CapitanCook
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2005
Cod is a boring fish, but cheap. As a professional Cook, I am always looking for ways to make cheap food good. The wonderful thing about Cod is that it is a delicate fish - wonderful texture. So how do we use these things to our advantage? Well, we augment the soft delicate fish with crunch and flavor from Pistachios and coat it in a nice butter sauce.
The crust:
1C chopped Pistachios
1/2T. Salt (omit if using salted nuts)
1.5T Mayo
1. Mix all. You should get a sticky mass of crushed nuts that will adhere nicely to the fish.
The cooking:
1. Apply crust to the fish, coating thinly and evenly.
2. Heat saute pan over med-hi heat.
3. Cook in oil of your choice, I like Olive oil for taste and health.
4. Cook each side approx 3 minutes. You are looking for a nice golden brown on the nuts. Be careful not to burn.
The Sauce:
A simple Buerre Blanc, but if you've never made a BB, it can be hard
1C white wine (I like Gewerztraminer, but you choose)
Juice of three lemons
2T Diced shallots (this can be omitted, but it adds to flavor)
1# of butter (chopped into small cubes)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Reduce wine, lemons, shallots to about 1.5 oz.
2. Slowly whisk in butter while keeping the mixture hot, but not near boiling. Around 120-140 degrees.
3. If sauce is getting too thick, you can add a little water.
4. season to taste
Fat and water don't like each other. What we are doing here is emusifying fat in water. This is difficult and requires the proper temp, and appox the proper porportions of fat:water. That ratio is 3:1. We add the fat slowly to break it up into atom-sized molecules which, when whisked create a semi-stable fat/water solution. In the restuarant business, we do this every day and it is routinely simple, but I remember the dificulties I had early on.
Accompaniments:
Whatever you like. I like the texture contrast of serving over Mashed Potatoes. For greens, I used sauteed spinach with a little chopped garlic.
The crust:
1C chopped Pistachios
1/2T. Salt (omit if using salted nuts)
1.5T Mayo
1. Mix all. You should get a sticky mass of crushed nuts that will adhere nicely to the fish.
The cooking:
1. Apply crust to the fish, coating thinly and evenly.
2. Heat saute pan over med-hi heat.
3. Cook in oil of your choice, I like Olive oil for taste and health.
4. Cook each side approx 3 minutes. You are looking for a nice golden brown on the nuts. Be careful not to burn.
The Sauce:
A simple Buerre Blanc, but if you've never made a BB, it can be hard
1C white wine (I like Gewerztraminer, but you choose)
Juice of three lemons
2T Diced shallots (this can be omitted, but it adds to flavor)
1# of butter (chopped into small cubes)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Reduce wine, lemons, shallots to about 1.5 oz.
2. Slowly whisk in butter while keeping the mixture hot, but not near boiling. Around 120-140 degrees.
3. If sauce is getting too thick, you can add a little water.
4. season to taste
Fat and water don't like each other. What we are doing here is emusifying fat in water. This is difficult and requires the proper temp, and appox the proper porportions of fat:water. That ratio is 3:1. We add the fat slowly to break it up into atom-sized molecules which, when whisked create a semi-stable fat/water solution. In the restuarant business, we do this every day and it is routinely simple, but I remember the dificulties I had early on.
Accompaniments:
Whatever you like. I like the texture contrast of serving over Mashed Potatoes. For greens, I used sauteed spinach with a little chopped garlic.
