Last Saturday was a cold, cold night, for the UK anyway, so I went for something slightly comfort food-y. For starters, I chose Polenta with asparagus, poached egg and black olives (controversially vegetarian) and for mains, I opted for Roast cod with olive oil mash.
The cod was something my friend Megan had (when we visited Chez Bruce for my 29th Birthday on the most recent Megan and Kelly London Invasion), and didn't enjoy much - so it was something I wanted to tackle. Also, cod is something I haven't ever cooked, which is strange given it's so easy to get hold of, so I wanted to give it a try.
But - first things first - Polenta with Asparagus, Poached Egg and Black Olives. This recipe is super-easy, but looks and tastes incredibly impressive. It's also easy to make it look presentable, which is something I always struggle with. Also, the recipe isn't snobby about instant polenta - in fact it encourages it, which is good because I love the stuff. I used polenta valsugana from Waitrose, but I expect other similar brands are fine too. The ingredients below are enough for 4 as a starter or a light lunch according to the recipe - I was cooking for 2, and it worked to just halve the ingredients.
1 litre of water
250g instant polenta
100g unsalted butter
150g grated Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra shaved Parmesan)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
16 spears of fresh English asparagus
A few drops of any vinegar to poach eggs
Olive oil
2 tsp tapenade, thinned down with a bit of olive oil into vinaigrette consistency
Now -at this point, the recipe refers to page 53 for a tapenade recipe. Which doesn't exist (unless I've gone blind, as I couldn't find it anywhere in the book). So I used one on the BBC recipes site, which was lovely, and I did this first:
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 lemon, juice only
3 tbsp capers, chopped
6 anchovy fillets, chopped
250g black olives, pitted
small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (I used half the recommended amount, I think that's sufficient).
I put the garlic, lemon juice, capers, anchovies, parsley and the olives into a bowl and simply blended them using a stick blender until it formed a rough paste. I then added the olive oil and some pepper (no salt needed thanks to the anchovies) and stirred well, then put into a tupperware box for later. I did have some photos of this, but somehow they seem to have disappeared from my iphone - so you'll have to live without them I'm afraid.
I then turned to the polenta dish - first I brought the water to the boil and added salt before mixing in the polenta, whisking constantly. Once it started blubbing (the recipe refers to it as bubbling a bit like lava), I left it for 2-3 minutes, then turned the heat down to its lowest setting and cooked it for c15 minutes, stirring constantly. It got a bit thick a couple of times, so I just added a touch of boiled water and kept stirring. At the end, I beat in the butter and the parmesan, added a bit of pepper (no salt, but add to taste) and covered it while I did the rest.
Next, I brought two pots to the boil (Mark, dedicated washer upper, was not impressed by the consumption of pots in this recipe) - one to poach the eggs, and one for the asparagus. I boiled the asparagus as normal, and added a few drops of vinegar to the poaching pan. I then cracked each egg into a cup and carefully slid them into the pan. When the eggs were poached (a few minutes, I just guessed and was lucky), I removed them with a slotted spoon and dabbed them try with a kitchen towel. Again, I had more photos of this, and they are, unfortunately, lost. So instead you get a token remaining asparagus photo.
I seasoned the asparagus with a tiny bit of olive oil, flaked sea salt and pepper and arranged them on two warmed plates (plate warming is a new fad of mine now that I've realised it's actually quite effective). I then put a spoonful of polenta next to the asparagus, placed the poached egg on top, spooned a little tapenade over the top and then "artistically" (read clumsily) added some shaved parmesan.
This dish was met with much content - despite the lack of meat - and will definitely be made again.
Now for the next course - Roast cod with olive oil mash. Again, this recipe serves 4 as a main course, but I halved for two people.
1 large courgette, topped and tailed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 sweet potato (the recipe suggests 4 large potatoes, such as Desiree or Romano, but I prefer sweet so substituted. It's pretty good)
100ml milk (I used semi skimmed)
100ml olive oil
4x175g pieces of fresh cod, cut from the head of the fillet. They should be similar sized so they roast evenly, and the recipe suggests buying fillets with skin. The ones I got were skinless.
Gremolata (see below)
2 large plum tomatoes (I used mini plum tomatoes because they were on special offer)
Dried herbs de provence
1 peeled clove of garlic (I used 2)
Firstly, I tackled the tomatoes - I preheated the oven to 240 C, pierced the tomato skins, seasoned them with salt and pepper and put them into an ovenproof dish (I used a small paella pan). These I sprinkled with the herbes de provence, dribbled them with a little olive oil and added the (very thinly sliced) garlic, and then roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes (the recipe said 10-15 minutes, but I missed the timer). I then removed them from the oven and set them aside until later.
Next, I boiled the sweet potato until they were soft but not too soft. I drained them and then added them to the pan again to steam for a while, boiling the milk and olive oil in the meantime. I then used a potato masher to combine the potatoes with the milk and olive oil, plus a little salt and pepper, over a low heat, then took of the heat and covered until later.
And now, the cod.....I heated an oven proof frying pan until it was very hot and added a small amount of olive oil, then brushed it across the pan to create a thin layer of oil across the pan. I then seasoned the cod with salt and pepper and immediately placed the two fillets onto the pan. The fish sizzled immediately, and I left them there, without moving them, for 3-4 minutes. I then placed the whole pan into the oven to roast for c8 minutes. At this point, the oven should be very hot - it needs to be preheated well in advance - otherwise there's a risk that the cod is steamed rather than roasted. When it is removed from the oven, the cod should be firm, but should separate easily, and then when I turned it around it was a beautiful golden colour.
In the meantime, I sliced the courgette into even, oblique slices and put them under a medium grill until they had coloured a little. Next time, using a griddle pan would be better I think, as it also creates the pretty charcoaled grid-lines on the courgette.
I also made the Gremolata - which was something I had never heard of before- a northern Italian mix of lemon zest, chopped parsley and garlic. For this, as the previous sentence suggest, I used the zest of an unwaxed lemon, two very finely chopped garlic cloves, and the leaves of a bunch of finely chopped parsley and mixed it all together. And that's it - it's so easy and tastes delicious, and will be using this for other fish or white meat dishes in the future.
Now to bring it all together - I placed a spoonful of the mash onto each plate, and then added the cod, golden side up, next to the mash. On top of the mash I placed three baby plum tomatoes, and the courgette was reserved for on top of the cod. I then spooned a little Gremolata on top.
It tasted lovely - I'm not sure I'd make it again, as cod isn't my favourite fish - but it was definitely worth the effort. Thank you again Bruce!!
No comments:
Post a Comment