This simple cod recipe, a very early dish from The Seafood Restaurant, is perfect for a warming supper on a chilly autumn/winter evening. The thing that makes the red wine sauce interesting is the addition of some British spices like nutmeg and allspice - plus a little heat from a pinch of curry powder.
Grilling the cod fillets makes this a very easy recipe to recreate at home, for any level of cook and you can order them to your door straight from our online fishmonger.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 75g unsalted butter
- 4 x 175g pieces of thick skin-on cod fillet
- Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 50g each onion, carrot and celery, finely chopped
- A small pinch each of ground allspice, ground cloves and grated nutmeg
- A large pinch of curry powder
- 600ml red wine
- 600ml chicken stock
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp plain flour
For the lentils
- 50g dried Puy lentils
- 300ml fish stock
- 1 clove and 1 bay leaf
- 2 slices peeled onion
- ½ tsp salt
Method
1) Put all the ingredients for the lentils into a pan and simmer until tender. Drain, then cover and keep warm.
2) Melt 50g of the butter in a medium pan and brush a little all over the cod. Season the fish on both sides and put skin-side up on a baking tray.
3) For the sauce, add the chopped onion, carrot and celery and spices to the melted butter in the pan and fry over a medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the red wine, stock, sugar and salt, bring to the boil and boil until the sauce is reduced by three-quarters and is concentrated in flavour. Strain into a clean pan and keep warm.
4) Preheat the grill to high. Grill the cod for 8 minutes, until the skin is well browned. Mix the remaining 25g butter with the flour to make a smooth paste (beurre manié). Bring the sauce to the boil and then whisk in the paste, a little at a time. Simmer for 2 minutes until smooth and thickened.
5) To serve, spoon the lentils on to 4 warmed plates and place the cod on top. Spoon the sauce around the edge.
