Cod Loin poached in a White Wine Sauce on a bed of Tricolore Conchigliette, served with a Soft-Boiled Egg in a Spinach Timbale.

Cod Loin poached in a White Wine Sauce on a bed of  Tricolore Conchigliette, served with a Soft-Boiled Egg in a Spinach Timbale.

This is my first recipe of the blog, I cooked this last night for Paddy and I and it went down rather well, clean plates all round! I created this dish myself, I usually use a little help from cook books but this one's entirely my own. I love a soft egg yolk with fish so I decided to try and bake it in a spinach tower, I was apprehensive whether it would stand up or not, but it did, hoorah! The sauce around the edge of the plate was meant to look a lot neater, nevertheless, it tasted nice and added a nice sour tang to the dish!

 

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)



2 Cod Loins
2 eggs
Bag of Spinach
Plain Flour (enough to coat fish)
Conchigliette (or pasta of your choice, rice would also be a nice alternative)
Fresh Basil and Parsley
5 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped (I use a lot of garlic so feel free to cut down)
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Orange Pepper, finely chopped
Olive Oil (I used Parsley infused Olive Oil)
1 Small glass of dry White Wine (I know a lot of chefs say don't use cheap wine and only use wine that you would drink yourself, but I can't afford to always use my expensive bottles in cooking and am equally happy to drink the rest of a bottle of cheap Pinot Grigio!)
1 Stock Cube (Chicken, or Fish)

This dish was actually an easy one to make, the only tricky part was the timings, I could have done with another pair of hands when it came to serving! I will try to take you through the steps as best as I can.

1. Pre-heat the oven to a medium temperature (about 180 degrees) Firstly, steam the spinach and set to one side, then with a good glug of oil in a frying pan or wok (make sure you have a lid, or in my case another frying pan, that fits over the top for poaching the fish later on) stir fry the onion, pepper and most of the garlic until browned/softened. Whilst doing this cook the pasta to pack instructions.
2. Add onion, pepper, garlic and as much oil as possible to the pasta once drained and mix. Either keep this on a low heat until ready to serve, but to avoid pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan I took it off the heat for a while and quickly warmed through before service.
3. Line two ramekins, bottom and sides with a finger of butter or oil the do the same with the drained spinach. Crack an egg into the well in the centre and place into the pre-heated oven. (You can put another covering of spinach over the egg so it is completely sealed in the spinach, but I didn't think of this at the time!) Keep an eye on this as the eggs don't take long. Alternatively cook them for longer if you prefer hard-boiled.
4. Using the same wok/pan as before add some more oil and the remainder of the garlic. Season the cod loins with salt and pepper and coat with a thin layer of flour. Fry in the oil on a medium to high heat for a minute then turn over. Add the fresh basil (saving some for garnish if you like) wine, stock cube and a small dash of milk. Mix the sauce around the fish and when the alcohol is mainly evaporated lower the heat, cover and simmer for a few minutes, until the fish is cooked through so that it is just flaky.
5. Remove the spinached eggs from the oven when they are cooked to your liking. Don't forget to gently push a knife around the sides of the ramekins before turning them out onto heated plates like I did the first time! Turn them out onto the plates, then add a circle of the pasta next to it, place the cooked fish on top then add the excess sauce however you like! Serve immediately, Bon appetit!



The moment of truth! This is the timbale that drooped!