Cod loin in a light cream sauce with Spaten Munchner Hell

"Cod is the king of the cold water fish" we are told and it does have a great deal to recommend it. I'm more of a haddock guy but I do appreciate a nice piece of the flaky sweet flesh that cod offers.

This is quite a classic way to treat cod and, as asparagus and new potatoes are bang in season, this dish came together quite simply. The largest risk in this is overcooking the fish, if there is such a thing as a culinary crime the overcooking fish is that crime. 

• 2 medium sized cod fillets
• 1 small bunch of asparagus
• Two handfuls of new potatoes (jersey royals if you can get them).
• Two glugs of dry sherry (one for the fish, one for the sauce) 
• 150ml double cream
• 200ml of fish stock (perfectly fine to use a cube)
• 2 tsp lumpfish caviar
• Tiny glug of oil.
• 10gms butter

Pre heat the oven to 160 ish degrees. Spread a tiny bit of oil on a sheet of aluminium foil, place the fish on the foil and wrap the foil upwards around the fish, leaving a hole in the top. Pour the first glug of sherry in the hole and seal it up. (You can pop a slice or two of lemon in if you like as well),

Put this on a baking sheet and into the fridge. Put the potatoes on to boil. And pop another pan of salted water on to boil ready for the asparagus.

In a third pan reduce the stock with the second glug of sherry until it is half its volume.

When the asparagus water is boiling add you trimmed asparagus (see tip) and boil until just starting to turn tender. Remove them from the boiling water and run them under the tap to make them quite cold.

When the potatoes are starting to soften, pop the fish in the oven.

Add the cream to the stock and reduce a little (it doesn't need to be very thick). Pop a frying pan on the heat and melt the butter in it until foaming but not browned.

By now your potatoes should be ready. You have to move quite fast from here on. Take the fish out of the oven and allow the steam to come out of the foil. Add the caviar to the sauce and stir, taking it off the heat. Pop the cool asparagus in the butter and warm through. Drain the potatoes from their water and allow them to steam for a minute.

Now to plate up: place a few asparagus spears on the plate and pop the cod on top. pour the sauce wherever you think looks good and place the spuds around the plate. Breathe and serve.

Tip. When you are preparing asparagus and want to get rid of the woody ends, hols the top and bottom of the spear in separate hands and bend, it will always break where it becomes tender. Keep the woody ends in a box in the freezer and then when you have enough, make cream of asparagus soup with them. 

The match

The Spaten brewery can trace its origins back to 1397. It is one of the original six, Munich Oktoberfest breweries. As with a lot of the breweries in Germany they are owned by big brewing interests but manage to maintain a sense of identity and history in their beer. It is light bodied,malty and smooth, with a hint of sweetness and a dry, clean finish. Now in food matching terms this sort of dish would be matched with a dry white wine, maybe a Sancerre or a Poully Fume. I think that this beer was every bit as good as classic Loire white would be. I will add that a traditional English Best Bitter works really well with battered cod for the same reasons; just with more malt to work with the batter!

St Georges Day - Spears and such.

Today is the Day of the Patron Saint of England. In Wales, on St David's day they hold eisteddfods (a Welsh cultural festival involving music drams and especially Poetry) in schools and give the kids a half day, everyone wears a daffodil or a leek showing their Welshness, In Scotland on St Andrew's day you can't move for tartan and the Saltire painted on faces. I'm sure I don't need to explain the joyous chaos of St Patrick's day. However, in England the Day of St George passes almost without comment. It might be that much of the imagery has be hijacked by racist thugs, or it might be that there is a sense of English reserve but whatever the cause, we English don't really shout about it.
Nature does not keep a diary, after millenniums of adaptation, crops appear when their genes tell them there is the greatest chance of success and not on a certain date. Part of being human is feeling the need to codify, explain, organise and hold fast to structure which is why we like to "have dates in the diary".
The English Asparagus season runs from St Georges Day (23rd April) to Midsummer's day (21st June) which has a certain poetry about it, but in our hearts we know that the new years spears might arrive a little bit early or late and, indeed the crop may be finished before the longest day.
I make no secret of my love for asparagus. For me it is the final curtain being drawn on the, so called Hungry Gap where, historically, fresh food was scarce and we all survived on preserved foods and cabbage. Asparagus is clearly a vegetable of early Summer whereas the joy that is purple sprouting broccoli clearly belongs to late winter or, at best, early spring.
My fascination with seasonal foods and, if necessary, the preserving of them, grows from my parents' allotment in the 1980s. Picking vegetables at the right time was something my late father took great pride in. He would joke that it would be better to bring the boiling water to the runner beans rather than let them deteriorate on the 10 minute cycle home.
To this day I struggle with the idea of strawberries at Christmas, or parsnips in June. This is not born from sense of pious duty to the seasons its just that I have always been a person who looks forward to things and last week when I saw the first Herefordshire asparagus on sale my heart jumped.
There has been a enormous amount written about how to cook asparagus and I'm sure there is a degree of Michelin Stared perfection to be gained in some of those methods, but really, we are just making supper. Having snapped them to ensure the tender stems are eaten drop them in boiling water for a few minutes and serve, it is the exemplar of fast food. Serve it piping hot with butter (no substitutes will do) and a fried egg on top (Duck eggs are especially good in this regard). Above all keep it simple.
Incidentally, I keep the woody hard stems in the tiny ice box at the top of my fridge and build up the quantity as the season progresses. When I have a bagful, I boil then in a little light vegetable stock, whizz then in a liquidizer add some cream, season and serve with freshly baked bread and enjoy.
Please do not be very English about the amount of Asparagus you eat, you have about eight or nine weeks so go a little bit mad (in a very English way, of course) and feast.
Finally, I wish you a very happy Asparagus season, the cold glory of brussels sprouts and parsnip is dead, long live the spears of summer!


 

Full, oh so full, of the joys...

I challenge anyone not to feel a deep but gentle joy at the way the seasons change in the UK. The starlings who have been scavenging on my bird table all winter are now raising a brood in the rafters of Corner Cottage, My tomato plants have gone from being puny little filaments to strong vibrant shafts of green, as thick as my little finger, reaching for the trellis (although last Monday, when there was frost on the ground, they did look at me as if to say "Really? Are you sure it's May?").

I have written before of my love of September but right now, for just a few weeks, the English diet is turned upside down. We are justifiably proud of our meat in this country and many of us are excited by the quality and variety of seafood found around our coasts but right now for just a brief month or so it is the vegetables of this green and pleasant land which take centre stage.

Asparagus is with here from late April to late June (strictly speaking the season is from St Georges day to Midsummer day) and we must gorge ourselves whilst we can. A bundle should be in every shopping basket, veg box and hessian bag (for farmers' markets, of course). There are many beautiful things you can do with this delicious (if slightly bizarre) vegetable. It is a friend to butter for simplicity and a friend to egg - poached, fried, boiled, hen, duck or goose - it matters not. Best for me, however, is to combine the two and make an hollandaise sauce. I am aware that this turns a very healthy vegetable into a heart attack on a plate but its only around for such a short period of time and we do need to live a little.

If we lived in a world, and I shudder at the thought, that did not have asparagus in it, then the king of this time of year would surely be Purple Sprouting Broccoli. This evening I made a perfectly pleasant cottage pie for dinner but it was completely upstaged by the lovely stems that I had quickly blanched and placed on our plates as an afterthought. A flavour that just screams "Spring!" at the top of its voice, demanding attention from all the other foods in the kitchen. Rich and subtle, a hint of iron in the taste and just enough cruch to assure one of its freshness - a true monarch of the vegetable kingdom.

What are you waiting for people?