This week is going to be long. A lot of long days, toying around and fussing. Working without a proper camera made for a lot of photo touchups that don’t amount to much. The best I could do was to be creative and go with the “grainy newspaper” look.
For this round of our Lean Jean Plan Chris and I decided to make it a chicken and fish operation. Keeping things light seemed to have made for a successful 9 days so far. Last night, I stopped by the store after work and picked up a couple of fresh cod fillets and went home.
Fish can be daunting to me once in a while. I find it hard to be creative with it because it is a delicate meat in general. Flavouring it can make or break the meat and either make it ultra fishy smelling and tasting or fabulously great. I was aiming for the latter rather than the former.
And, of course, I chose cod, one of the most ultra pungent fish around. Luckily, an ah-ha moment occurred. I had the holy trinity at home and so this became the flavour makers of this dish. If you are wondering if you should be making so many vegetables in one sitting I will answer, yes, you are. Two cups of vegetables is the recommended serving per lunch and dinner.
Pan Fried Cod with Cauliflower & Mirepoix
Yields 2 servings.
2 cod fillets (4 oz each)
½ a head of cauliflower, trimmed into florets
1 carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
½ a red onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
Preheat the oven to 430 F. Toss the cauliflower florets in a baking dish with the olive oil, caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes and toss every 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, season the cod with salt and pepper. In a skillet, heat cooking oil over medium high heat. Sear the cod for 2 minutes each side. Transfer to a warm dish and cover with foil.
In the same skillet, heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add the onions, carrots and celery. Toss and stir the vegetables for 1 minute. Turn the heat up to high. Pour ¼ cup of the broth into the pan and stir until evaporated. Add the garlic and another ¼ cup of broth. Stir the pan while rubbing the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Let the liquid simmer and evaporated. Pour another ¼ cup of broth into the pan and continue to stir and simmer until the liquid has evaporated. Pour the last ¼ cup of liquid into the pan and simmer until the liquid has evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat.
Plate the mirepoix in the center of the plate, top it with a fillet of cod with cauliflower on the side.
I sigh at the thought that tomorrow is the last day, Day 10, of our Lean Jean Plan. I’m actually glad it’s over this time. This week has felt long, likely because work melded into my weekend. This weekend is going to be great though… It’s going to be open for anything and of course, I have plans for cooking, namely, baking bread because this recipe I saw here just got me hooked.
