Restaurant Take-Home: Continental's Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass with Sweet Potato Mash

So here's another Continental favorite, I had to try again. One of the tastiest entree's at Stephen Starr's The Continental: The Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass.
Many recipes for the sea bass called for long marinating and Mirin rice wine...both of which were huge turn-offs for me...additionally, having never cooked sea bass, I figured I'd stick to a fish I'm assured one can never cook wrong: Salmon. Also, it's available everywhere.

Another shortcut, was using Trader Joe's instant miso soup mix instead of miso paste. I'm not sure that miso is that hard to find, but at least this way, without making this dish every single day (which after making it the one time, doesn't sound like too bad of an idea) you can still use the ingredient. Also, if Trader Joe's is your main grocery store, you'll have no problem whipping it together whenever.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1/2 packet Trader Joe's instant miso soup
  
• 2 salmon fillets
  
• Cooking spray
• 1/2c chopped scallions

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Sift Trader Joe's instant soup (or at least try to get rid of the tofu bits and dried veggies)

3. Combine first 4 ingredients.

4. Arrange fish in a shallow baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle scallions on. Spoon 2/3 of miso mixture over top of fish.

5. Bake for 10 minutes, add more glaze over the top. Bake for an additional 5-10 min. Beware of burning (glaze may get hot and the sugar can burn) -- if this happens add a few tbs of water to the sauce around the fish -- NOT on top of the fish.

6. You should be able to smell the deliciousness of the fish when it's done. A well cooked fish will show bits of whiteness on the outside amid the pink and the glaze.

At Continental, the sea bass is served alongside a sweet and fluffy cloud of white sweet potato mash (and a fried sweet potato chip). I'd tasted a similar puree at Trader Joe's last year around Thanksgiving, so I headed to the store to pick up a can to serve alongside...alas, a conundrum when looking for white sweet potatoes: the contents of the can were slightly bitter, orange, yams. Still, to turn them around, I added a pinch of salt, a few tbs of butter and some brown sugar to taste (about 1/4c). All in all, not quite the same asian complement as starchy white sweet potatoes, but not a bad combination either.