Ingredients
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Cod Fillets
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Ackee
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onions
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tomatoes
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red bell pepper
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cherry tomatoes
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scallion (green/spring onion)
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Cariblend® Mild Jerk Spice
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coconut oil
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Cariblend® Super Brine
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olive oil (extra virgin)
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lemons
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parsley (curly)
Directions
Carib-Norwegian Lightly-Salted Cod with Ackee
I dare to suggest that Norwegian-style lightly-salted fresh cod is a better flavour and texture partner for delicate ackee than the heavily-salted dried cod which features in the national dish of Jamaica.
Ingredients
- 250 g fresh cod fillets
- 1080 g ackee (2 x 540g/19 oz cans)
- 100 g bacon lardons (or 8 strips of bacon, chopped)
- 1 onion (coarsely chopped)
- 1 tomato (diced)
- ½ sweet red pepper (bell pepper, seeds and pith removed, diced)
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- 4 spring onions (green parts only, coarsely chopped)
- 2 tsp Cariblend® Mild Jerk Spice Mix
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 litre Cariblend® Super Brine (for brining the cod)
For the Dressing (if cooking Sous Vide)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 sprigs of curly-leafed parsley (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Place the cod fillets in a large bowl and pour over the Cariblend® Super Brine.
- Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for one hour (very lightly salted), or two hours (lightly salted), or overnight (moderately salted).
- Whilst the cod is brining, prepare the bacon lardons and, if you plan to cook the cod Sous Vide, the Sous Vide dressing.
- Fry the bacon lardons until crisp. Drain on a plate lined with paper towel and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
- For the Sous Vide dressing, combine the coconut oil, lemon juice, parsley, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- After the cod has finished brining, remove it from the bowl and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Pat dry and divide into 4 equal pieces.
To Steam:
- Steam the cod pieces in a steamer basket over boiling water (or in a steam oven) for 20 minutes. Cool, flake gently, and set aside.
To Cook Sous Vide:
- Dip each piece into the Sous Vide dressing, coat thoroughly, and then place in an individual Sous Vide pouch.
- Place the pouches in your Sous Vide cooker or Sous Vide oven at 65°C (150°F) for 75 minutes. If you don’t have a Sous Vide cooker, place each cod piece in a cook-in bag, seal (excluding as much air as possible), then place in a saucepan of water maintained at 65°C for 75 minutes.
- After 75 minutes in the sous vide cooker, remove the pieces of cod from their pouches and pat dry with a paper towel. Cool, flake gently, and set aside.
To Finish:
- Meanwhile, drain the canned ackee in a colander or sieve and set aside (N.B. Canned ackee has already been cooked and is very fragile: handle gently).
- In a large frying pan or skillet (with a lid), fry the tomato, onion, and sweet red pepper until the tomato and bell pepper are soft and the onion is translucent.
- Add the flaked cod fish, cherry tomatoes and chopped spring onions to the skillet. Sprinkle with half the jerk spice and mix gently but thoroughly.
- Gently fold in the ackee, sprinkle over the second half of the jerk spice, cover and simmer on low heat for 5 to 10 minutes with little or no stirring. Do not over-cook or over-stir: if you do, the ackee will turn into mush.
- Serve hot.
Notes
It would take a very brave or a very foolish man to mess with Jamaica's national dish. Well, I am that man! I want to convert you to the idea of brining fresh cod at home. Not only does this give you precise control over just how firm and how salty you want your cod to be, it also gives a result which is altogether more juicy and more succulent than dried salted cod which has been rehydrated by soaking. In addition, if you use my Cariblend® Super Brine and soak for just one or two hours, Norwegian-style, you will produce a delicately flavoured, lightly-salted cod which partners perfectly with that most glorious of vegetables (or is it a fruit?), the ackee.
If you've never tried sous vide cooking, you don't know what you're missing! This is the ideal recipe to try it out on, because fish fillets - IMHO - are second only to steak fillets in terms of showcasing the superior flavour and tenderness produced by sous vide cooking.
Nutrition
Calories: 821kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 44gFat: 82gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 1134mgPotassium: 1275mgFiber: 14gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 1075IUVitamin C: 118mgCalcium: 281mgIron: 16mg
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