Around the Globe: Broiled cod with brandade and crayfish butter

During our time in the beautiful city of Fjallbacka, Sweden, we stopped off at Bryggan Fjallbacka to cook with the chefs. They showed me how to make a delightful cod dish and we shared many laughs along the way.  Enjoy!

From the Cookbook:  Flavors from Fjällback

 Four servings

4 pieces of cod, 160 g each

1 kilo peeled almond potatoes

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 dl of milk

1 dl of cream

100 g of butter

½ lemon, squeezed

1 sprig of dill, chopped

½ sprig of chives, chopped

100 g smoked eel, chopped (or other smoked fish)

8 dl seafood stock, (recipe below)

300 g butter

3 tablespoons of fennel seeds

2 dl milk

1 bag of saffron (1/2 g)

½ orange, squeezed

Salt, pepper

Prepare and marinate the cod in the saltwater brine (see recipe below)  for about 15 minutes. Fry the cod in butter, skin side down, and then finish cooking in the oven on 150 degrees for about 7 minutes.

Boil and strain the potatoes and garlic. Heat up the milk, cream and butter and whisk together until a nice potato puree. Flavor the potato puree with lemon juice, dill, chives and smoked eel.

You get a gentle and nice garlic taste if you let the garlic cloves cook with the potatoes.

Reduce seafood stock until half remains. Clarity the butter, together with the fennel seeds, so that the nutty flavor emerges. Add the butter into the reduced seafood stock. Pour in milk and cook together. Add the saffron and season with orange juice, salt and pepper. Mix and serve with cod, brandade, and boiled vegetables. We have chosen carrots and broad beans.

Brandade is a popular dish with roots in both Provence and Portugal where it is usually made from dried white fish, such as kabeljo. The secret is to let the fish, onions and garlic cook together on a low heat and almost melt together to form a puree. Once that is done you can mix it up with potatoes.

Saltwater brine

1L water
1 dl salt
½ dl sugar
the zest from 1 lemon

Bring everything up to boil , let it cool down.

Seafood stock
1 kilo of seafood shells
1 yellow onion
1 piece of celeriac
½ Leek
½ Fennel
3-4 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 bay leafs
15 white peppercorns
6 tomatoes, diced

 

Crush and burn off the shells in the oven. Fine chop the vegetables. Fry onion, celeriac, leek , garlic and the fennel. Add the shells and tomato paste . Add all the spices. Top off with water so it just covers the shells. Bring up to boil for about 5 minutes. Pull aside and add the tomatoes. Let it stand and rest for 2 hours. Strain and reduce down until half is left.