Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Blackened Rock Cod with Crispy Skin




I did buy that beautiful orange rock cod yesterday at Staff of Life, because I knew I wanted to cook it with the skin on and crispy, and it is not often they don't just filet and skin all the cod before I get there. Staff of Life has the freshest fish counter in Santa Cruz by the way. When I was there yesterday I also made friends with the new Cheese monger! He is awesome, friendly and knows his stuff. He just moved down from Napa where he ran a cheese shop there. Originally from the Basque region of France, I know I am going to enjoy being friends with him! I love the staff at Staff of Life.

Here is the menu for tonight: Blackened Rock Cod, Cumin scented black beans, fresh corn cakes, and sauteed zucchini.

I used this recipe for the corn cakes. The beans came right out of a can and I seasoned them with ground cumin. I sliced the zukes into moons and sauteed in a little olive oil in a very hot pan to get brownage on them and sprinkled with sea salt. For the fish I cut slits in the skin and seasoned with salt. The flesh side I seasoned with blackened seasoning mixture and salt. In a very hot cast iron skillet with a little olive oil I placed the fish flesh side down for about 3 minutes then flipped it and finished cooking it on the skin side till the flesh was barely cooked through and the skin crispy.

Blackened seasoning: 3 Tablespoons Paprika, 1 teaspoon each of the following: black pepper, cayenne pepper, white pepper, salt, garlic powder, dried oregano and dried thyme. This is a general guideline, taste and adjust heat and salt to your preference. Or buy Paul Prudhomme's!

1 comment:

Buy British Food said...

Nice post! i like it , so interesting...Thank you for sharing it.