Foray's Monterey Bay Black Cod

Recipe Courtesy of Michael Chang

It is always a joy to reach out to different restaurants in the area, and ask for their favorite recipe highlighting local seafood. We are fortunate to have some remarkable chefs, who are fully committed to sourcing their ingredients locally, and understand the impact of their efforts. 

For this edition, we highlight Chef Michael Chang of Foray, a fine-dining restaurant located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, whose mission is to take their diners on a “guided tour of the Central Coast” from the comfort of their dining room. 

For this black cod recipe, Chef Chang dry ages the local black cod for 14 days, and sources the dungeness crab from one of our local fishermen, Khevin Mellegers of FV Areona out of Santa Cruz. Sourcing crab from Khevin is notable, because he is one of the fishermen that has a special permit to use experimental pop-up traps to catch dungeness crab, which do not have any lines attached to them, making them whale-safe, and allowing Khevin to fish in areas (and for an extended season) that are typically closed to regular dungeness crab fishing methods. 

Coupled with his use of various local seaweeds and uni for this dish, it truly is recipe that highlights the bounty of Monterey Bay in beautiful (and delicious) form. 


Foray’s Monterey Bay Black Cod

Serves 4

Prep Time: 3 hours (30 minutes active, 2 and a half hours passive)

Cooking & Plating: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

For the lentils

  • 4 sheets dried seaweed (we prefer kombu)

  • 1 cup lentils (we prefer beluga lentils)

  • 1 whole Dungeness crab (or 8 ounces picked Dungeness crab meat)

  • 3 pounds porcini mushrooms (or matsutake mushrooms or any other mushroom that is safe to eat raw)

  • 1 pound sea lettuce (or any other fresh seaweeds)

For the uni-yuzu sauce

  • 120g tray uni

  • 8 ounces cream

  • 1 carrot, 1 celery stem, 1 small onion, 1 bay leaf, pinch of black peppercorns

  • 4oz yuzu juice (or lemon juice)

For the black cod

  • 4 portions local Monterey Bay black cod (6 ounces each)

PREPARATION

  1. Start by making dashi – add kombu to a small stock pot and cover with a few inches of cold water, then bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the dashi and use this liquid to simmer the lentils for about 20 minutes until al dente. Cool and reserve the lentils for later. 

  2. Clean and slice the porcinis lengthwise and as thinly as possible – we use a Japanese mandolin, but a sharp chef’s knife will work. Use the trimmings from slicing the porcini to make a broth by adding them to a small stock pot and covering with a few inches of water, then bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Strain, cool and reserve the broth for later. At Foray, we do an agar clarification with this broth to make it into a perfectly clear consommé. 

  3. Next, make the uni-yuzu sauce. Cut the carrot, celery and onion into 1-inch pieces and rinse under cold water until clean. Add the vegetables, bay leaf and peppercorns into a small pot and simmer in the cream for 2 hours, then strain. In a small blender, add the uni and blend until smooth, then slowly add the cream and yuzu juice until seasoned to your liking. Cool and reserve for later. At Foray, we reserve the uni-yuzu in a squeeze bottle so that we can quickly make dots on the plate during service. 

  4. Boil the whole Dungeness crab for 12 minutes in salted water – the water should be as salty as the ocean. Cool and pick the crab meat, reserve for later. At Foray, we save the Dungeness crab shells and roast them in the oven to make a flavorful stock that we use in our other seafood dishes.

  5. Wash the sea lettuce three times or until the water runs clear, then dry and rough chop into bite sized pieces. At Foray, we cook some of the sea lettuce in vegetable stock until tender, then blend it with flour, butter and egg whites to make a tuile that we place on top of the black cod. 

  6. Finally, we are ready to cook and assemble our dish! Preheat oven to 425*F. Add the lentils and sea lettuce to a medium pan with a bit of the liquid from the lentils, then warm on medium heat until hot. Add the crab and a small amount of butter and toss (or stir) to combine. Next, warm a medium pan on high heat and add a couple ounces of high heat oil (avocado, grapeseed, etc.). Dry the black cod portions and once the pan shows the first whisps of smoke, carefully add the black cod to the pan – skin side down. Once the skin is crispy, turn the black cod portions over and finish in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 120*F (or is slightly firm to the touch). 

  7. Plating – place the lentil mixture in a circular mold (or in a small bowl/large cup and flip onto the plate), then gently press down the lentil mixture while removing the circular mold. Add the sliced porcini mushrooms on top of the lentil mixture. Place the black cod on top of the porcini mushroom slices. Decorate the plate with the uni-yuzu sauce and pour the porcini broth around the outside of the lentils. 

A note – at Foray, we dry age the black cod in-house for 14 days at 34*F and under 80% relative humidity. Just like dry aging red meat, aging fish concentrates its natural flavor and firms up the texture through moisture loss. For fatty fish like black cod and salmon, we like to dry age for 14 days. For leaner fish like halibut, we like to dry age for less time, usually around 7 days. Black cod is sometimes known as ‘butterfish’ when fresh due to its soft texture, however we at Foray prefer a flakier black cod with crispy skin that can only be achieved through the dry aging process.

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