Plum Glazed Black Cod

     Black cod, aka sablefish, is a wonderful fish to cook with. Its flesh is rich & buttery and melts in your mouth. One of the best ways to prepare black cod is to glaze it and bake it in the oven. For this fatty fish, a thick, sweet glaze works best. Sometimes I'll use a blend of miso and maple syrup. For a quick glaze, you can simply mix hoisin with lemon juice. For this recipe I used dried plums & hoisin. The texture is great and the plums bring a nice little fruitiness to the dish. The wild mushrooms and brown rice bring in some earthy notes to balance everything out.
          Here I used dried "trumpette de la mort," aka "black trumpet," or "trumpet of the dead" mushrooms. Besides having a really cool, kinda spooky name, these mushrooms are delicious. They have a strong woody flavour and are easily one of my favorite mushrooms. They grow wild here in Quebec and are available in many specialty markets and even some grocery stores. If you can't find black trumpet mushrooms, any dried variety will do. There's two reasons for using dried mushrooms in this recipe. For one, the flavour of many mushrooms - particularly black trumpets and morels - deepens after they have been dried. Also, the water that you use to re-hydrate the mushrooms will absorb their flavour and can be used to flavour the rice. It is best to soak the mushrooms in the fridge overnight, but you can have them ready in about 30 minutes if you soak them in hot water.

Prep time 30 minutes, cook time 30 minutes. Serves 4

Ingredients
 
4 filets black cod (sablefish)
20g dried wild mushrooms
1 1/2 cups brown rice
2 cups spinach, finely chopped
1/4 cup dried plums (prunes)
1/4 hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F

1. Soak the mushrooms in 1/2 cup cold water overnight or in hot water for 30 minutes. Put the rice in a pot with 3 cups water. Strain the mushrooms and add the water that the mushrooms have soaked in to the rice. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Heat 1 tbs of butter in a frying pan and sautee the mushrooms for 6 minutes. Add the chopped spinach and 3/4 of the mushrooms to the rice. Reserve the remaining mushrooms for garnish

2. While the rice is cooking, combine the dried plums, hoisin, water and soy sauce in a small sauce pan and simmer for 8 minutes. Puree the glaze in a blender. Place the 4 black cod filets on a baking tray that has been lined with parchement paper and apply a thick coating of the glaze. Bake in the oven until the fish is just starting to flake apart, about 12 minutes.

To serve: Divide the rice among 4 plates. Use a spatula to carefully set the glazed cod down on the rice. Garnish with reserved sauteed mushrooms