Howdy. If you think I am being cute and that I am about to refer to myself or my newbs as a main course get your mind out of the gutter. That said, I like the way you think…
Nope. Tonight I write about a real main course, as in what’s for dinner. I really wanted to write about cod tonight so I’m gonna. This is my blog and there are no rules, after all. Well, only my rules. And tonight the topic is cod.
It all started one dark and stormy night (not really) when I had a hankering for some concoction involving cod, chorizo and tomato so I poked around online and adapted the below from a recipe I found by Lizzie Kamenetzky from delicious magazine.
Here it is:
Tasty Cod & Chorizo Stew
This is an easy recipe requiring minimal prep work and clean-up. And my kids will eat it too. The only thing in here not good for you is the chorizo but you have to live a little so fuck it.
Serves about 4 adults (can easily increase for a crowd — amounts not too fussy here)
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
250 grams/About 1/2 lb raw chorizo links cut into coins
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tspn paprika
Pinch of chilli flakes
About 1/2 cup white wine
800g/1 28-oz can whole peeled plum tomatoes, drained
1+ large red bell pepper, sliced into strips — thin but not julienned
About 200g/8 oz canned rinsed chickpeas (if you want firmer bean) or cannellini beans (softer)
800g/1.5 lbs skinless cod fillet (preferably fairly thick and uniform middle piece), rinsed, dried and cut into large chunks
Handful chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 190c/375F
Heat olive oil in large (pref. cast iron) frying pan or casserole that can go in the oven to medium-high. Add chorizo coins and sauté until just starting to crisp. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Meanwhile scoop out some of grease/oil mixture in pan leaving about one tablespoon liquid behind. The original recipe didn’t say to do this but you do NOT need that much grease and it’s just naaaaasty. If you want to pretend to be even more healthy you can set the reserved chorizo on a paper towel to absorb even more grease but let’s not kid ourselves too much here.
Add onion to pan and sauté on low heat for about 8 minutes or until soft. Add paprika and chilli flakes and stir to incorporate then cook for another 2 minutes.
Add white wine, drained tomatoes (you can certainly leave in some puree but you don’t want lots of water) breaking them up with the side of a spoon into smaller pieces, red peppers and chickpeas or beans. Season with salt and pepper (go easy on salt you can always add more later and chorizo is salty), stir to incorporate all ingredients and bring mixture to a good simmer.
Sprinkle cod pieces with a little salt and pepper and add them to the pan/casserole along with the crisped chorizo. Spoon a little sauce over the cod to moisten the tops and then bake in preheated oven for about 6-8 minutes uncovered, then another 6-8 minutes covered, until cod is just cooked through (when it flakes). This does not take very long to cook — don’t overdo it. You can also just leave it on the burner on the top of the stove and cook it there but I prefer plopping the sucker in the oven where I know the heat is more uniform because I don’t have a gas cooktop at the moment.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve hot in shallow bowls, spooning some broth in. Great for dipping baguette in there. Can also serve with roasted potatoes or brown rice and green beans or a nice green salad, etc.
Bon appétit.
Oh BTW if you are going to print this out and use it be sure to delete the F-word above before you plop it on the counter and your six-year-old finds it. “Mommy, what’s ‘fuck?'” Just saying.
So enough about what’s for dinner back to my favourite main topic of late: my tits. Tomorrow is the big day and how fitting it is. My husband and I are going to trot over to the surgeon’s office and have our first viewing sans tape. Then we are going to go out to lunch to celebrate. Can you think of anything more romantic than brand new boobs for Valentine’s Day? Of course you can’t. Stop trying to.
I feel like tomorrow is going to be the first day of the rest of my life. It’s not just about the newbs, really. It just marks the end of a really weird year. A year in which I endured extreme emotions, physical challenges and learned a great deal about myself and others and life in general. In which those around me endured — well, me — and all the challenges that watching me or helping me or not being able to watch me or help me brought.
Hot damn I’m gonna buy me a nice new bra to celebrate and have a glass of rosé champagne. Bring on the cheesy Valentine’s Day cards, chocolates and all of that commercial, sappy, crap because I’m really feeling it this year.
Happy Valentine’s Day, people. xoxo