Sautéed Cod with Pea Cream Sauce

As you might, or might not know, I make a menu each week, so I can plan and budget out the coming week.  I’ve done this for the past 2-3 years.  And I stick to it like glue! This week, I planned on Cod for dinner tonight, but I had no idea how I was going to cook it.  We’ve broiled it, baked it, BBQ’d it, and while those are great ways of cooking cod, I’m just wanted to try a different method .  So today, while I was working, I receive an email from Saveur.com, for Greek Macaroni and Cheese.  I was intrigued and opened the email to see the recipe.  Before I got to it, I notice the recipe for Sautéed Cod with Pea Cream Sauce.  I was like, wow that’s it, and I had every ingredient at home, I am so making this! Oh, and by the way, I still haven’t looked up the Greek Mac and Cheese recipe……

Sautéed Cod with Pea Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

This is the picture from Saveur.com

2½ lb. boneless, skinless cod filets, cut into 2″ chunks

1 tbsp. mustard seeds, lightly crushed

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

3½ cups fresh or frozen, thawed peas

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

⅔ cup half-and-half

2 tbsp. olive oil

Roughly chopped dill, to garnish

Instructions:

Sprinkle cod evenly with mustard seeds and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, heat butter in a 10″ skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add peas, 1 cup water, and salt and pepper, and cover partially with lid; cook until sauce is reduced, about 10 minutes. Set sauce aside and keep warm.

Purée ¾ of the peas, half-and-half, and salt and pepper in a food processor; transfer to a 2-qt. saucepan and keep warm over low heat.

My version

Heat oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Add cod; cook, turning once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Season with salt.

Divide pea purée among 6 serving plates and top with cod; spoon over sauce and garnish with dill.

Drunken Noodles

A few months ago I was watching a show on TV.  The guests on the show talked about the best dish they’ve ever eaten.  And for the most part I had it on for background noise, cause the channel repeats show, after show, after show.  That’s when I noticed the dish they were talking about called “Drunken Noodles”.  You’ll notice that there is no alcohol in the ingredients.  The drunken name refers to the heat on the noodles, and the amount of water you’ll need to drink to cool it down.  The first time I made it, there was no heat, so I added in the hot chili oil, while cooking and as a “finishing” oil. Makes all the difference!

I’ve made this now twice and I think I have it down, but I think it’s one of those recipes that I will continue to make and continue to change it.  Where is the most recent rendition:

Drunken Noodles

3 T Light Soy Sauce

1 T Dark Soy Sauce

1 T Oyster Sauce

2 T Fish Sauce

3 T Oil (Canola or Peanut-I used Olive)

2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced

2 Eggs

⅓ lb Chicken (Beef or Pork) sliced thinly against the grain.

½ onion, sliced

4 Cups fresh rice noodles, separated ( I used these and didn’t like them, so the second time I used Fettuccini)

1 Cup Basil, loosely chopped

½ Medium Tomato, diced

½ t. white pepper

Hot chili oil, to taste.

 

Directions:

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl and set aside

Heat oil in pan and sauté pan and sauté garlic until lightly brown.

Add eggs and lightly scramble until set.

Add meat and onions folding constantly until the meat is almost fully cooked.

Add fresh noodles, sauce tomatoes and basil.  Toss to combine about 3-4 minutes.

Serve.

Gazpacho

For those of you who know me, know that tomatoes are not exactly my favorite food.  I have tried and tried to like fresh tomatoes, but there’s just something about them that I just don’t care for.  That being said, I love tomato products, and a cooked tomato is in my opinion a great basic ingredient!  So when a friend of our invited us to her house, a few years ago, to tour her garden and have an early afternoon lunch, what I remember the most about the meal was the delicious Gazpacho Soup, a cold tomato based soup, packed full of garden fresh vegetable.

This is a great recipe for those of you who have a garden or like to visit farmers markets which are “in season” right now.  It's July 7th and in the Northwest we are 2 days into summer, and with the warm weather most of the country is experiencing, this is a great cool down dinner.  The longer it sits the better it gets.

Gazpacho

      2 chopped tomatoes (I used purple heirloom cherry tomatoes)
      1 chopped green pepper
      1 chopped red pepper
      4 chopped celery stalks, with leaves
      1/2 of a English cucumber, chopped
      1 cup chopped onion (I used red onion)
      1/2 cup chopped green onion (only the green part)
      3 minced garlic cloves
      1/2 of a sprig of cilantro, chopped
      2 tbsp parsley
      3 tbsp red wine vinegar
      2 tbsp olive oil
      1  tsp Worcestershire
      1 tsp tabasco
      2 cups tomato juice
      pepper

Place all chopped vegetables in large bowl. Wisk together vinegar, oil, worcestershire, tabasco, pepper and tomato juice and pour over vegetables.  Let sit overnight in fridge and adjust seasoning in morning.

I like to add additional Worcestershire and tabasco for a bit more spice.

Chef's note: I DON'T measure, so the amount are the original amounts, I altered, as using 1/2 a cucumber, just doesn't work for me, I used the whole one!

Oh, and yeah I served it with our California Grilled Chicken Sandwich.  YUMMY!