Cod Farms

Dani Spies share a recipe for Mediterranean Cod Pouches – quick and easy

The more ambitious of you out there may choose to fillet your own fish. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but you may need a little practice and the right equipment.

Here is a guide, complete with a video showing you how to fillet a fish – using codfish as an example.

How to fillet a cod with Alan Charlton:

Some quick tips on filleting fish:
You will need:
*A fish scaler (optional)
*A sharp filleting knife
*A filleting glove (optional but recommended)
*Plenty of newspaper

1) Make sure you have a very sharp knife (blunt knives can damage the fish). You can take your choice of knife to to use, some prefer a long knife, others a short one. The only real requirement is making sure it is sharp. If you need to, sharpen your knife while you are filleting the fish.

2) Make sure to clean the fish first in cold water

3) Use a wooden or plastic base to fillet the fish on. Use cold water if you need to during the filleting – do not use hot water. When using water, keep a towel handy – water can make the fish very slippery and increases the risk of accidents – so be careful

4) Make a cut down one side of the fish (behind the gills), and cut deep enough to reach the rib cage of the fish (without cutting through the rib cage)

5) Cut along the spine of the fish. Basically cut the fish down the spine towards the tail.

6) When this is done, push the knife right through the fish and continue cutting unitl the knife seperates the fillet at the fish’s tail (see video). Then you are free to cut the fillet free from the rib cage. Take care and don’t rush – it may not come off cleanly on the first cut.

For best results follow the video guide above.
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Where to Buy Fillet Knives:
We have found the best fillet knives to be available at the best prices online:

In the US – Buy Fillet Knives in all sizes at the best prices from Amazon.com

In the UK – Buy Fillet Knives in all sizes at the best prices from Amazon.co.uk

Chef Mary show you how to make Cod Fish served with asparagus and bechamel sauce quickly and easily in this video recipe.

Greeks have had a long relationship with the sea and seafood.

As Greece has over 14,000 kilometres of coastline the majority of her population is never very far from the sea, hence, Greece has a seemingly unlimited amount of seafood recipes.

This cod fish recipe originates in the southern Peloponnese, specifically from the area of the coastal city of Kalamata. However, it is not likely that you will find this dish in any of the restaurants that line the city’s harbour; this is basically traditional Greek home cooking.

It’s an easy dish to create and a unique one that will delight anyone.

Cod With Raisins – Greek Traditional Recipe (Video)

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants is a famous American chain of quality seafood restaurants that started in Portland, Oregon. They specialize in fresh seafood. Here they share a recipe for Baked Cod with Clams & Mussels (Video Recipe).

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For more delicious McCormick & Schmick recipes check out their book “Mccormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant Cookbook” by Bill King and Rick Schafer

UK: Amazon.co.uk

USA: Amazon.com

Graze.com is a new way of getting amazingly healthy and nutritional food delivered directly to your desk or your home, at a frequency defined by you.

What is Graze?

Graze allows you to sign up and get a nutritionally balanced snack box delivered to your desk at work or to your home.

How it works:

1. Choose a graze box and select the frequency you’d like to receive it.
2. Choose from various nutritional food types; berries, fruit, nuts, seeds, and much more – as well as loads of types of fruit Graze has 17 different varieties of nuts and seeds. The graze range provides essential nutrients that are all to often missed in our modern diets.
3. The Graze nutrition team select your graze box according to your likes and preferences
4. Your Graze box is delivered to your home, or workplace (via first class post) for only £2.99

Why Graze?

Graze can help you to lose weight, to eat more healthily, maintain energy throughout the day, and helps to contribute to your ’5 a day’ unlike anything else. Graze is officially recognised by the NHS as supporting the 5-a-day scheme, with up to three portions available in each box.

Grazing on a wide variety of smaller portions of food will help give you more balance and variety for a healthier diet. The average office lunch has around one portion of fruit or veg, while the average graze box contains 3 portions of your 5 a day, as supported by the NHS.

All in all, grazing helps you eat a much wider variety of vitamins and minerals than a normal office diet affords. And seeing as though ‘variety is the spice of life’ you really can’t go wrong.

Lose Weight and Save Money:

A Graze box can be a great way to ensure you get more nutritional balance and variety. Whether graze completely replaces your lunch or you add a little something extra, it can do wonders for your work time nutrition. Some people choose to supplement their box with something small like half a sandwich, a cereal bar or few leftovers from home

A Graze box can assist with healthy eating habits by allowing you to ‘graze’ throughout the day instead of eating once at lunch time – it’s an effective and healthy way to lose weight, as well as helping to control blood sugar and energy levels throughout the day.

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• “Its a brilliant way of making up your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day” – The Evening Standard
• “Costing less than a Starbucks Latte and counting as 3 of your 5 a day, this is a package well worth receiving” – EasyLiving.com

Try out Graze:

Sign up to try out Graze.com for yourself and get your first box free and your second box half price. Click the logo below for more details.

Rick Stein shows you how to create a traditional Spanish Cod dish using salt cod. Stein creates Spanish Salt Cod Fritters, shows the ingredients needed, and the best methods for making cod fritters. Learn from the master.

This video is a segment from: ‘Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escape’.

Rick Stein’s Spanish Salt Cod Fritters Recipe (Video):

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For more wondeful Rick Stein recipes be sure to check out ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’. An essential companion to anybody cooking with fish. More detail below:

UK: ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’


US: ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky is an incredible book that charts the history of the codfish and the massive impact it has made of the human race. Reading about codfish may not be the first thing you think of when looking for a gripping book, but Mark Kurlansky has created just that – a book about a fish that probably has mattered more in human history than any other and has made it an engrossing read.

Product Description
The Cod – wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.

Review Quotes:
Sir Roy Strong, Express On Sunday:
“This is an extraordinary little book, unputdownable, written in the most lyrical, flowing style which paints vivid pictures and, at the same time, punches into place hard facts that stop you dead in your tracks. Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done. ”

Scotsman
An engrossing and timely little epic.

Mail on Sunday
To go out and buy a book on the subject (of cod) is to invite glances of suspicion. While a few eccentrics might think this is a good reason to purchase several copies, for the rest of us it requires a certain leap of faith. Cod … amply rewards such a leap. It is compact and beautifully produced.

Independent On Sunday
Refreshing and invigorating, full of fascinating facts.

Where to buy Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World:
This book is available at some really cheap prices online, see below for more details:

UK: Buy Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World:


US: Buy Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World:

Another Rick Steing classic recipe that’s easy to follow and makes an impressive main course. This is his grilled cod recipe with green split-peas with a delicious tartare sauce.

Ingredients

• 4 x 225g/8oz pieces of thick, unskinned cod fillet
• 50g/2oz butter, melted
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the green split peas:

• 450g/1lb green split peas, soaked overnight
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
• 1 celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 15g/1oz butter

For the tartare sauce:

• 150ml/5fl oz mustard mayonnaise
• 1 tsp gherkins, finely chopped
• 1 tsp capers, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• ½ small garlic clove, crushed

How to cook Rick Stein’s Grilled Cod with Green Split Peas and Tartare Sauce

1. Drain the split peas and put them into a pan with the onion, garlic, celery, bay leaves and thyme. Cover with 1.2L/2 pint water, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour, until the split peas are really tender and most of the liquid has evaporated but the mixture is still quite wet (the peas will continue to absorb the liquid after the cooking time is up).
2. Mix together all the ingredients for the tartare sauce.
3. Lift out and discard the onion, celery, bay leaves and thyme from the peas and mash the peas briefly with a potato masher to make a coarse paste. Stir in the butter and some seasoning to taste and keep warm.
4. Preheat the grill to high. Brush the pieces of cod with the melted butter and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Place skin-down on a greased baking tray or the rack of the grill pan and grill for 8-10 minutes, until the skin is crisp and the cod is cooked through.
5. Meanwhile, make sure the split peas are hot and add a little water if necessary to give them a creamy texture.
6. Serve the cod on top of the peas with the tartare sauce.

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For more wondeful Rick Stein recipes be sure to check out ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’. An essential companion to anybody cooking with fish. More detail below:

UK: ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’


US: ‘Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood: A Step-by-Step Reference’

Antony Worrall Thompson dedicates himself to showing people that eating well and eating healthy does not mean that food does not need to be any less exciting or tasty. This is Worrall Thompson’s recipe for a classic Fiah & Chips meal, with his own unique approach.

Ingredients Needed:

• 4 x 175g/6oz chunky pieces of cod fillet from the loin end, not the tail
• 40g/1½oz plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 75g/3oz fresh white breadcrumbs
• sunflower oil, for deep frying

For the garlic and chive butter

• 15g/½oz flatleaf parsley, chopped
• 15g/½oz chopped chives
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
• 50g/1¾oz butter, softened
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt

For the chips

• 900g/2lb of Maris Piper potatoes
• enough vegetable oil to deep-fry

How to Cook Antony Worrall Thompson’s Fish & Chips:

1. First make the garlic and chive butter. Put the parsley, chives and garlic in a bowl and mix in the butter and lemon juice.
2. Spoon the butter onto a sheet of cling film and roll into a sausage shape. Refrigerate.
3. To stuff the cod, make a pocket in each piece by making a deep cut, approximately 7.5cm/3in long, in the side of each piece of fish with a small, sharp knife, taking care not to cut through to the other side.
5. Remove the butter from the fridge, unwrap and cut into slices, 1cm/½in thick. Poke two pieces of butter into each pocket in the cod and close tightly.
6. To cook the fish, pour the oil into a large pan so that it is one-third full and heat to 180C/360F/Gas 4. (CAUTION: Hot oil can be very dangerous. Do not leave unattended.)
7. Dip the cod pieces into the seasoned flour, making sure they are well coated.
8. Dip them into the beaten egg and lastly the breadcrumbs.
9. Deep-fry the fish two pieces at a time, until golden brown.
10. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper.
11. To cook the chips, peel the potatoes then cut into chunks and put them in a bowl of water.
12. Heat the oil to 160C/320F/Gas 2, for deep-frying.
13. Drain the potatoes and dry thoroughly.
14. Place a few potato chunks at a time in the hot oil and cook until limp but not browned.
15. Drain the chips and place in a container until you are ready to serve. The chips can be prepared to this point 12 hours in advance. Repeat until all the potatoes are cooked.
16. Increase the temperature of the oil to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
17. Return the blanched chips to the oil and cook for 2-3 minutes until golden and crisp.
18. Drain the chips on kitchen paper, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately with the cod.
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For more Antony Worrall Thompson recipes be sure to check out his bestselling books. More detail below:

UK: The People’s Cookbook: A Celebration of the Nation’s Life Through Food:

USA: The People’s Cookbook: A Celebration of the Nation’s Life Through Food: