Fish dishes from across the sea

Undeterred by a few piddling snow showers, the Wednesday Lunch Group gathered in the Ninecooks kitchen this morning for an Iberian fish feast, featuring one dish from Spain and the other from Portugal, by way of Massachusetts.

Pauline, who taught us how to make her wonderful Clam Boil Stew, hails from a French-Canadian family in the city of Fall River – a heavily Portuguese community midway between Providence and Cape Cod. When she first described this recipe, we were expecting multi-cultural and, as Pauline is a fabulous cook, we were expecting delicious. What we weren't expecting was....hot dogs!

It sounded strange and looked even stranger, but at some point after all of the ingredients were added to the pot, alchemy took over and everything melded into and enriched the broth. The flavors of littleneck clams and mussels, sweet potatoes and red-skinned potatoes, onions, turkey chourico, breakfast sausage and dill combined, and suddenly those hot dogs didn't seem at all out of place. The stew was actually quite light, and, though we often take home more leftovers than we manage to eat when we cook together, everyone had a heaping bowl of Pauline's stew. And this was our second course....

The Spanish side of the Iberian peninsula was represented by Cod with Raisins, Nuts and Apples, adapted from a recipe for a salt cod tapas item. My friend Candy and I made this dish for Thanksgiving, as part of our ongoing project to shake up our traditional holiday dinner. Of course we didn't follow the original recipe exactly; we used fresh cod instead of salt cod, and pine nuts instead of almonds. I'd forgotten to buy raisins, and ended up pulling them, one at a time, out of a box of raisin bran cereal! No matter; the dish was fabulous then, and it was fabulous today (when we actually had raisins, and almonds, too). A bit sweet, with a bit of bite from the white pepper.

We served the cod on slices of crusty rosemary-olive oil bread, which soaked up some of the sauce and melted in our mouths. It was a perfect appetizer, which we enjoyed while the clam boil stew finished cooking and the aroma filled the kitchen. Our Iberian fish feast was a success.

COD WITH RAISINS, NUTS AND APPLES

Adapted from a recipe for bacalao con manzana (salt cod with apples) in Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain, by Penelope Casas. Serves 6 as an appetizer or tapas dish, served on or with some crusty bread to soak up the sauce, or 3-4 as a main dish with saffron rice and steamed green vegetables.

2 Tbsp raisins
1-1/4 lb cod fillet
Flour for dusting
6 Tbsp mild olive oil
2 1/4-inch thick slices of crusty loaf bread
6 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 small tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tbsp pine nuts
1 cup chicken broth
White pepper
8 blanched almonds, lightly toasted, or additional pine nuts
1/2 large apple, peeled, cored and chopped
Salt, to taste
1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Soak the raisins in warm water to cover for up to 2 hours, or place in a glass measuring cup with 1/4 cup water and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Set aside.

Dry the cod on paper towels and cut into large chunks. Dust with flour. Heat 4 Tbsp of oil in a sauté pan. Fry the bread on both sides until it is golden. Remove bread to a food processor or blender. Fry the cod in the same oil quickly, about 1 minute per side (add more oil if necessary). Remove to a warm dish. Wipe out the pan, but do not wash it.

Heat the remaining oil and sauté onion until it is wilted. Add tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Drain the raisins and stir them in, along with the pine nuts, broth, and white pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

WHILE THE SAUCE IS COOKING, in the food processor grind the bread with the almonds. With the motor running, add a few Tbsp of sauce from the sauté pan and process until the mixture is as smooth as possible. Add to the pan and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the cod, apple and garlic, and cook 10 minutes more, adding a little water if the sauce thickens too much. Taste for salt. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Comments

[Pauline]

If anyone has a neck to spare, I have an extra shin. Trade anyone?????????

[Pauline]

OOps, that's a CHIN. (That would be strange anatomy!)

[Lydia]

Ha ha ha!

I still can't get over that delicious clam boil stew. Maybe it was the fabulous shellfish Pete brought, or maybe the magic of the recipe, or both, but when I close my eyes, I remember the stew and how it made me think of the beach. Yum.