9 Apr 2020

Make this Good Friday great with a tasty fish dish you can make at home. Serves 4.

Most ingredients are readily available online. Alternatively, you can swap the purple sprouting broccoli for tenderstem broccoli and the laverbread for chopped chives & parsley. Please note, cod is pictured with cavolo nero garnish.

Ingredients

• 4x 130g portions of skinless and boneless cod loin
• 16 heads of purple sprouting broccoli (or tenderstem broccoli)
• 50g Laverbread (or chopped chives & parsley)
• 240ml white wine
• 100ml white wine vinegar
• 1tbsp chopped shallots
• 450g diced cold unsalted butter
• 80ml single cream
• Butter to cook the fish
• Sea Salt
• Rapeseed oil

Optional, to accompany:

• 500g mussels, steamed with white wine, shallot and garlic
• Lemon juice

Method

• Preheat the oven 170°c (160°c fan)
• Add the wine, vinegar and chopped shallots to a medium sized saucepan
• Bring to the boil and continue to cook to reduce the liquid. When the liquid has reduced to to around 2 tbsp, put the contents of the pan through a sieve to remove the shallots
• Then, add the cream to the wine and vinegar reduction and reduce again until you are left with 4tbsp of liquid
• Put the lid on the pan and remove from the heat whilst you complete the next few steps
• Place the portions of cod on a piece of kitchen paper to remove excess moisture
• Season the fish well with sea salt on both sides
• Heat a non-stick frying pan to a medium heat and add 4tbsps of rapeseed oil
• Carefully place the fish in the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Take care not to move the fish around the pan to avoid it falling apart
• Add 4 knobs of butter to the pan. Carefully turn the fish over. At this point, the fish should be golden in colour and the butter should be turning brown
• Put the pan into the preheated oven and cook for a further 3 minutes
• Whilst the fish is cooking, in a separate hot frying pan add a small amount of rapeseed oil then add the broccoli. Make sure all the pieces are touching the pan so they cook evenly
• Season the broccoli with sea salt and cook on each side for 1 minute
• At the same time, return the sauce to the heat and bring to the boil
• Then turn down to a moderately low heat, add a few pieces of the diced butter and whisk. Before the butter has completely liquefied, add in a further few pieces and continue to whisk
• Repeat the process with remaining butter whisking continuously and lifting the pan from the heat occasionally to cool the sauce. The sauce should be glossy and thick like hollandaise
• Once the sauce is finished, add the laverbread (or chopped chives & parsley) and stir in well
• Once the fish is cooked take it out of the oven a let it rest in a warm place for 1 minute
• Place the cod on a warm plate with the broccoli stacked beside it. Pour the sauce over fish and serve
• If available, serve with mussels steamed with white wine, shallot and garlic – reduce the cooking liquor by half and strain into the final laverbread sauce with a squeeze of lemon juice

Share this