Here’s a simple recipe for a fish dish incorporating two sensational seasonals: skrei (Norwegian cod) and sanguinello (blood orange)
Skrei is cod sourced from the wild coastal waters of Norway’s far north between the months of February and April when it returns from the Barents Sea to spawning grounds near Lofoten and Vesterålen. Its epic journey through clean, cold waters makes for especially succulent and flavoursome meat. Skrei is without doubt the tastiest cod I’ve ever had.
My recipe for skrei and sanguinello (aka cod with blood orange, green olives and almonds) only has a few basic ingredients and really just involves panfrying the fish. Obviously, you can use other varieties of cod for this recipe. But skrei is especially skrei-uptious and if you can cook with it you’ll you be glad to have done so.
These instructions are for one fillet, but it’s easy enough to scale up without having to do anything more than account for proportion.
SKREI & SANGUINELLO Yum
Ingredients (for one serving)
- 200-250g (or so) fillet of skrei (preferably with skin on);
- 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil;
- Sea salt to taste;
- Juice of 1 blood orange;
- Juice of ½ lemon;
- Pinch of lemon zest;
- Chopped green olives to taste;
- Tablespoon of olive brine;
- Chopped almonds to taste (same amount as the green olives).
Method
- Make sure your fillet, olives and almonds are at room temperature before starting;
Mix about a tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt, the blood orange and lemon juices, the lemon zest, and the brine together is a deep bowl; - Place the fillet in the mixture;
- Add another tablespoon or so of olive oil with a pinch of salt to a pan and heat to medium-high;
- Place the fillet in the pan skin down and cook until the skin turns gold and crisp;
- Increase the heat;
- Pour in any remaining liquid from the mix;
- Turn the fillet over;
- Cook until the juice starts to caramelise;
- Plate the fillet and garnish generously with chopped olives and almonds, a sprinkle of salt and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve
Serve as a main course with a variety of sides (potato dishes would do particularly well). I imagine a glass of Chardonnay, a flute of dry Champagne, a lager or light ale would all pair nicely with this dish.
Read more tikichris recipes and be sure to check out all my #OhMyCod ideas. For more about skrei and lots of recipes and cooking tips, go to seafoodfromnorway.co.uk.
