Swordfish is diced, sautéed and marinated in a flavoursome sauce. This dish goes well with rice and the flavour is so good that you will probably ask for another bowl of rice.
This is another of Nagi’s favourite Japanese dishes that I make (well, she has many favourites).
Because swordfish is a large fish, the meat is normally sold as steaks. The meat is firm so you can cook it in many ways which you cannot with other types of fish. For example: on skewers; dicing the meat and cooking. This recipe takes advantage of the characteristics of swordfish meat. The fish is diced and sautéed.
I find that swordfish has a slightly stronger fishy flavour than other white meat fish, perhaps because of the high fat content. But in this recipe, the sauce made of soy sauce and vinegar mixed with ginger and shallots eliminates the fishy flavour of the meat. The cooked fish is marinated in the flavoursome sauce while hot to absorb the good flavour.
Cutting the meat into bite size achieves two objectives here: (1) each piece gets marinated well, (2) it is easier to eat with chopsticks.
The main ingredient is of course the fish. But I think the star of this dish is the sauce. Plenty of finely chopped shallots, grated ginger and garlic adds so much flavour to the sauce that you could even eat the sauce with plain rice without any fish!
It is pretty easy to make this flavoursome dish. You need to allow 15 minutes for marinating the fish before cooking and another 15 minutes after cooking so the elapsed time to make this dish and get it ready to eat is more than 30 minutes. But the cooking time is probably only 4-5 minutes or so.
I was not keen on using the word ‘vinaigrette’ in the recipe name which is how Nagi called it. Strictly speaking, the sauce is not really vinaigrette as it does not have oil in it. However, once the sautéed fish is marinated in the sauce, it becomes a vinaigrette with the oil from the fish. So I decided to call it ‘Swordfish in Vinaigrette’. What do you think?
Enjoy the meal.
Yumiko
- 2 swordfish fillets , 200-250g (0.4-0.6lb) each
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sake
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 shallots (scallions) finely chopped
- 1 tsp grated garlic
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar (Note 1)
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Remove skin from swordfish if intact. Cut the fish into bite size pieces, about 2-3cm (1") cubes and put them in a bowl or a zip lock bag.
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Add salt, sake and soy sauce from the Fish ingredients to the bowl/bag and mix with the fish. Leave for about 15 minutes.
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Meanwhile, mix the Sauce ingredients in a wide bowl or deep plate so that the fish pieces can be distributed without piling up.
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Discard any excess liquid collected at the bottom of the bowl/bag with the fish. Add the flour and coat the fish well.
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Heat oil in a non-stick fry pan set over medium heat, and place the fish pieces in the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown, then turn. Keep turning like this ensuring that all sides of the cube are cooked and golden brown.
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Transfer the fish from the pan to the sauce bowl/plate and mix so the fish is coated with the sauce. Marinate for about 15 min.
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Serve with rice.
1. You can substitute rice wine vinegar to white wine vinegar.
2. It can be served at room temperature and is good the next day too in bento (弁当, lunch box).
Katrina says
A beautiful meal. Light, but delicious rich flavours. Thank you so much for sharing your skills, knowledge and recipes.
Yumiko says
Hi Katrina, I love this dish too. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
SJam says
I live in the Caribbean and made this recipe with snook fillets. Wow! My husband was so skeptical of such a simple dish. I served it with a mix of japanese and black rice and made a little extra sauce.
Yumiko says
Hi SJam, that’s great. You must have felt good to surprise your husband.
Ronen says
Arigato ! I just made this recipe tonight and it has transformed my Yaki Soba with bland white swordfish to an amazing tasty yaki soba with amazing swordfish vinaigrette!
Now the fish out flavours the noodles and the fish has become the star of the dish.
Even my 9 year old who does not like fish was asking for more !
Thank you for this recipe
Yumiko says
Hi Ronen, that’s really great, especially to know that your 9 year old loved it! I love vinegar and any dish with vinegar flavour. So no doubt I am fond of this dish, too. I’m glad that your family love it, too!
Dorothy Dunton says
Konnichiwa Yumiko-san! We love swordfish, but it is hard to find where we live. We do have on “upscale” grocery that has a meat and fish counter and they will order fish for you. This recipe sounds wonderful and I am going to ask them to order some swordfish! I told Nagi a while back that I am enjoying my language lessons in AU v US terminology! And now, thanks to you, I am learning what different things are called in Japan! How do I say thank you in Japanese?
Yumiko Maehashi says
Hi Dorothy-san.
I hope you enjoy Swordfish in Vinaigrette otherwise I would feel sorry for you after you had to order for fish!
Thank you in Japanese is “arigato” and the stress is on “ri”. To say it more politely, you add “gozaimasu” (no stress on any syllables) at the end, i.e. “arigato gozaimasu”.
Cristie @ Little Big H says
Oh this looks so delicious. I love Japanesse food so I’m excited to try some of your recipes.
Yumiko Maehashi says
Thank you so much, Cristie. This goes so well with rice.
Donna Carsten says
Hi, Yumiko,
I am very excited about your new blog! I love following Nagi!
I have a coule of questions. First, in this recipe, what you call shallots look a lot more like scallions (green onions). Is that what they are? Second, I have noticed that sake is an ingredient in so many Japanese dishes. I am a recovering alcoholic, and cannot have a bottle of sake in the house — I will drink it. Is there any substitute? I know mirin is also alcoholic but that is not tempting.
Finally, can other types of fish be substituted for the swordfish?
Thanks so much — all the best with your blog!
Donna
Yumiko Maehashi says
Hi Donna.
1. Yes, shallots are scallions. I’d need to get into a habit of adding US terminologies.
2. Mirin would be the substitute if you can keep it without getting into trouble. When using mirin as substitute to sake, reduce amount of sugar if there i sugar in the ingredients. In this particular recipe, you could ignore sake as it is to remove a bit of fishnets and tenderising meat which is not critical here.
3. You could use any white meat fish which is suitable for pan fry.
And thanks for your best wishes!