I just returned from a few weeks in the South. As I was driving North from Louisiana, my brother called my car to inform me of the death of my Aunt Rose at 94. Aunt Rose was married to my Uncle Frank (see earlier post) and outlived him by decades. Remembering that I had promised to name a recipe for Uncle Frank (who was from Louisiana), and with those flavors still on my palate, I began to assemble a dish in my mind loosely based on a wonderful meal I had eaten just the night before.
We are going to make a Creole-like sauce to cover a poached fillet of Cod, and serve it with Saffron Rice. Now cod is not a fish you would expect in Louisiana, but, as with all recipes, I believe that it is better to use ingredients you can obtain best locally. Not that North Atlantic cod is local to us in the Niagara Frontier, but fresh-caught cod is about as good as we can do at this time of year. I wouldn’t hesitate to change the fish if something better came along! The sauce is the star of this dish, and it takes a while to prepare, but could be done ahead of time.
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| Most of the Ingredients |
Ingredients:
One Cod fillet for each plate (fish can have skin or be skinned, it’s up to you)
6 medium raw Shell-on Shrimp for each plate (25-30/lb size)
One small Shallot, diced
½ cup White Wine
For the sauce:
A medium-dark roux of 3 Tbs. each butter and flour.
3 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 small (or one large) stalk Celery, chopped
1 small (or ½ large) Green Bell Pepper
1 small Hot Pepper (your choice!), cut in half, lengthwise
1 # can of diced or crushed Tomatoes (fresh, if it’s summer where you are)
1 Tbs. of minced Garlic (a garlic press is perfect)
½ quart Chicken Stock (Veggie stock or homemade Fish stock would work)
1 Bay Leaf
¼ teaspoon each: Thyme, Savory, Cayenne, White Pepper
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| Finishing Ingredients |
½ teaspoon each: Sugar and Salt
To finish sauce:
1 Tbs. Butter
Big dash Worcestershire Sauce
Dash of Hot Sauce (to your taste)
2 or 3 Tbs. chopped Parsley
2 Green Onions (white part) sliced thin
For the rice:
Uncle Ben’s™ regular converted Rice (use quantity you need)
Water (quantity as indicated on box)
1 Tbs. Butter
Pinch Saffron (if threads) dissolve in small amount of hot water. (1/8 tsp if powdered)
¼ cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Method:
1 Begin the Sauce: Gently sauté onion, celery and bell pepper in 3 Tbs. Olive Oil. When the onion is transparent, add the garlic, hot pepper and then the tomatoes. Cook for a couple of minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add just a pinch to the cooking tomatoes and stir in. Then stir in enough stock to cover tomatoes and add the Bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. At this point make the Roux. |
| Saute the "trinity" |
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| Cook. I used Anaheim Peppers |
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| Add tomatoes |
2 Make the Roux: In a small shallow pan, melt 3 Tbs. butter. When it has melted and is foamy, add 3 Tbs. flour and mix in thoroughly. With heat on medium-low, continue to cook the roux, stirring almost all the time: it will burn easily….if that happens, throw out, clean up and start again. It pays to watch the roux carefully! As you cook the roux you will see it start to color after about 15 minutes. Continue to cook until it is the color of dark walnut. If you were making Gumbo, you’d go all the way to mahogany!
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| After 10 min |
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| After 20 min |
3 Continue the Sauce: Move the sauce off-heat. Add the roux, stirring carefully. Return the sauce to heat, stir in the dry ingredients and let simmer for about half an hour more.
4 Prepare the Shrimp: Bring to a boil enough water to just cover shrimp (do not add shrimp yet!) Add shallots and let this cook for a few minutes. Prepare a bowl of ice-water. Now add the shrimp to the boiling water. Only let them cook until they color, probably only a minute or two! (They will be cooking later in the sauce, so don’t overdo them here.) Remove the shrimp immediately to the ice bath. This will stop the cooking and make them easy to shuck. Reserve liquid. When they have cooled, shuck them and de-vein (if necessary). Dry them on paper towel and reserve.
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| Preparing Shrimp |
5 Complete the Sauce: Take the sauce off the heat. Pour in just a little shrimp cooking liquid. Remove the bay leaf and the hot pepper. Using a hand (immersion) blender, and on the lowest speed, begin to blend the sauce. As you progress, slowly keep increasing the speed until the sauce is reasonable smooth (you don’t want any tomato lumps left). Return the sauce to the lowest of heat, stir in Worcestershire and hot sauce and begin the rice.
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| Adding shrimp liquid |
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| "Zizzing" Sauce |
6 Cook the Rice: Rice takes about 25 minutes and will wait for a few more. This should give you plenty of time to cook the fish and finish the sauce. Mix water, rice and butter in a small sauce pan, cover and quickly bring to a boil. Then stir with a fork to make sure rice is separated, re-cover and lower heat to medium low, where rice will be bubbling gently. Mix Saffron (if using threads), and let dissolve. Grate cheese, reserve. Begin the fish.
7 Cook the Fish: Sauté non-skin-side of fish for a minute or two in a little butter (even if fish is skinned), then carefully turn fillet and let sauté on skin-side for a few more minutes. Add wine and cover, lower heat and let poach until just done (about 5 or 6 more minutes). While fish is poaching, finish sauce.
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| Poaching Cod |
8 Finish the Sauce: Taste sauce. If it is not hot enough, add more hot sauce. Then add reserved shrimp and also parsley and green onions, let simmer until ready for use. Just before plating, swirl 1 Tbs. butter into sauce.
9 Finish the Rice and Plate: Just before rice enters resting phase (last 5 minutes) stir in the saffron and fluff with fork. Just before plating, add cheese and fluff with fork. Place a little sauce on plate. Carefully move fish to plate putting it on top of the sauce. Place shrimps on top of fish and then spoon a little more sauce over shrimp. Add rice to plate and any vegetables or garnish. Enjoy!!
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| Poached Cod with Sauce "Franc" |
My side was an Avocado and Tomato sprinkled with salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice and a few drops of superb Tuscan Olive Oil. I paired this dish with one of my favorite white wines, Sancerre from the Loire Valley.
- Love, Dave
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