Steamed Cod on Black Rice Il Moro with Miso, Ginger and Lime Sauce
Steamed cod fillet on a bed of Il Moro wholegrain black rice, white miso sauce, fresh ginger, lime and spring onion. Light, dry, Italian cooking in conversation with the kitchens of the world.
A light one-dish meal in an Italian-Japanese key: cod fillet steamed with lemon peel and thyme, laid on a bed of Il Moro wholegrain black rice boiled the English way and dressed raw, finished with a sauce of white miso, grated ginger, lime juice and green spring onion. Naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, with nothing fried. Fifteen minutes of active work, eight to ten minutes of steaming, on the table in fifty minutes in total, for four people.
Steaming fish is one of the most honest ways of cooking there is: no flour, nothing fried, no heavy sauce to hide the flaws. You set the fillet on the basket, water with lemon peel and thyme bubbles underneath, and in eight minutes the cod is ready, firm, an opaque white, clean. Beneath it, a bed of black rice that works as both base and counterpoint: dark, fragrant, with a bit of bite against the white of the fish.
For the oriental version we keep for winter evenings, the herb and lime sauce of the classic recipe gives way to a cream of white shiro miso, grated fresh ginger, lime juice, a splash of mirin and spring onion cut into julienne. The miso brings a round, sweet savouriness, the ginger a fresh lift, the spring onion the green note at the end. Our Il Moro wholegrain black rice, dried at low temperature in the drying plant at Lumellogno, holds up its side of the conversation: a mineral and lightly nutty note that balances the miso, no competition, only equilibrium.
Ingredients for 4 People
Ingredients
- 280 g Il Moro Wholegrain Black Rice Acqua e Sole
- 4 cod fillets of 150 g each (MSC or certified sustainable fishing)
- 3 tablespoons white miso (shiro miso)
- 20 g fresh ginger (a 4 cm piece)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon mirin (or 1 teaspoon honey + 2 tablespoons warm water)
- 1 teaspoon naturally fermented soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (2 for the sauce, 2 for the rice)
- 2 fresh spring onions
- 1 organic lemon (peel in strips, for the steam)
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
- to taste coarse salt (for the rice water), fine salt, white pepper
Notes from Home
- Wholegrain black rice the English way: 30-35 minutes in plenty of salted water, drained and dressed while hot, not boiled in scant water
- White shiro miso, not the red one: sweeter, more versatile, it doesn’t overpower the fish
- Salt the cod no more than 5 minutes before steaming, never hours ahead: salting too early draws out water and leaves the fillet soft
- Don’t lift the lid before the seventh minute of steaming: the heat escapes and the times stretch out
- Never blend the sauce: the heat of the blender oxidises it and turns it bitter. Everything by hand with a fork
- Green spring onion only half in the sauce, the other half to finish: the fresh note arrives at serving
Method
Cooking the rice the English way (30-35 min)
Bring 2.5 litres of water to the boil in a roomy pot, salt it with a level tablespoon of coarse salt. Pour in our Il Moro, stir just once and let it cook over a moderate heat for 30-35 minutes, until the grain is soft on the outside and still slightly firm at the core. Taste from minute 28: the wholegrain black rice takes longer than white, but it shouldn’t be overcooked.
Draining and base dressing (2 min)
Drain the rice, let it rest for a minute in the colander so it loses its surface water, then tip it into a wide bowl. Dress it with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a grind of white pepper. Stir with a wooden spoon and keep it covered at room temperature until serving.
Miso base (2 min)
In a small bowl, dissolve the 3 tablespoons of white miso with the mirin and the lime juice, mixing with a fork until you have a smooth cream. If the miso stays lumpy, add a tablespoon of warm water to dissolve it properly. The right consistency is that of a runny cream, not a thick one.
Ginger and soy (1 min)
Grate the ginger with a microplane or a fine grater, squeeze it lightly in your hands to get about two teaspoons of pulp and juice together. Add it to the miso base along with the teaspoon of naturally fermented soy sauce. Mix again with the fork.
Oil and spring onion in the sauce (2 min)
Pour the 2 tablespoons of extra virgin oil in a thin stream into the small bowl, mixing constantly with the fork to get a light emulsion. Finely slice the green part of the spring onions, keep the white part for another preparation (or freeze it). Add half the green spring onion to the sauce, keep the other half for finishing the dish.
Aromatic steam (3 min)
Fill the base of the steamer (or of a pot with a steaming basket) with two fingers of water. Add the strips of lemon peel and 2 sprigs of thyme to the water: they will scent the steam from below, staying in balance with the miso sauce without covering it. Bring to the boil.
Preparing and cooking the cod (10 min)
Dry the fillets with kitchen paper, run your hand against the grain to check there are no leftover bones (fish tweezers are useful). Salt them lightly on both sides with fine salt, a grind of white pepper, and lay the fillets on the basket greased with very little oil. A sprig of thyme on top of each fillet. When the water boils, set the basket in place, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes depending on the thickness. The cod is ready when the flakes separate as you press with a fork and the colour goes from translucent to an even opaque white.
Bed of rice and laying the fish (3 min)
On each flat plate arrange a generous portion of our dressed Il Moro, forming a rectangular or oval bed about one and a half centimetres high. Press lightly with the back of the spoon to give it a stable base, but never crush it. Transfer each cod fillet to the centre of the bed of rice, using a wide slice to help you: steaming leaves the fish delicate, it’s normal for a fillet to break apart, just put it back together carefully.
Sauce, finishing, serving (2 min)
Stir the miso-ginger-lime sauce once more, then spoon a generous tablespoon over each fillet, letting a little run onto the rice around it too. Finish with the rest of the fresh green spring onion, a scattering of toasted white sesame seeds if you like, a grind of white pepper. Serve at once, before the fish loses its heat.
Lumellogno and the Saturday fish stall
Here at Lumellogno there is no sea, but the fish stall at the Saturday market in Novara brings in Atlantic cod that the MSC fleet catches with care. We grow our Il Moro black rice right here, on the Novara plain, and we dry it at low temperature in our own drying plant. When we want a light dish with a little something extra, the sauce of white miso, ginger and lime reminds us that Italian cooking done well also knows how to converse with the rest of the world, without losing its own voice. The rice stays ours, the fish comes from the North Atlantic, the miso arrives from Japan. Three supply chains, one single dish.
Lumellogno · North-eastern Atlantic · Japan
Il Moro as an elegant base for delicate fish
Il Moro wholegrain black rice is the variety we keep in the pantry when we want a dark base for dishes of delicate fish. Compared with classic white rice it has a flavour of its own, a mineral and lightly nutty note that converses beautifully with the miso without being overwhelmed, and a hold in cooking that leaves it whole even after 35 minutes of boiling. The difference comes from the low-temperature drying we do at Lumellogno, in our own drying plant: it’s a slow step that doesn’t break the inner structure of the grain. A closed supply chain from seed to bag, ISO 9001 certification, the same quality in every packet.
«For steamed cod in an oriental key Il Moro works because it has character but doesn’t overpower: its mineral note balances the miso, the grain stays whole beneath the fillet, no competition, only equilibrium.» From the Acqua e Sole kitchen, Lumellogno
One word of warning we feel we should give: choose white shiro miso, not the red one. The red, fermented for a long time, has a savouriness that becomes intrusive with cod. The shiro keeps the sweet roundness the dish needs, and the lime takes care of bringing the acidic freshness that balances the wholegrain rice.
Questions about steamed cod and black rice
Which cod should I choose to be sure of its sustainability?
Can I use frozen fish?
Can I replace the cod with another fish?
Recommended Pairing
To go with this steamed cod and miso sauce we like Italian whites with a good mineral freshness, which stand up to the ginger without clashing with the sweetness of the miso. We happily open a dry Italian Rhine Riesling from Alto Adige, or a young Piedmontese Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG, still or lightly sparkling.
For anyone who wants to play the fusion card all the way, a chilled ginjo sake is the most on-point choice. For those who prefer to stay with something sober, a hot bancha tea at the end of the meal rounds the dish off elegantly. Avoid soft, sugary whites: they amplify the miso without giving it anything to push against.
Il Moro Wholegrain Black Rice Acqua e Sole
Our wholegrain black rice, grown at Lumellogno and dried at low temperature in our own drying plant. A whole grain that holds up to prolonged boiling even after 35 minutes, with a mineral and lightly nutty note that converses with delicate fish and with the kitchens of the world. The right variety for steamed fish dishes, Asian sauces, Italian-Japanese pairings and sober winter tables.
Take Il Moro homeOriginal Acqua e Sole recipe, from our kitchen at Lumellogno.