Cevichè with tomatoes, cod and holy basil #177

Cevichè is always a good idea but an even better idea once it´s hot outside, I have made a few variations of Cevichè here before but this time I added some tomatoes, this gives the dish a bit more sweet taste and almost resembles an Gazpacho (that I also made a few, link is below) that I think worked really good.

As always choose the freshest fish you can find and spend a little extra, as usual you´re only serving tapas so the cost won´t be too big anyway, good luck. For some other Cevichè recipes check out my previous Shrimp cevichè with mango or Cod cevichè with blood orange and chives.

For the gazpacho i recommend my Gazpacho salad or my Green gazpacho with cream cheese, happy cooking!

Cevichè with tomatoes, cod and holy basil

fresh cod

tomatoes

holy basil

olive oil

lime juice

salt, black pepper

spring onions

red chili

Dice the cod and tomatoes and combine, add lime juice, salt, pepper and sliced spring onions and chili and let marinate for half an hour. Roughly chop the holy basil and add to the fish, season with salt and pepper and let sit for another half hour. Before serving check the taste and adjust flavors if necessary.

Cod with Italian Salsiccia & tomatoes #176

Cod is an amazing fish, especially if you can get your hand on a big one, or at least a piece of a big one. This one is a small piece of the loin or back of the cod. The price is usually higher for the bigger ones but so is the quality so if you want the best you´ll need to spend a bit extra. 

I think cod is a great fish to serve with a bit more meatier sides like bacon, red wine sauces or like in this recipe a quick ragu with Italian Sasiccia and chopped tomatoes. It´s a bit rustic dish that suites the cod perfect.I pre-salted the cod a few hours before, this will make the fish a bit firmer. 

The ragu is simply diced raw Italian Salsiccia that is fried in a pan and then cooked with some fresh chopped tomatoes into a ragu. The Salsiccia was seasoned with fennel and garlic so if you can´t find a Salsiccia with that flavor you could add some crushed fennel seeds and a clove of garlic. 

The recipe can also be varied in many ways and of course served as a main course. Why not replace the fish for halibut, pork loin or maybe the Salsiccia for Spanish Chorizo.

Cod with Italian Salsiccia & tomatoes

fresh loin of cod

tomatoes

raw Italian Salsiccia

olive oil

parsley

salt, pepper

Cut the cod in serving size pieces, salt them and leave in the fridge for about two hours. Dice the Salsicca and tomatoes. Add the Salsiccia to a pan and add a little bit of olive oil and cook until they are done, about 5-10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and lower the heat to low and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Add a bit of water if it gets to dry, season with salt and pepper. Chop the parsley and add to the ragu.

Take the cod and pad dry with paper and then cook skin side first in olive oil. Once they have a golden colour on the skin remove and finish cooking in the oven on medium heat. Serve. Good luck.

"Burnt" cod with grated Kalamata olives and olive oil #161

This recipe is both simple and a bit complicated, simple that it only consists of four ingredients but complicated since you´ll need a blowtorch and spend a few days drying olives, it is still delicious so you won´t be disappointed if you decide to give it a try.

The recipe for the cod is quite simple, you cut out a piece of fresh cod loin and salt it for about one hour and then burn it using a blowtorch, this will give it a really nice slightly burnt (in a good way) taste and get the cod semi cooked. Then all you need to do is slice it.

The drying of olives is not difficult but it will take a few days, I use fresh Kalamata olives, that is only fermented olives which is way higher in taste and quality so see if you can get your hands on some of those in a good grocery store. Then I simply put them on a plate and let them dry in the oven on low heat (about 50°C / 120F). If you have a dehydrator I´m sure this will work fine to but since I don´t have one myself I really don´t know. This took me four days to dry but I only turned on the oven whenever I was at home and awake. 

Also the olives should not get dried all the way through but only enough to be able to be grated. What I did was to simply grate an olive now and then until they were dry enough. Also if I forgot to mention it, the taste is simply amazing.

"Burnt" cod with grated Kalamata olives and olive oil

fresh cod loin

sea salt

olive oil

fermented Kalamata olives, dried as described

Cut and salt the cod, leave in the fridge for one hour. Pad the cod dry with paper and then burn it using a blowtorch. Slice thin and plate. Add some olive oil and sea salt. Grate olives on top, serve.

New years recipe ideas for seafood lovers

New Years Eve is coming up and if you haven´t decided on what to serve I have picked some of my own favorite recipes from Delicious Tapas and have some great suggestions for you!

This is part two in this series and for this post I will focus on seafood.

All recipes can be found in their original post that I have linked for each dish. I haven´t suggested any dessert but since I´m not that much into desserts. But if I have to recommend something I would go for any great ice cream, because who doesn´t love ice-cream?

Seafood New Years Menu

Appetizers - to start off a great night of loads of seafood I´m serving raw oysters with grapefruit, cooked crab claws with mayonnaise and crostinis with bleak roe. These are all served cold and will go great with some Champagne.

Oysters with grapefruit, onion, chili & chives
Crab claws with aioli & salt
Roe on toast with cress and lemon crème fraiché

Starter

After some great appetizers I´m serving a cod carpaccio with capers and red onion.

Cod carpaccio with capers and red onion

Main course

Cod with fennel, champagne sauce & fresh herbs

For the main course I´m serving another cod dish, this is a cod fillet with champagne sauce, since my original recipe is served small like a tapas you can make the main course bigger and add more vegetables if you feel your guests need some extra stuff to keep them full.

Cod with fennel, champagne sauce & fresh herbs #125

This is more of an traditional appetizer but as long as it tastes good it´s good enough. I shaved the fresh fennel and then wrapped it around the cod fillets and fixated it with cling film. Then I poached the fish in water for about ten minutes.

This may look a bit tricky and it can be but it´s a fun way to present the fish in a new way. It makes no difference for the taste of the dish so if you don´t want it to get to complicated then just serve the fish with the fennel lightly cooked on the side.

Cod with fennel, champagne sauce & fresh herbs

fresh cod fillets
champagne
fennel
fish stock
cream
shallots
fresh herbs, dill, cress, fennel dill,
salt, pepper
butter

Season the cod with salt and pepper, shave the fennel lengthwise and put them side by side on top on a sheet of cling film so that almost the whole piece of film is covered. Put the cod fillets on the fennel and wrap the whole thing around the fish. Make sure the film don´t get stuck in between the fennel. Steam or poach the fish for about ten minutes, you can carefully stick a thin knife to check if it´s done before opening the package.

Dice the shallot and cook on medium heat in butter until soft, season with salt and pepper and then add the champagne, let it reduce by half and then add fish stock and once again let it reduce by half. Add a bit of cream to the sauce and let i reduce a little bit more, season to taste and the mix the sauce using a handheld mixer. Before serving add a few drops extra of champagne.

Remove the film from the fish and carefully slice it and place in a deep plate, add the sauce and fresh herbs. Serve.

Cod carpaccio with capers & red onion # 74

Cod carpaccio with capers & red onion

fresh cod fillet

capers

parsley

red onion

olive oil

lemon juice

black pepper

salt

Slice the cod in thin slices, salt the cod and squeeze over some lemon juice. Let marinate for about 20 minutes. Finely dice the red onion and cut the parsley into a fine julienne. Arrange the cod on a plate and add the onion, new lemon juice, salt, olive oil, parsley and capers. Serve immediately.

Ceviche of cod & blood orange with chives # 59

Ceviche of cod & blood orange with chives

fresh cod

blood oranges

lime

chives

olive oil

salt, pepper

Slice the cod in thin slices and season with salt and fresh lime juice, let sit in frigde for twenty minutes. Cut out filés of the oranges, arrange slices of cod with orange as in the photos.

Squeeze some of the blood orange on top, slice the chives and add on the fish. Finally season with olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper.