2013-03-11

cod à l'espagnol

ML has been "jonesing" for white fish, so I made this tonight.  It's from "Cooking With Claudine" by Jacques Pépin, a book I am loving these days.

Mince a bunch of green onions and thinly slice 3 cloves of garlic.  In a deep skillet with a cover, sauté these briefly in about 1/4 cup of olive oil (not EVOO).  Add a zuccini and a green pepper diced medium and sauté for another minute.  Add about 4-5 peeled plum tomatoes seeded and cut in half inch strips, a big pinch of salt (about 1/2 tsp) and a small pinch of saffron (this is important).  Nestle 4 6 oz cod fillets (could be haddock or hake) in this preparation, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes until cod flake apart.  Season with pepper.  Plate and drizzle with EVOO.

The fish was a beautiful colour and everything was perfectly cooked.  The vegetables and cod release a lot of liquid which become a delicious broth.

2013-03-06

lamb and beans, now with more prison

Following a suggestion of PMC, who (these days) is all about cooking below boiling and for a long time, I am attempting a remake of lamb and beans but with no par-boiling of the beans. This is all about one-step cooking. I put a lamb shank, a pound of dry white beans, a few glugs of olive oil, two split garlic cloves, some pepper, rosemary sprigs, thyme sprigs, and coarsely ground pepper into a bean pot. I more-than covered it all with water. I put it in a 200 F (90 C) oven. I am now going to wait 5 hours and see what I get! At or near the end I will have to add a lot of salt.