Crunch-Topped Cod - A Random Recipe

I've missed a couple of months of Random Recipe posts, the blogger challenge run by Dom at Belleau Kitchen.  It's a lot of fun to take part, however due to impending work on my kitchen I've had to clear all my cookbooks away into bags and boxes, but I came across a pile of old Bella Cookbook magazines to which I applied the standard Random Recipe formula!

My random choice was January/February 2004, goodness nearly 10 years ago!  I did love this magazine, looking through these copies there are loads of recipes that I have made and must revisit.

However, Random Recipes is about making recipes you have overlooked and never made so my random pick is Crunchy Topped Haddock Cod, or other white fish of your choice.  I used frozen cod because it was what I had in the freezer.

Crunch-Topped Cod
Serves 4
4 (175g/6oz) pieces of cod fillet (or other white fish)
4 small tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
2 (250g) bags spinach, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 (250g) tub mascarpone cheese
75g/3oz Cheddar cheese, grated
1 (30g) bag plain crisps, lightly crushed

1. Preheat the grill to high.  Place the cod on a foil lined grill pan. Season with salt and pepper.  Top with tomato slices. Grill for 3-4 minutes until the fish is cooked through. 
2. While the fish is cooking, heat the oil in a large pan.  Fry the garlic of r1 min.  Add the spinach. Cover; cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until wilted.  Draini n a sieve, pressing out the excess liquid with the back of a spoon. Season with nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper.  Keep warm.
3. Apread the mascarpone over the tomatoes an fish.  Top wth Cheddar chees; season.  Grill for 2-3 minutes until melted. Scatter over the crisps; gril lfor 1 min until golden. Serve the fish with the warm spinach.


I made some mashed potatoes and served them topped with the spinach and cheesy fish.  The from fish fillet flaked easily and the combination of the creamy mascarpone, juicy tomatoes, sharp Cheddar cheese and crunchy crisps was a total delight.

Labels: Belleau Kitchen, cheese, cod, crisps, Mascarpone, Random Recipes, spinach, tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:50 7 Comments

Dish of the Month - September Round up

Lamb 'Osso Buco' with parsley papardelle was the recipe I started out to make, however the eagle-eyed among you will realise that that is not quite what ended up on the plate!  You will have to read my blog post to find out how this morphed into a pot roast.

Courgette Cake was a popular choice as Claire at Foodie Quine also chose to make this moist and tasty 'five a day' in a cake.   Apologies to Claire for leaving her cake off the original post, I must have been seeing double!


I hope you will join us for Dish of the Month in October, the Linky will be posted on 2nd October. 

Labels: Autumn Chutney, Baked Figs with Marsala and Honey, cod, Courgette and Apple Cake, Damson and Chocolate Cake, Dish of the Month, lamb, Nigel Slater, Round Up, September

posted by Janice @ 11:30 2 Comments

Fish and Chips: the healthier takeaway option

We all know that fish and chips is a healthier takeaway option than other choices like pizzas, burgers or kebabs. If you live in the countryside like me, it's not easy to access takeaways, they don't deliver you have to go and collect!

That's why I prefer to keep some breaded cod or haddock in my freezer along with some oven chips and frozen peas.  In 30 minutes you can have a comforting plate of Fish and Chips ready and on the table.

If you have more time and want to make your own, you might want to check out some of the recipes on the Fish and chip style fish recipes on the Fish is the Dish website:
Fish n Chips  Jubilee Fish and Chips by Nick Coffer  Spooky Witch Fingers



Fish is the Dish has been educating people across the UK about the health benefits of eating fish for over a year now, and they are delighted to announce that after months of hard work, their Healthy Happy Hearts Challenge is finally complete and underway!

Labels: cod, Fish and Chips, Fish is the Dish, haddock, Healthy Happy Hearts, peas

posted by Janice @ 10:00 2 Comments