Braised Grouper

Name: Braised Grouper
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients: 1 onion, roughly chopped; 1 jalapeño, sliced; 1 tablespoon/7 grams garam masala; 1 teaspoon/6 grams fine sea salt; One 35-ounce/992-gram can peeled plum tomatoes; 2 cups/456 grams buttermilk; 1/4 cup/80 grams soy sauce; 7 ounces/200 grams sharp white Cheddar cheese, grated; Four 6-ounce/170-gram grouper fillets, brined in salt water (see page 25)

December 9, 2011

This dish was inspired by an incredible meal at Rasika in Washington, D.C. The chef, Vikram Sunderam, used Cheddar cheese in a tomato-based marinade for his black cod that was utterly delicious. If you didn’t know that the cheese was there, you wouldn’t have identified it as what gave the sauce its unusual depth of flavor. Here we’ve borrowed that technique for our braising sauce. Because we use canned tomatoes, the recipe makes two quarts of sauce, so we recommend that you freeze half for another time or double the amount of fish for a dinner party. Either way, this spicy yet delicate dish will transport you.

Recipe notes

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