When you live about 1,000 miles from the coast, seafood is something exotic. We know about shrimp and sometimes see live lobsters can be found in a tank at the grocery store. We get salt cod and a few varieties of frozen “fresh” fish are good, but pretty mundane. Now that we have a Whole Foods market, we see different varieties of seafood that I hope to learn how to cook someday. In the meantime, I fall back on the tried and true. I do grill the occasional swordfish steak and I love to sear ahi tuna with a crust of crushed wasabi peas when I’m feeling exotic. I’m more likely to do a soup or stew or to try a version of baked cod. I found a new baked cod recipe in an article on sheet pan suppers and, of course I had to try it and am happy to share it. It was a recipe for four servings that I was able to reduce to one serving successfully in keeping with my new search for how to make one or two serving meals. I’m including the full recipe below, but have added a couple of notes about my experience
Provençal Cod, Potatoes and String Beans
Ingredients:
1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, thinly sliced
¼ cup plus 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp herbes de Provence, Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 oz yellow wax beans and/or green beans, trimmed
2 small tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
2Tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 6-oz cod fillets (1 to ½ inch thick)
Chopped fresh parsley for topping
Method:
Put a rimmed baking sheet in the upper third of an oven and preheat to 475°. Combine potatoes, 2 Tbsp olive oil and ½ tsp herbes de Provence in a large bowl; season generously with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, combine the beans, 1 Tbsp oilive oil and the remaining ½ tsp herbes de Provence; season generously with salt and pepper.
Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven; add the potatoes in a single layer on one side of the pan and the beans on the other side. Roast until the potatoes and browned and the beans are tender – about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, olives, remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil, the lemon juice. ½ tsp salt and pinch of pepper in a small bowl; set aside. Season the cod all over with salt.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven. If potatoes and beans are done, remove and keep warm. If not done, push to their sides leaving a space in the middle. Place the cod in the middle of the pan and top with half of the tomato mixture. Roast until the cod is opaque – 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle the potatoes with parsley. Serve with the remaining tomato mixture.
Notes: In my oven, the beans and potatoes were done at 20 minutes. I left them on the the cod and the beans were a bit overdone by the time the cods was done. Check them while the cod is cooking, to be safe.
I could only find a long filet of cod with a narrow end. I folded the narrow end under the thick end sandwiching some of the olive and tomato mix in between. It worked fine and was colorful and tasty.
This recipe reduced easily to one serving with a single cod filet and smaller portions of beans and potatoes. I did the full recipe of the olive, tomato lemon mix and enjoyed what didn’t fit on the cod right out of the bowl with a spoon!
