Thought for Food

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Poached Smoked Cod with Creamy Potatoes

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris and I know where the birdies is! They is right here in Dublin. And Dublin is beautiful again today. After the glorious day we had yesterday I had very much expected rain for today, but that did not materialise. Instead, our visitor and I had a glorious morning at the market. He has returned from Cork slightly more relaxed and happy to run around town with me looking for dinner. Good, because that is exactly what I was planning on doing today.
Our first stop was as usual Jenny's stall at Temple Bar market. It is really starting to reflect the emerging new season with young cauliflower, crisp salad leaves, radishes, baby spinach, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, spring onions and fresh herbs. The remains of winter are still lingering in the shape of carrots, parsnips, swede and old potatoes. But the Brussel tops and cabbage of the past few months are gone for good. Inspired by the sun, last week's cooking programme and life in general, I basically bought one of each - and later wondered how in the world we were supposed to eat it all. But never mind, it made me happy and will hopefully force me to be inventive in finding new ways of preserving fresh veg. I see soups, ice cream, quiche and many more things in my future.
The near future, however, was occupied by

thought for fish. I had pre-ordered cockles last week and Lofty was really looking forward to that very British snack. Well, he'll have to be patient for another week. The fishmonger had forgotten who had ordered them and sold them to a lucky customer in Leopardstown yesterday. Oh well, I'll just get mine next week, it's always good to have something to look forward to. I still wanted to give our guest another taste of Ireland's great seafood so I bought a large piece of smoked cod - enough to serve two ways, a carpaccio with tomato salsa as a starter (click here for my recipe) and a more traditional poached cod with creamed potatoes as a main course.
This meant that I had to go see Dennis for some more ingredients. I haven't bought anything from him for a few weeks now, mainly because Jenny had all the winter vegetables I needed. But now that the sun has re-emerged and what I like to call the "dry season" between the holiday season in December and the emergence of spring is finally over, Lofty and I are craving something new, something more, and most of all some fruit. And Dennis is the man to satisfy all of these wishes. Today, he had - among many other things - beautiful garden tomatoes that, although imported from Italy, smelled (and tasted) delicious. I got a few along with some crisp green asparagus, a handful of morel mushrooms, a bag of overripe pears (the sweet smell was incredible and I've got a recipe for pear sorbet that I've been dying to test) two little yellow mangoes, some shallots and some new potatoes - all organic of course - and wandered off with a smile.
We had a few more stops - some meat, some wine, a little snack - but all in all, my visitor was done with the market again and wanted a coffee. I suggested Queen of Tarts on Dame Street and, surprisingly, he agreed. I think the old fashioned look and feel of the place convinced him of the authenticity of the food sold within. And he was not disappointed. But then, how could anyone be? Not just the outside is beautifully old fashioned; their homemade cakes, crumbles, scones and tarts are too. They also have a surprisingly wide selection of goodies for breakfast and lunch, so no matter when you need some traditional home-cooked food, you will find it there. Just be warned, during peak times the place gets incredibly busy. But if the sun is shining you always have the option to get a savoury tart to go and eat it sitting in the gardens of Christ Church Cathedral reading a good book.
After we had dropped off our shopping, all three of us headed out again for a walk around town in the afternoon sunshine. Our guest also stopped at the National Museum of Ireland, but Lofty and I were put off by the speed at which he had raced through the Chester Beatty Library last week, so we opted for a wander around Grafton Street instead. We met up again in the evening to enjoy the rewards of a hard day's shopping: Smoked Cod Carpaccio with Tomato Salsa to start, Poached Cod on Creamy Potatoes as a main course and some Rhubarb Crumble with Channel Island thick cream for desert. The recipe for the starter can be found via the link above and the desert warranted its post (which will come next). So here is my recipe for the main course (which I served without vegetables because of the very green starter, but I'm sure it would be excellent with some mildly flavoured spring veg, such as asparagus, spinach or peas):

600 ml milk
1 onion halved
1 bay leaf
450 g undyed smoked cod, cut into 3 portions
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 spring onions, sliced (plus some extra for decoration)
1 sprig of thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
225 g unpeeled new potatoes, diced
25 g strongly flavoured cheese (I used Appenzeller, but Gruyère, Emmenthal or another kind of hard alpine cheese will work just as well), grated
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the milk in a saucepan with the onion and bay leaf. Remove from the heat and allow to infuse for 15 minutes. Return to the heat. When simmering, add the cod, cover and cook for 8 minutes. Remove the fish and keep warm in a low oven, then strain the cooking fluid.
Heat the olive oil in another medium sized saucepan. Cook the garlic, spring onions and thyme for 5 minutes, then add the potatoes and poaching milk and cook uncovered until the potatoes are tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Reduce the temperature to low and add the cheese. Slowly cook until the cheese is melted and the mix is heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon the potato onto three warm plates, top each with a piece of poached cod and scatter with sliced spring onion.