Feel Feel Feel the Heat
Since M and I have been lighting the Shabbat candles with more regularity lately, I've been putting a little more thought into our Friday night dinners. Somehow, Indian food and Challah are a little offputting...not that it doesn't taste good or isn't kosher (we eat kosher meals on Friday nights), but it just seems incongrous to me.
I purchased a Jewish holiday cooking book a few weeks ago (the highly recommended Jewish Holiday Kitchen by Joan Nathan, but haven't tried anything specifically from it yet. There are some wonderful Shabbat recipes, many of which are of Sephardic origin (and hence somewhat foreign to me), and all of which look excellent.
However, yesterday as I contemplated what I was going to do with the rock cod filets that I had taken out of the freezer that morning, I started surfing Epicurious and came upon a recipe for "Braised Cod with Chickpeas" that reminded me of the yummy Sephardic shabbat recipes I had been reading about and could be made with ingredients I already had on hand.
This was definitely one of the better meals we've had lately, even though I can think of some improvements we'd make next time (see notes in recipe). It was spicy (red pepper) and comforting (chickpeas) and a great source of protein. Not to mention that cod is currently one of my favorite meaty white fishes. With some salt on the chickpeas (I wouldn't salt them while they cook) and a sprinkling of cilantro at the end, it looks like we've found another easy comforting dish, and a perfect complement to challah on Friday nights.
Read on for the recipe...
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas (you can soak and cook your own, but I've never had much success with that, and canned is SO much easier)
6 or 7 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
4 or 5 hot peppers or 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
6 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds, ground
2 pounds cod fillets, about 1 inch thick
salt
freshly ground black pepper
cilantro or parsley sprigs (cilantro! use the cilantro!)
lemon wedges
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Combine in a saucepan with the garlic, peppers or flakes, 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, and 1/4 cup of water. Bring the liquid to a simmer, cover the pot, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove and discard the whole peppers, if you used them. Add the cumin to the chickpeas and spread half the mixture in the bottom of a 9-inch-square baking dish. Place the fish on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and finish with the remaining chickpeas. Drizzle the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil over the top. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until the fish is just flaky but not falling apart; check after 20 minutes.
Serve the fish hot or warm, garnished with cilantro or parsley and lemon wedges.
Note: Our filets were noticeably thinner than an inch, so this went in the oven for 20 minutes and the fish was cooked perfectly. Next time we make the recipe we're going to add half a chopped onion and saute that and the garlic in a bit of oil before we add the chickpeas. I think this will help blend the flavors a bit more. Also, I forgot to put a cover on the dish before we cooked it, and everything was fine. It should be covered, though, so you actually DO braise the fish and blend the flavors.
Recipe from Epicurious.com