Wild Norwegian Cod with Braised Celery and Potatoes
Since it’s celery week (I guess?), and I had a head of celrey that needed to be used, I decided to go on ahead and indulge Child Tester’s (CT’s) need for fish while I braised some veggies! If there’s stuff I used that you don’t have and don’t want to get, please just omit or replace with what you’ve got that you think would taste good. This is meant to be more “method” than “do what I say,” for sure!
Although it doesn’t look like this, this really was a lazy meal. I basically just had to cut some veggies and periodically visit the pan, and it was super delicious. Celery was cooked but crunchy, potatoes soft without mush, and the fish was perfectly steamed. I will definitely be making this again, and a lot of times!
Here’s what you’ll need!
1 pound fish (your choice, but I used cod because it came in my delivery box)
1 head of celery, sliced into 1-2” pieces (include leaves)
1 big-ish shallot (or 1/4 large onion), sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, trimmed, smashed, and peeled
2-ish inches of turmeric, sliced thinly along the bias
1 pound of potatoes, cut into pieces
peel and juice 1 bigger lemon or 2 small lemons
2 sprigs of mint
salt and pepper to taste
1/2-3/4 cup of white wine you’ve got leftover
14-ounces broth or stock of some kind (I used canned chicken, you do you)
Here’s what you’ll do!
Put all your veg in a 12-inch pan with high sides (I used my favorite cast iron) or a pot, Dutch oven, or whatever cooking vessel you feel like dirtying. Mix them up together, then add all the liquids. You can see from where my finger is that it goes about half-way up the veg.
Put your lid on… well, put a lid on. That pan doesn’t have a lid, so I just steal the one from my big DO. Whatever, you can use foil too or whatever you have on hand to help keep the liquids in. Turn your stove onto medium-low and let it do a slow simmer for about an hour. When the veg still have some texture but are cooked, go on ahead and remove the sprigs of mint, lemon peel, and the turmeric slices, then add your fish for steaming, as such:
I only put salt on that fish, because CT doesn’t like much by way of black pepper and the veg got an almost decent dusting. Oddly/happily, she put pepper on her own serving, and way more than I’ve ever seen her use before! I also forgot to remove the lemon, sprigs, and turmeric. I’ll just have to do that while serving it, I suppose. Either way, lid again, give it 5 more minutes, cut the heat, let it rest another five minutes with the lid on. If your filets are thin, do 2 minutes with a 5 minute lidded rest.
A less sluggish person than me would move all that food out of the pan and then cook the braising liquid down into a sauce. If you like thicker sauces like gravy, you could do that with this, too. We drank the braising liquid as broth, though.
