Paiche con Miso Dulce

Grilled Paiche Lettuce Wraps with Honey-Miso Glaze

Yurimaguas is a small port city 600 miles northeast of Lima in the Amazon, and the only place where paiche, a now-flourishing Jurassic-era fish, is cultivated (see page 93). The first time I went to the sustainable farm just outside the city, I picked up a live one and held it in my arms for a few seconds. The farm guys who raise the paiche laughed and called it “still a baby,” but that thing wiggled and slapped my chest so hard with its broad, orange-speckled tail that I still have a paiche tattoo.

I love that such a giant, strong fish can be so delicate on the inside; the meat almost melts in your mouth. When I first put these paiche lettuce wraps on my restaurant menu, I wasn’t sure people would order a dish made with fish that they’d never heard of. I could hardly keep enough on the grill.

If you have the anticucho sauce in your freezer or can make it (and the honey-miso sauce) a few days ahead, this is an easy, and impressive, appetizer. Paiche can stand as long as overnight, even twenty-four hours, in a strong, vinegary marinade without its firm texture being affected, so it really picks up the flavors in the marinade. Just be sure to cut down the marinating time if you substitute a more delicate white-fleshed fish like black cod (salmon is also good). For a quick main course, serve the grilled fish fillets on their own with the cucumbers on top. I still like to cut the fillets into smallish pieces so they cook more quickly and the honey in the marinade doesn’t burn.

1 Whisk together the honey-miso sauce and anticucho sauce in a small bowl. Slice the fish into 10 to 12 small pieces—each piece should fit inside a butter lettuce leaf. (If you aren’t making lettuce cups, slice the fish into 6 fillets to make 3 main-course servings.)

2 Pour a little of the honey-anticucho marinade in a small baking dish, arrange the fish on top, and pour the rest of the marinade over the fish. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours; if you are using paiche, you can leave the fish in the marinade overnight or up to 24 hours.

3 Prepare a regular or hibachi grill for direct, high-heat cooking and place a fish grate on top. When the grill is very hot, use tongs to transfer the paiche pieces one at a time to the fish grate (reserve the honey-anticucho marinade) and immediately lift each piece and place it back on the grill three times (this is the “pull-up” technique—see page 113). Add another piece of fish and repeat the lifting technique. (Add the fish in batches until you get the hang of it. If you are using larger fillets, let the fish rest on the grate without lifting it.) Grill until the bottom sides are well seared and the flesh turns whitish to about halfway up the sides, a good 2 minutes for small pieces or 5 minutes for larger ones if your grill is really hot. Flip the paiche, and if the pieces are small, lift them up and down again a few times on the opposite side (leave larger pieces alone). Grill for another minute, or a few minutes more if the pieces are larger, or until they just get a nice color on the bottom.

4 Baste each piece of fish with the reserved marinade, flip, and brush the top sides generously with more of the marinade. Grill until the fillets are medium, or firm to the touch in the center, usually only 2 to 3 minutes for small pieces or up to 6 minutes for larger, thicker fillets. Brush the fish generously with the marinade again, flip them one more time, and immediately transfer the fish to a clean plate.

5 To make the lettuce wraps, place each piece of fish in a butter lettuce “cup” and spoon any pan juices over the fish. Top each fillet with the cucumber and arrange a few fried yams on top, if using. Or, for a quick main course, you can put the fish fillets on a serving platter, along with the pan juices, and arrange the cucumbers on top.