Miso Glazed Tilapia with Salsa

Miso is a thick soy paste that is widely used in Japan. Most of the time I use miso only in making miso soup with tofu. I have seen them use miso for fish so I decided to try it. I used tilapia filet since it is a firm, very mild tasting fish and would take the miso marinate well. I looked up a recipe to get the basic marinating sauce. I put miso, sesame oil, soy sauce, and some apple cider vinegar (since recipe asked for mirin and I did not have, this is similar so I used it). Then I mixed it all together. I added some water to thin the sauce. Marinate the fish in the miso sauce for 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. When ready to bake the fish, put on a baking sheet and top with sliced scallions and sliced ginger. bake in oven until flaky and cooked.

Then I decided to add a bit more flavor with a simple salsa as a topping. The salsa consist of chopped tomatoes, cilantro, red onions, and some lime juice. All mixed together and let it marinate together so flavors come together. Once fish is done plate then top with the salsa. This goes well with a nice leafy green salad or some steamed vegetables. This is a great recipe. Recipe below.

Miso Glazed Tilapia with Salsa

Ingredients:
4 tilapia filets
2 tablespoons miso paste
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons water (depending on how thick you want the sauce)
Salsa (Recipe below)

Directions:
1. get a big bowl and add the miso paste, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar. Mix well. Add the water, depending how thick you want the sauce.
2. Brush some miso sauce on the tilapia filets. Coating both sides. Let it sit for 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.
3. preheat oven to 475 F. Place marinated fish on a baking sheet. Bake fish for 8-10 minutes until flaky but not overcooked. serve with salsa topping.

Salsa:
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped red onions
1/2 cup cilantro
juice from 1 lime

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and place in refridgerator for flavors to come together.
2. Spoon over the baked miso glazed tilapia.

making homemade deer/venison jerky

Since a friend of ours goes out deer hunting, he gave us some meat to try. My brother in Law was interested in making deer jerky since he tried it before and loved it. We have used the deer meat to make stews and chili and the result was good but still had a tough gamey smell. So we wanted to know what we could do more to enhance flavor and get rid of the gamey smell.

Instead of the traditional beef meat to make jerky we use Deer/Venision meat. This is very unique in that deer meat is tougher and has less fat. Also, instead of slicing the deer meat we grounded the meat then put in a curing solution then marinated it in different spice blends for different unique flavors. Then using a jerky gun we pumped out the grounded marinated deer meat into long strips. It is then placed into a 200F oven (oven set at lowest temperature) and left to cook for 3 hours to dehydrate and turn into jerky meat.

The final result is chewy, tender deer meat that is slightly salty but with a sweet taste (from the marinate used). The whole game meat smell is gone. (when making deer meat into stew or chili you still get a game like smell even though you have put other spices and sauces to try to mask the smell). People who tried it did not believe it was deer meat. They thought it was the traditional beeef. A very successful result.

This was so successful that we have made Deer jerky 2 other times. Below is a simple recipe to start anyone off to eating tasty, delicious deer jerky.

Deer Jerky
Ingredients:
approximately 4 lbs. Ground Deer meat
salt curing mixture (by a jerky curing mix, make according to package directions)
3-4 tablespoons crushed red peppers(optional)
2-3 tablespoons chili powder (optional)
2-3 tablespoons cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoon black pepper

Directions:
1. Clean the deer meat. Cut into small chunks. Using a food grinder, put the deer chunks in the machine and grind the meat.

2. Take grounded deer meat in a large bowl. Add the curing mixture. Mix thoroughly.

3. Add the soy sauce, sugar, garlic powder. if using, add the chili powder, cayenne, and crushed red peppers. Mix thoroughly.

4. Put the meat into the jerky gun and squeeze out sticks of grounded meat onto wire racks.

5. Preheat oven to lowest temperature on your oven, most are 200 F.

6. Put racks in the oven and let it cook for 3 hours or until desired chewiness.

Final product: Yummy, chewy, sweet, and spicy jerky flavor with no trace of gamey smell.