Baked Cod with Crispy Potatoes, Chorizo and Samphire
A very easy dish with a few simple ingredients that will knock your socks off!
I realised this week, although I’ve known for a while, that instagram is actually taking the joy and love out of cooking for me. The need to think about how a recipe will look in a video is just not something I want to have to factor in when I’m dreaming up recipes. The whole way Instagram works adds so much weird pressure and takes me further away from the thing I love to do…to cook! It doesn’t feel good to spend time worrying about views and likes - it can’t be good for us, it certainly isn’t for me. And a lot of the time I don’t wish to be a videographer, or a sound engineer or a video editor. So many of the glossy, perfect food videos that bombard us on Instagram look great, but how do they taste? Nine times out of ten I worry they wouldn't actually taste good. I want to bring the recipes I dream up in my head to life! I want to cook! I want to share the recipes I love and cook myself at home with you. So I have decided that I am just not going to feel bullied by instagram anymore. This is largely why I started the newsletter in the first place, as you will know. I don’t want algorithms and tech guys to decide if you see my recipes, I wanted a more personal way of being able to talk to you and be useful and have some kind of connection. All of this to say, I AM SO HAPPY you’re here and reading this and that Dinner Tonight exists and I get to share recipes with you every week. Honestly it’s the part of my working week I look forward to the most.
The sun appeared for a brief moment and it was glorious wasn’t it? Everyone had a spring in their step, the air felt tingly with the anticipation of a long hot summer…and then the rain came. And it never left. But it's okay! We are going to make our own summer with the food we eat. That’s the exciting and lovely thing about food - it can transport you to other places. Sometimes places you’ve been, and sometimes places you long to go. This dish is Spanish inspired in its flavours and it instantly transports me to Spain. So if you too are craving a little sunshine, make this immediately.
It’s very simple and requires just a handful of ingredients. Crispy golden chorizo and perfectly flakey cod sprinkled in a little paprika work so well - add in the crunchy smashed potatoes and a dijon spiked mayo and really truly this is just so good. I like to add samphire as it’s in season and I love it. If you can’t find it, tender stem broccoli or asparagus would provide a lovely bit of green as an alternative. Normally when serving samphire I would steam it - it doesn't take long at all but here I just bung it in the roasting tray and roast it for the final few minutes of cooking and it works perfectly. You know me, I love a shortcut, which I do but only one that works just as well as the longer method. I don’t want to cut corners and end up with something inferior but I’m all about finding ways to make your (and mine!) life easier in the kitchen.
I love this dish. I don’t always serve it with crispy potatoes, if i’m short on time I just boil the potatoes until tender while the cod and chorizo are cooking in the oven. I tend to peel the baby potatoes and then once I’ve drained them, toss them with butter or olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper and fresh finely chopped chives or parsley. So good and the soft buttery texture of the potatoes works really well. If you do it this way - you can have the whole thing on the table in less than 20 mins!
Or, you can get the crispy potatoes done ahead of time - if I had friends coming over and wanted to serve this, I would probably do the potatoes the day before and then just pop them back in the oven for 10 minutes to heat through and crisp up. Do not be afraid of reheating and getting ahead - I worked as a private chef for over 10 years and and let me tell you, I cooked and prepared absolutely anything I could in advance, it’s what we did in the restaurant too. So never be afraid of that and it means you're stressing so much less about timings etc. I still have nightmares about a potato dauphinoise that was requested by a client at the last minute - there wasn’t really time to get it done but I didn’t want to say no and watching the clock waiting for it to cook in time to serve for a dinner party still haunts me.
Serves 2