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Beef Fillet with Black-pepper Miso and Pickled Japanese Mushroom Salad

Highly flavoured Japanese ingredients transform steak into a light meal with bold flavours in this simple and pretty dish.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and wasabi work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 73 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Grate the ginger finely, then mix it with the garlic, black pepper, red miso, sake and a portion of the mirin into a smooth paste.

  2. Rub the beef fillets all over with about half the miso paste. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes while you make the salad.

  3. Put the rice vinegar, light soy sauce and the larger measure of mirin in a small pan. Bring to a simmer, then cool slightly.

  4. Slice the onion thinly and place it in a bowl. Break the mixed mushrooms into pieces, leaving the shiitake separate, and add them to the onion. Pour the warm pickling liquid over and set aside.

  5. Slice the shiitake and fry them in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until golden and tender. Add them to the pickled mushrooms and onion, then drain off any excess liquid.

  6. Simmer the remaining miso paste with the remaining mirin in a small pan for 3 minutes until glossy and slightly thickened. Keep warm.

  7. Heat a dry ovenproof pan over high heat. Sear the beef fillets for 1 to 2 minutes per side until browned, then transfer the pan to the oven.

  8. Roast the beef until the thickest part reaches at least 145°F (63°C), about 8 to 10 minutes. Brush with the warm miso glaze and rest for 3 minutes before slicing.

  9. Grate fresh wasabi over the sliced beef, spoon over the remaining glaze and serve with the pickled mushroom salad.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + wasabitop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Sake + misotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Miso + wasabitop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sake + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the wasabi

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sake, ginger, garlic, pepper, miso, beef, mushroom):

  1. Onionbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Wasabithe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sake, ginger, garlic, pepper, miso, beef, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).