I’ve got a few cookbooks on the shelf…ok, shelves…ok, several books…fine, a lot of books on the shelves. So much so that C said, “You can’t shouldn’t buy anymore cookbooks until you make at least one recipe from each book on those shelves.”

So…here’s one. It’s a modified recipe from Patrick O’Connell’s Refined American Cuisine. DON’T let the long list of ingredient deter you from this recipe. It’s essentially chopping and pan frying, and it’s simple to make. So sharpen your knife and with little tweaks here and there and you’ve got the wonderful colors and flavors of Spain on your plate.

Ingredients

For gazpacho sauce:
3 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, cored and coarsely choppped
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium Vidalia onion, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
3 TBs. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. Tabasco
1 TBs. fresh lemon juice
1 TBs. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. celery salt
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For Gazpacho salsa:
3 TBs. peeled, seeded and minced tomato
3 TBs. peeled, seeded and minced cucumber
3 TBs. seeded and minced red bell pepper
3 TBs. seeded and minced green bell pepper
3 TBs. seeded and minced yellow bell pepper
1 tsp. seeded and minced jalapeno pepper
1 TBs. minced red onion
1 tsp. minced shallot
1 tsp. very finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1 TBs. extra virgin olive oil
1 TBs. sherry vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For cod:
2 TBs. of extra virgin olive oil
4 6oz. cod fillets
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 TBs. of store bought black olive tapenade for topping. If you’re in the mood to make a fresh batch, check out my black and green olive tapenade.

Preparation

For the Gazpacho sauce:
1. In a blender or food processor, puree the tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, onion, celery and garlic in batches until smooth. Strain.
2. Add the olive oil, Tabasco, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, cumin and celery salt. Mix well and refrigerate. After the sauce is chilled, season with salt and pepper, bring to reoom temperature before serving.

NOTE: recipe makes approximately 5 cups. You’ll have left overs for a nice chilled out soup.

For the Gazpacho salsa:
1. Combine the tomato, cucumber, bell peppers, jalapeno pepper, red onion and shallot.
2. Stir in the cilantro, tarragon, celery salt, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar.
3. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and refrigerate.

For the cod:
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Liberally season both sides of fish with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
3. Depending on thickness, my cod fillets were a little over 1″ thick, cook the cod about 4 minutes per side, until edges are crisp and have a deep golden color.

Plating

1. Pour enough Gazpacho sauce to cover the bottom of a deep plate.
2. Drizzle olive oil around the sauce.
3. Spoon 1/2 cup to a 1 cup of salsa, depending on preference.
4. Top the salsa with a cod fillet and spoon 1 TBs. of black olive tapenade.

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Ever since my fish guy started offering only farm raised Tilapia, I’ve started using wild caught monkfish as a substitute fish. Yeah, monkfish has deeper flavor and thicker texture but I think if often works well as a stand-in.

In a pinch, I often make this dish for a quick weeknight dinner. Sans the rice, this dish can come together in less than 15 mins.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Monkfish
1 pound Monkfish fillet with membrane removed
1 lemon for garnish and drizzling
Rice
1 cup of long grain brown rice
2 cloves of chopped garlic
2 scallion, chopped
1 egg
Sauteed Spinach
1 10 oz. bag of baby spinach
3 cloves of garlic
pinch of red pepper

Extra virgin olive oil for sauteing and drizzling

Preparation

1. Follow the cooking directions on the package. I like to sometimes use chicken stock instead of water to get a richer flavor.
2. While the rice is cooking, chop up the garlic and scallion.
3. After the rice is cooking, empty into a large bowl and let cool.
4. Season well the monkish with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on the fish and set aside. You want to take the fish out about 30 mins. before cooking to get it to room temperature.
5. Heat a large saute pan over high heat and pour in 2 TBs of olive oil to coat the bottom.
6. Chop the garlic
7. After the pan is hot but not smoking, add the spinach. 10 oz. of spinach may appear to be a lot but it’ll wilt down. As the the spinach begins to wilt, stir and mix the leaves up. If the pan starts to dry and there’s not enough moisture for the spinach, you might add a little white wine or water to the pan.
8. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes into the spinach. Empty the spinach into a bowl, cover to keep warm.
9. Back to the rice, wipe the saute pan used for the spinach clean. Heat over medium/high heat and add 1 TBs of olive oil.
10. Season the rice with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and add the chopped scallions and one egg. Mix well.
11. Add the rice mixture into the hot saute pan and stir-fry for about 6 mins.
12. Meanwhile, heat a non-stick sauce pan on medium high heat, add 1 TBs of olive oil to coat the bottom.
13.Place the monkish into the pan and saute one side for about 4-5 mins. til nicely browned. Turn and saute for another 4 mins. So here’s the thing with monkfish and other thicker fish fillets. You often finish them in the oven so they don’t dry out. Well, with this monkfish, after the initial sauteeing of the 2 sides, I like to cut the fillet in half, lengthwise and throw the cut side back into the pan for about 1 minute. It beats heating the oven up.
14. Finish the fish off with a drizzle of lemon before removing from the pan.

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