The Easiest, Most Delicious Way to Cook Fish

I love fish. I wonder sometimes if it goes back to Fish Frys during Lent: despite being facially penitential, they were fun, and they did have delicious food. Even during the rest of the year, especially when I was young, I always preferred seafood to meat. Shrimp scampi > spaghetti and meatballs. Scallops > steak. Fried fish sandwich > fried chicken sandwich.

However, as I've gotten older and done more cooking for myself, I've avoided cooking too much fish, because I think it's hard to get right on my own. I tend to get nervous about undercooking and overcook to compensate for that concern. 

Enter: tomato-poached cod from Keeping It Simple by Yasmin Fahr. Literally fool-proof. I won't bet you that you can't screw it up, but I do think you'd have to try pretty hard to mess up to make this other than simple and delicious.

Tomato-Poached Cod

Tomato-poached cod

Ingredients: 1 shallot (sliced), salt/pepper to taste, 1 clove garlic (sliced), 1/2 t. red pepper flakes, 28 oz. canned diced tomatoes, 1 c. water, 4 skinless cod filets (about 5 oz apiece; deboned), finely chopped parsley and/or basil to garnish.

That's it! I'd recommend getting fresh fish from the grocery store, but I doubt you'd lose much by even using frozen fish filets that you defrost properly.

The process: add oil to a dutch oven (something wide and deep) over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until soft. Add salt, garlic, and red pepper flakes for about 30 seconds. Add the canned tomatoes and the cup of water. Bring it up to a relatively vigorous boil for about 10 min. This boiling helps break down the tomatoes a little more and to remove any of the taste from the can. Put a little salt and pepper on the cod filets and add them to the pot, floating near the top. Spoon the tomatoes over the filets gently and turn the heat down so that it's boiling but not rocking the fish. Do this for about 5 minutes until the fish flakes apart and/or reads 135 on a digital thermometer. 

How easy is that? You can't even burn the fish because it's poaching. You barely have to cut or chop anything. It also takes so little time!

To serve: Spoon a filet with a ladle full of the tomato broth into a bowl, top with the diced fresh herbs. *pro tip: serve this with a bit of a baguette* Enjoy!

Aside from being very tasty and quick, this is essentially diet food. It's gluten-free, dairy-free, very low in calories, free of refined sugars, high in protein. That is, unless you serve it with two big slices of a buttered baguette (like I did!), in which case, it's at least a balanced meal! If you give this dish a try, let me know!

Today's delights:

• I was excited for snow yesterday, and oh boy, did we get it! It's supposed to snow even more over the course of the week. We are going to have to pull out some board games!
• I achieved what I set out to do yesterday re. my weight loss plan. I did log every meal in my Noom app. I did go for a short lunchtime walk. I ate my prepared lunch. I cooked and ate the dinner we had planned without snacking afterwards. I feel very rewarded by that!
• Yesterday, during my short walk, I finished one of my audiobooks as well. It was definitely thought-provoking! I can't wait to write about it for my month-end reading roundup!

Find something to delight in! Love from -A