Fish for the New Year #1: Pacific Cod in Coconut Milk Sauce

[Note: pictures to follow]

Fish! Versatile, agreeable, healthy (omega 3's and 6's!), and delicious. What's not to love? Part one of an I'm-not-sure-how-many part series for 2009 celebrating that adorable un-meat called fish!

Pacific cod is a white, moderately dense fish that responds well to steaming, baking, and even frying. You may remember cod from such memorable wonders as Fish 'n Chips, Cioppino, and the cod-piece. It's also usually half the price of its fresh caught child-prodigy younger brother, Pacific Halibut. There's a good reason for that. Cod, like other fish from the family Gadidae, each produce several million eggs at spawning, making them highly prolific in their habitats and very commercially fishable. Cooked correctly and with care, basic steamed cod comes out pearly white with fleshy, thick pieces of meat separating easily at the grain. Add a little lemon juice, and viola!


On Monday night, Ngoc and I opted to cook a beautiful, fresh 1.8 lb. fillet of cod with a spicy coconut milk sauce. Warning, this recipe is not for the faint of heart. Its a veritable ground zero of ingredients.
Baked Cod in Spicy Coconut Milk Cream Sauce

The Fresh:

2 lb. Cod fillet

2 cups chopped onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. finely chopped ginger (not dry!)

1 tsp. minced serrano chile

1 cup diced tomatoes

4 tbsp. juice of lemon

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

The Dry:

6 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper powder

1/4 tsp. turmeric powder

1/2 tsp. fennel seeds, preferably ground (or whole)

1 tsp. salt

The Uncategorized:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 tbsp. cider vinegar

Add oil to a pan and cook onions over medium high heat until starting to brown. Add garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds. Add ginger and green chile, cooking for another two minutes. Add tomatoes, dry ingredients, and cider vinegar and saute until tomato chunks break down. Add coconut milk and simmer for another 5-10 minutes on lower heat until sauce thickens.

Meanwhile, rub the cod with the lemon juice on each side and place in a lightly oiled baking dish (cut the fillet in half if you have to!). Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove cod from over and cover with coconut milk sauce. Cover tightly with foil and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Serve over a carb of your choice, gently sprinkling cilantro over fish before serving.


We actually ate the fish over a smear of mashed creamer potatoes. For those of you unwise to the ways of mashed potatoes, never make them without (1) garlic and (2) cheese! It will change your life.

Also adding to the antics that night was our realization, mid recipe, that our can of coconut milk had separated and gone bad. Canned food going back, wtf? That's where I made a clutch call that if we added a bit of cider vinegar, and a shot of lemon juice, the sauce would be wet enough to eat without coconut milk. Not so. the dry ingredients and serrano really make the sauce inedible without the milk to temper the spiciness. So I threw on some shoes and made a safeway run in record time, salvaging the night and the fish!