear customers. The short paragraph from Wikipedia about Miso provides us some insight into its primary secret ingredient - Miso:

Miso is soy bean paste, which is an essential condiment in Japanese cooking. Miso is made by fermenting soy beans with salt and koji. Koji are fermented grains such as rice, barley, and soy beans. It takes about 10 months to a year for miso to be ready for use.

In short, what brings Miso such a rich taste is the fermentation process - a process that help preserve the original smell and taste of soy beans. If you are not allergic to soy products, I recommend you start adding Miso to your regular cooking today. Besides its rich taste, you get all the greatness of soy beans, which have been proven to be beneficial to your heart. Don't know where to start? Try out this unique recipe that grills the Miso marinated fish in a Japanese style.

Materials

1. 2 full table spoons of Miso. Miso can be easily found at any Asian supermarket. There are also many kinds to choose from and at various prices. I normally purchase those imported from Japan, because they know just how to produce high-quality Miso.
2. 1 table spoon of rice wine. I use rice wine to add fragrant flavor to the fish, even though most of the Miso products are already mixed with alcohol. Again, you can find rice wine from any Asian supermarket.
3. 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. I like to add a bit of sweetness to the fish by using sugar.
4. 1 piece of Orange Roughy fillet. I found that Orange Roughy is a perfect choice for this recipe, because the fish itself has a plain taste. You are welcome to try out any fish of your favorite, though.
   

Steps

1. Put Miso, sugar, and rice wine in a small bowl and use a spoon to mix the ingredients.
2. When Miso and sugar are well resolved and mixed with rice wine, pour the mixed Miso in a Ziploc bag.
3. Place the fish in the Ziploc bag. Zip the bag, after carefully squeezing out all the air. This assures the fish is thoroughly marinated.
4. Place the Ziploc bag flat in the refrigerator for at least half of a day to allow the flavor to simmer into the fish.
5. When ready to serve, take the fish out of the Ziploc bag. Wash the fish in a bowl with clean water and leave no Miso on the fish. NOTE: This is very important. Or, the fish will be burned by the grill.
6. Preheat the grill.
7. While waiting for the grill to be ready, wipe the fish with a clean towel to remove extra water.
   
8. After the grill is heated up, place the fish on the grill for about 6 to 8 minutes. The length of the grill time depends on the thickness of the fish fillet and the tenderness of the fish of your preference.
   
9. Remove the fish from the grill, when the time is up. It will taste the best, when the fish is served right off the grill.

I hope you all enjoy the Misoyaki grilled fish. You may want to readjust the amount of the ingredients to suit your taste. Ask me questions or leave me comments on how you like it.

Also, read this post at eHow.

Easy Ways to Get More Fiber in Your Diet

(NewsUSA) - "Eat fiber." You've probably heard this advice. But if you're like most Americans, your diet still falls short. Experts recommend eating 25 to 30 grams of fiber each day, but most Americans eat only around 10 grams.

Numerous studies say that diets high in fiber, or the indigestible part of plants, provide health benefits. Fiber promotes normal digestion and naturally prevents constipation. And for people who want to lose weight, a high-fiber diet is a great way to go -; high-fiber foods fill stomachs with fewer calories, allowing dieters to eat more and still lose weight.

There are two main types of fiber. Apples, oranges, carrots, potatoes, oats, barley and beans all contain water-soluble fiber.

• Water-soluble fiber helps regulate blood sugar and blood cholesterol levels.
• Water-insoluble fiber traps water and helps move food through the intestines. It can be found in vegetables, wheat bran, corn bran, rice bran and most other whole grains.

You need both types of fiber, so aim to eat many different fruits, vegetables,
legumes and whole grains throughout your day. Eat fruits and vegetables with their skins for extra fiber. Focus on whole grains like oatmeal, bran cereals, brown rice, millet and barley. You can also find 100 percent whole grain breads and pastas at many supermarkets. Even with these changes, you may still have trouble meeting your fiber intake goals, so taking a product that contains both soluble and insoluble fiber, such as Herbalife's Active Fiber Complex (www.herbalife.com), can help you get the maximum benefit that fibers provide.

Here are some tips to sneak fiber into your diet:

• Replace your morning OJ with a whole orange. Fruit juices often contain added sugars, and they almost never have fiber. Switching from fruit juice to fruit will help you meet your daily fiber needs.
• Snack on raw vegetables. Dip raw vegetables, like cauliflower florets, baby carrots and celery, into black bean salsa or hummus to boost your fiber intake.
• Buy whole-grain pastas and breads. Make your pasta salad with whole-grain pasta to enjoy fiber's health benefits. When baking breads, muffins and cookies, consider replacing some or all of the white flour with whole wheat white or whole-wheat pastry flour.

Suddenly upping your fiber intake can upset your stomach, so slowly incorporate high-fiber foods into your diet, and drink plenty of water.

The Truth About The Baby Carrots Washed In Chlorine

[Updated 12/11/08]

Some of you may have received an email that warns against use of chlorine during the process of baby carrots and wondered what to do about it. If you have not seen the email, I've included the one forwarded by a reader of Fishtarian below for your reference.

The following is information from a farmer who grows and packages carrots for IGA, METRO, LOBLAWS, etc.

The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots . most people probably know this already.

What you may not know and should know is the following: once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them (this is the same chlorine used in your pool) since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine. You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigerator for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots, this is the chlorine which resurfaces. At what cost do we put our health at risk to
have esthetically pleasing vegetables which are practically plastic?

We do hope that this information can be passed on to as many people as possible in the hopes of informing them where these carrots come from and how they are processed. Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen. Please let us make this information available to as many people as possible. If you care about your family and friends, pass it on.

The email is so well written that it would easily raise doubts in your mind wondering whether you should continue offering your kids healthy finger food. So, I set out to do some research. After all, baby carrots have been my long-time favorite and a common ingredient in my recipes. Below are my findings:

1. Are the baby carrots made out of the larger crooked carrots? The answer is "true - originally". The baby carrot was invented in 1986 by leading Newhall California carrot producer Mike Yurosek who sought to save at least some of the broken or misshapen carrots that he could not use in his fresh carrot packing line. That is no longer the case, though. A new breed of smaller carrots is now commonly used particularly for the baby carrots. The new breed is designed to contain extra sweetness and to have stronger appeal to children. Even if the baby carrots are made out of the larger crooked carrots, there wouldn't be any difference in terms of nutrition. So, I don't see this as a problem.
2. Are the baby carrots dipped in a chlorine water solution during the processing? The answer to that question is also "true." Don't panic, yet. Chlorine dioxide antimicrobial for fruits and vegetables is allowed by FDA. In fact, it's a very common practice in the food processing industry that handles food treatment from fruits, vegetables, chicken, to red meat. The truth is chlorine sensitization over food is considered safe, when following the FDA guidelines. If you truly wish to stay away from baby carrots due to this concern, consider buying the carrots that are not cut and peeled. You would probably have to resist all kinds of fresh cut vegetables, too.
   
3. How about the white covering, then? The white covering has nothing to do with chlorine dioxide antimicrobial at all. It naturally forms on the cutting surface of carrots, after they are dried out in the air. You can reproduce the same effect by peeling and letting dry a fresh normal-sized carrot you get from a grocery store. The entire baby carrot is a cutting surface.

It is not clear about the motivation behind the email. I'm sure this won't be the last one. But, we should handle this kind of matter with our due diligence. I hope this post rests your mind in peace, when you enjoy or offer your kids healthy finger food again.