I don’t eat enough fish. It’s not intentional, and it’s not that I don’t like fish. It just isn’t something I often think about. Also, I am wary of buying fish in the supermarket because of a few bad experiences. But, yesterday I decided to go for a drive to the fish market and I bought some fresh cod.
In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it until I got home. What I decided to do was cook the cod in a bit of white wine with shallots, garlic, heirloom tomatoes, and herbs. This dish came together perfectly. The fish was tender and flaky and had loads of flavour.
I served the cod with boiled new potatoes tossed with parsley, butter, salt, and pepper. These potatoes are a simple and delicious side dish that I have really fallen in love with over the last year or so. They can be served with almost anything and they look just as good as they taste.
All right, let’s look at how I made…
Cod with White Wine and Parsleyed Potatoes In 30 Minutes or Less
2:25 pm – Potatoes
I made this meal as a late Sunday lunch. So, I started cooking much earlier than I usually do.
The first thing I had to do was get the potatoes going as they take the longest to cook. At 2:25 I started by putting eight small new potatoes in a pot with hot tap water, to which I added salt. I put the pot over high heat with a lid and brought it to a boil. Once the pot started to boil I removed the lid.
I cooked the potatoes until they were fork tender. This took about 25 minutes start to finish.
2:26 pm – Shallots
While the potatoes were cooking, I took care of everything else. First, the vegetables.
The first vegetable I cut was the shallots.
Just like when slicing an onion, I cut the top and bottom off, peeled it, and then thinly sliced it with the grain. That’s it.
What is a shallot?
A shallot is kind of like a small onion. It is a member of the onion family but is more closely related to garlic and leeks than white or red onions. Having said that, it tastes more like an onion than garlic. It just has a milder flavour. It does grow in clusters like garlic. Generally, within the shallot bulb, there will be two to three shallot cloves. For more information take a look at this Wikipedia article.
2:29 pm – Garlic
Once the shallots were cut I got down to business on the garlic. I crushed and peeled two cloves and then thinly sliced them.
2:30 pm – Tomatoes
With the shallots and garlic out of the way I went to work on the tomato.
I had thought about using cherry or grape tomatoes in this dish which would have been delicious. But, when I saw these heirloom tomatoes I knew that these were what I wanted.
I only ended up using half of one of the tomatoes, which I diced, but the rest will not go to waste.
What is an heirloom tomato?
An heirloom tomato is an old variety of tomato. These are not touched by modern-day breeding and selection methods. Where modern tomatoes are mostly bred for shelf life, travel stability, and disease resistance, heirlooms are bred for flavour and appearance.
For more information check out this article on heirloom tomatoes.
2:32 – Basil
Now it was time to move onto the herbs.
First up was some basil. I took four or five large leaves, rolled them into the cigar shape and sliced them very thinly into what is known as a chiffonade.
It is important not to chop the basil too vigorously as they will bruise and become bitter. Slice, with a sharp knife, only as much is as necessary.
2:34 pm – Spinach
At this point I took a big hand full of spinach, picked the stems off, and cut it into large chunks.
2:36 pm – Parsley
The only other thing to do other than the actual cooking was to cut up some parsley. To do this I rolled the parsley into a tight ball and ran my knife over it once. That was all.
Right before I started chopping the parsley I turned my skillet on to medium high heat.
2:39 pm – Olive Oil in pan
With all the slicing and dicing done it was time to move over to the stove.
Because my pan was heating while I was chopping the parsley it was ready to go. I added a good amount of olive oil, the shallots, and the garlic. I let this cook until the shallots and garlic started to soften. This took about three minutes.
2:42 pm – Tomatoes
With the shallots and garlic softened I added the tomatoes into the pan along with three sprigs of thyme. I cooked the tomatoes out for about two minutes.
2:44 pm – The Cod
With the tomatoes cooked it was time for the fish to go into the pan. I put the cod in the pan presentation side down first. The goal isn’t to sear or get colour on the fish as there will be way too much moisture in the pan already. The goal is just to cook it.
2:46 pm – Wine
After two minutes of the fish being in the pan, I added about one cup of white wine. As soon as the wine started to boil I flipped the fish.
2:47 pm – Smaller Pieces
Not all of the pieces of cod were the same size. At this point, the smaller pieces were cooked so I started taking them out of the pan. Within about two minutes all the fish was cooked and out on a warmed platter.
I warmed up the platter by running it under very hot tap water and then quickly drying it off. Putting the fish on a warm platter helps it to keep its temperature while I was finishing the sauce.
2:49 pm – Fish out spinach in
With the cod out of the pan, I added the spinach, basil, and two tablespoons of butter to the sauce and turned off the heat. I mixed the butter into the sauce which helped to thicken it. Then, I tasted and adjusted the seasoning with salt and pepper.
2:51 pm – Potatoes
The sauce was almost done, the fish was done, now it was time to finish the potatoes. At this point, they had just finished cooking. I drained them, added a pinch of salt and pepper along with a tablespoon of butter and half the parsley I cut up. Potatoes finished and added to the platter with the fish.
2:53 pm – Finish
I finished the sauce with the remaining parsley and then poured it over the fish.
Done and done.
2:54 pm – Plate
I plated myself up a serving and lunch was set with one minute to spare.
Conclusion
This meal was delicious! It was a beautiful lunch but would make an equally beautiful dinner. I can easily see this dish being on the menu at a trendy bistro for $24, but as you’ve just seen you can make it at home in less than 30 minutes.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post. If you have you may also like White Bean and Chorizo Soup in 30 Minutes or Less.
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Thanks for reading!
Equipment
- 1 pot with lid
- 1 large frying pan
Ingredients
- 4 pieces Cod or other white fish
- 2 ea Shallots, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
- 8-12 ea New Potatoes
- 1/2 ea An Heirloom tomato, diced or 12 cherry tomatoes
- 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 5-6 leaves Basil, Sliced
- 1 lg handful Spinach, stems removed, and leaves roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup` Chopped Parsley
- 2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 cup White Wine
- 1/4 cup Butter
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
Potatoes
- Put the potatoes in a pot and cover with very hot tap water.
- Season the water well with salt.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once the potatoes start to boil, remove the lid from the pot and cook them the rest of the way uncovered.
- One the potatoes are cooked (a fork easily passes through them) drain them well.
- Add 2 tbsp of parsley, 2 tbsp of butter, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Gently toss the potatoes to coat with the seasoning and serve.
Cod
- Heat the skillet over medium high.
- Add the olive oil along with the shallots, garlic and a bit of salt and pepper.
- Sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the shallots are soft.
- Add the diced tomato along with 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the fish into the pan presentation (white side) down.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes then add the wine.
- Once the wine starts to boil flip the fish and cook for another 1-3 minutes.
- Smaller pieces of fish will be cooked quicker while larger pieces may take a little longer.
- Remove the fish from the pan to a warmed serving tray as the fish pieces are cooked.
- Once all the fish is out of the pan add in the spinach, basil, and 2 tbsp of butter.
- Turn off the heat and mix the butter in to sauce to thicken it.
- Finish the sauce with the remaining parsley and pour over the fish.
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