Ingredient of the Week

Fish As nights darken and the days are a little but cooler, we think about eating something comforting when we return home from work. This simple dish of smoked cod with buttery mash and peas fits the bill.

Poaching the smoked fish in milk is one of the best ways to cook it, not only does it gently warm the fish, the sugars in the milk add a slight sweetness to the flavour that you just can’t achieve with water. The most compelling reason to poach in milk however is that as your fish is cooking, the milk is becoming the perfect base for a sauce, taking on all the smoked flavours of the cod.

This is a very quick dish to prepare making it ideal for a midweek dinner – cooked from scratch this can be on the table in half an hour.

As our meals slowly move from salads in the garden to slow-cooked casseroles by the fire this dish is the perfect stepping stone. I have been making variations of it for years, originally with peat smoked haddock. The flavour is outstanding due to the traditional method of smoking, which involves the fish being suspended in smokehouses over slowly smouldering peat – the fish are then left overnight to be naturally infused with smoke.

If you wanted to make this a more substantial supper then top the smoked fish with a soft poached egg, the runny yolk is perfect and enriches the sauce. Finish with some freshly chopped parsley and you have a dish that I’m sure you’ll make time and time again. Enjoy.