Black Cod in Shiitake Broth with Pickled Fennel Salad

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Here is a sensational summer dish. This recipe tempers the richness of black cod with the acidic bite of a pickled salad and an earthy broth made by reconstituting dried shiitake mushrooms.  The cod steaks are first quickly seared in hot oil to crisp their skin and develop flavor, then gently finished in the oven.  A small pinch of potent dill pollen adds color and helps to bring the flavors together.

black_cod_shiitake_broth.jpgBlack Cod in Shitake Broth with Pickled Fennel Salad
Serves 6
Recipe courtesy of MarxFoods

INGREDIENTS:

Pan Seared Black Cod

  • 36oz of black cod fillets, cut into 6oz steaks
  • Dill pollen to taste

Shitake Broth

  • ½ Yellow onion
  • ½ Fennel bulb
  • 1 Cup dried shiitake mushrooms

Pickled Fennel Salad

  • ½ Fennel bulb
  • ½ Shallot
  • 1/8 Cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1/8 Cup champagne vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil



DIRECTIONS:

Preparing the Broth:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Pull apart the sections of the half fennel bulb and slice them very thin.  This is a quick pickle, so the thinner they are the better.  
  3. Finely dice the half shallot.  
  4. Pour both vinegars into a small saucepan and add the shallot.
  5. Simmer the vinegar for a few minutes until the shallot is cooked through.  
  6. Pour the hot shallot and vinegar mixture over the sliced fennel in a small bowl.  Cover the bowl and move the salad to the fridge to marinate while you work on other parts of the dish.  When the texture of the fennel is tender, but with a small crunch, remove the salad from the fridge and add the olive oil.  Lightly toss.
  7. Slice the other half of the fennel bulb and the half onion and sauté them with oil in a pot until translucent.  
  8. Add the dried shiitakes and enough water to cover.  
  9. Simmer the broth until the mushrooms have reconstituted and the liquid has become dark and fragrant.  
  10. Taste for flavor and season with salt & pepper.  When the strength of the broth is to your liking, strain out all the vegetables and mushrooms and discard, reserving the broth.

Preparing the Fish:

  1. Pour a small amount of high-smoke point oil into a frying or sauté pan with an oven-safe handle, and get the pan very hot.
  2. Salt each cod steak liberally and carefully place it skin side down in the hot oil.  Be careful to lay the fish in the pan starting with the edge facing you, so that any splashing hot oil caused by the rest of the fish hitting the pan will travel away from you.
  3. Once the skin has crisped, move the entire pan to your oven, and bake it at 400 degrees.
  4. While the pan is in the oven, reheat the shiitake broth.
  5. Once the cod has become opaque, remove the pan from the oven.  

NOTE: Warn everyone in your kitchen that the pan that has just come out
of the oven is extremely hot.  Most people assume that pan handles are
safe to touch, and this handle will be hot enough to burn.  Consider
leaving a towel laid across the handle as a visual warning.

Plating the Dish:

  1. Lay the cod steak skin-side up in a bowl and pour in enough of the hot broth in to surround it without touching the skin (lest it become soggy).
  2. Top the cod with the pickled fennel salad and a pinch of dill pollen. 
  3. Serve immediately.