I’ve just returned from a week on Cape Cod, a place that feels like home to me, even though I go there only once or twice a year. Many of my happiest childhood memories come from our summers on Cape Cod; many of our family’s oft-told favorite stories took place there. (The stories usually involve lobster and the men who sell them; miniature golf, the ocean and it’s kite-friendly breezes and/or steamers.)
Today’s story will not include miniature golf, which we somehow did not play by the time our precious week flew by. I could say plenty about steamers and lobster, which I ate as close to daily as I could manage. (You can read about where to get the best lobster rolls on Cape Cod here.) Lucky for me, each day gives rise to at least three eating occasions, so I was also able to fit in plenty of cod. Don’t wrinkle up your nose: cod is a lovely, generally under-appreciated mild, subtlety flavored fish with firm, flaky flesh that does not easily dry out. It can be baked, broiled, grilled, braised or pan seared and it marries well with as many flavor profiles as it does cooking techniques.
Scrod, Cod or Haddock?
Several restaurants I visited listed “scrod” on their menus. Let’s be clear: scrod is not the official name of cod of a certain size or shape. While scrod is often cod, it may also be haddock. Just to make the New Englander obtuseness even worse, it could also be hake and pollack. Bottom line: scrod is the nickname given to fish of a certain color (very, very white) and texture (firm and flaky), and is not a species. (The name scrod may have, in the 1800s, referred to small strips of cod or haddock, but that is no longer the case.)
Most of us wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between cooked haddock and cod. But remember this bit of New England folklore to tell them apart when the skin is still on. The story goes that “sacred cod” was the fish Christ fed the masses, and when you look at the whole fish, you can see the marks of his thumbs and forefingers. When the devil tried to multiply his fish, the cod slid out of his hot hands, burning two black stripes down the fish’s back– and resulting in the fish we call haddock.
And Now– A Fast, Delicious and Healthful Meal
The recipe below is one of my favorites– because it tastes so clean and wholesome, because it is so simple to make, and because I feel so virtuous eating such a healthful meal.
Cod Baked with Kale, Olives and Wine
To make really short work of this, buy pre-washed fresh kale: the total prep time for your meal will be less than 10 minutes.
6 cups washed, torn kale
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
4 celery stalks, sliced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped calamata olives
1/4 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 pounds cod, cut in 4 even pieces
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Coat a small (8 x 8) baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Combine the kale, tomatoes, celery, olives and parsley in the baking dish; top with the fish. Pour the wine evenly over the fish and vegetables and sprinkle with the thyme and salt. Cover the dish loosely with foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove the foil and spoon some of the liquid in the pan over the fish; return to the oven and bake until the fish is tender, opaque in the center and flakes easily with a fork, about another 5 minutes.
Serves 4
Nutritional analysis for each serving:
273 calories, 35 g protein, 18 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 5 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 852 mg sodium (Note: one way to reduce the sodium without much impact on flavor is to switch to unsalted canned tomatoes- you’ll end up with about 100 fewer mg of sodium per serving.)
Marge, I haven’t tried this yet but it looks easy enough for a “reluctant cook” like me as well as healthful. I’ve never made cod, but am willing to try it. Thanks for the tip on reducing the salt. I buy canned tomatoes without salt as it is. Would it spoil the dish if I used !/4 teaspoon salt instead of the half? Same question if I used a little more wine. What kind of white wine do you recommend? Dry, I assume, but what kind of dry?
Looking forward to your answer because I’m getting sick of flounder and salmon (which is surprising to me since I love salmon)
Regards, Tervia
Hi Tervia–
You absolutely can cut back to 1/4 teaspoon salt. In fact, you can use no added salt, and people can salt at the table as they wish.
Here is a good trick to keep in mind. When you want to reduce the salt in the recipe, sometimes the dish needs that little perk– and you can get it from acid, such as vinegar, wine or citrus. But sometimes, if the dish already has acid in it, and you don’t want it to taste too acidic, you can use lemon zest instead of juice. The zest will perk up the flavors with out making it taste too sour or tart (too acidic). You can use lemon, lime or orange zest although orange tend to be a more assertive flavor). When you zest a lemon, zest more than you need, and put the extra in a little plastic bag in the freezer. You have it on hand for anytime you think something needs a little more perkiness.
I am not sure more wine would do much to improve this dish…and I would use Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.
Let me know how it turns out!
Marge
1.) A hake/whiting filet is too small to serve even as a lunch or lite-dinner portion.
2.) In general, haddock is worth too much for a retailer (i.e., restaurant or fish market) to label as anything other than “haddock.”
3.) So unremarkable are their meats that both cod and pollock can benefit from being renamed by a retailer and, thus, upgraded in the mind of “the consumer.”
4.) Wholesalers/processors provide draggermen with pre-printed lists on which the latter are expected to mark the weight/quantity of fish boxes filled by each species caught. Under “Cod,” “scrod” (or “schrod”) appears immediately below “market.” While market cod are generally larger, scrod (or schrod) range in size from medium down to the smallest allowed by mesh size. (For conservation/environmental reasons, National Marine Fisheries Service regulates the size of mesh in commercial-fishing nets. NMFS stretches the square mesh at an angle and, then, measures the length of the “diamond” produced.)