It is an elegant – excellent dish. The trick is to find a slice of good quality, white, dense fish, and cook it through without overcooking.. You need to allow time for marinating the fish (about 24 hours).
With long grain brown rice it serves 6.
For sable fish you need
- 500 ml sake
- 175 ml maple syrup
- 6 portions (150g each?) sablefish fillets, skin on, scaled (if not available, sea bass works well too)
For the sauce
- 1200ml of fresh orange juice
- 300 ml of fresh grapefruit juice
- juice of 2 limes
- 1.5 tsp soy sauce
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 125 ml chicken stock
- 2 oranges, cut in segments, for garnish
- 2 grapefruit or lemon, cut in segments
- finely julienned green onions for garnish (1 bunch)
- finely julienned red radishes for garnish (1 bunch)
- 3 tsp lemon oil (optional)
Marinate the fish
- Bring sake to a boil and stir in maple syrup. Let cool.
- Place sable fish fillets in a nonreactive deep dish or small pan; cover with the cooled sake-maple syrup mixture and marinate for 24 hours.
Prepare the sauce
- Combine citrus juices and simmer gently over medium heat until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. It may take about 2 hours, but is worth the effort.
- Refrigerate until needed.
- To finish the citrus and soy sauce, combine reduced citrus juice, soy sauce and stock in a small pot and bring to a gentle boil.
- Stir in the butter until blended.
- Taste for seasoning. If sauce is too tart, add a little more butter.
Roast the fish
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Remove the fish from the marinade and pat dry.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Place the fish skin-side up; bake for 10 minutes.
Assemble the dish
- Divide the orange, grapefruit and lemon segments among 6 bowls or one large platter
- Spoon sauce over the fruit segments.
- Place the sable fish on top skin-side up.
- Garnish with green onions, radishes and lemon oil.
- Serve with long grain brown rice immediately.