This hearty, flavorful recipe - roasted cod on a bed of Mediterranean flavors - satisfies almost everything we crave mid-winter without being red meat. There are artichokes, kalamata olives, thinly sliced potatoes that turn crispy on the edges with roasting. There is rosemary. And there is white, flaky, olive oil drenched cod from the wintery waters beyond my window. Or, maybe a little farther north.
I live on Cape Ann, so I am incredibly fortunate to have access to locally caught, day-boat fish. “Day-boat” fish is just what it says: The fishing boat leaves and comes back all in one day. For the consumer, that means the fish wasn’t caught on an enormous fishing boat far out at sea, held in a hold for 4-5 days before enduring the wholesale machinations leading to its final resting place - exhausted - on a pile of ice in a case in your grocery store. Day-boat fish is landed and unloaded all in one day. The fishing boats themselves are smaller, actually unable to make long trips at sea, and often locally owned. They catch fewer fish but they do it more efficiently, and some say more gently. Subtract those days in a hold, and the math is simple; you are eating a fish four to five days fresher.
The most talented chef can’t make old fish taste good, and it’s almost impossible for a novice cook to make glistening, white day-boat cod taste bad. Poach it for 6-8 minutes in a salted water and lemon juice, and serve it beside garlicky red potatoes and steamed asparagus. Cover it in crumbled Ritz crackers tossed with melted butter, and bake it for 10 minutes in a 400 degree F. oven. If the cod - or hake, or halibut - is fresh, a simple preparation will always win at the judges’ table over Old Fish Newburg.
I contest that most people have forgotten - or never knew - what truly fresh fish tastes like. Honestly fresh fish is so difficult to find that we have become accustomed to the taste of fish that has traveled too many miles; while it doesn’t taste “bad,” it might taste “strong,” even “fishy,” and it will need more done to it to make it taste delicious. Truly fresh fish, as the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives famously say, has no smell at all. Zero smell. The fillets glisten, and they do not smell. Again, no smell.
I have been so frustrated by the lack of good, local fish in my grocery store and fish markets, that I began to say I was only buying fish from the back of someone’s truck, which I sometimes do. Sometimes a fisherman, who has set up a license to sell directly from their boat, will send a message through the community that they have a cooler of fresh scallops, or squid, or whatever the catch is. “How many pounds do you want? Meet me in such and such parking lot.”
Until Cape Ann Fresh Catch came along, the back of a fisherman’s truck was almost the only way to purchase local fresh fish, and that’s in the city that was once America’s largest fishing port. Cape Ann Fresh Catch is a Community Supported Fishery, or subscriber fresh fish. CAFC contracts with local day-boats, pays them up front, and the subscriber receives that week’s catch - every week - to be picked up at an assigned place. If you live anywhere in the greater Boston area, you can subscribe to this great service. The way Community Supported Agriculture is helping small farms, Community Supported Fisheries are supporting the few day-boat fishermen who are left.
To those of you reading this post far from a coastline, ocean or lake, I apologize for all this “fresh fish” prima-donna-ing. You are right; there are far greater problems in our food system than this gripe, and yet, in this small community that was once such an important fishing port, it is NOT a small gripe that the people who live here don’t have access to fish from our own waters. Complicated fishing policy is at work here, policies that look a like the ones that created industrialized agriculture. Here is a great book on the subject if you want to learn more.
If you do not have access to Cape Ann Fresh Catch or fishermen in a parking lot, I would not hesitate to prepare this recipe minus the fish - just the roasted vegetables as a bright, winter side dish or even a vegetarian entree.
I prepared this dish with one pound of cod, but I used the same amount of vegetables in the recipe, which calls for 2 pounds of cod. If you like lots of vegetables, don’t hesitate to double the amount when if you make them for 2 pounds of cod.
Roasted Cod with Artichokes and Cauliflower
Serves-4
Ingredients:
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced
1 small head cauliflower, chopped into 1” florets
1 12 ounce jar marinated artichokes
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 6 ounce cod fillets
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus slices for serving
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly oil an 11” x 14” baking dish. In a large bowl toss together the the potato slices, cauliflower, artichokes, olives, rosemary, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper in a large bowl. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking dish, and bake until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
Brush the fish with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Remove the baking dish from the oven, and lay the fish on top of the vegetables. Return to the oven and continue baking until the fish is opaque and the vegetables are golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Drizzle the fish with the lemon juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with lemon slices.