Cook and Drink

“Perhaps you would like to try ling? It’s similar to cod, perhaps more delicate.” We’re always happy to try something new, so we said “yes” to our fishmonger and bought a nice slice of ling. It’s an impressive fish with a length of 200 cm and its weight can be 30 kg. There is no data available on the size of the population per region because it’s a solitary, deep water species, which makes it a ‘fish to avoid’.
We prepared the ling and unfortunately it wasn’t our most successful kitchen experiment. Taste and texture were very good, the combination with blue cheese didn’t work and frying ling turned out to be a mistake. Next time we will stew ling in a green sauce, like Paling in ‘t Groen (Eel in Green or Anguilles au vert) we decided.
A few days later.
“We would like to have some ling please.”
“Sorry, no ling today.”
“Ah, pity! What would you suggest as an alternative?”
“Cod!”, our fishmonger said, smiling.
Since eel is critically endangered, we decided to make Cod in Green.

Wine Pairing

Lots of fresh, aromatic flavours in this dish, making it light and uplifting. We would suggest a glass of Chardonnay, perhaps one with a touch of oak. We decided to open a bottle of Coteaux Varois en Provence rosé, produced by Estandon and made with grenache, cinsault en syrah grapes. Fruity, a touch spice and with a great finish.

What You Need

• For the Sauce
  • Watercress
  • Parsley
  • Chervil
  • Dill
  • 50 ml Double Cream
  • 100 ml Fish Fond
  • 65 ml Noilly Prat
• For the Fish
  • 200 grams of Cod
  • Butter

What You Do

Combine cream, fond and Noilly Prat. Stir well and reduce until it thickens. This may take 15 minutes or more. In parallel remove the stems of a generous amount of watercress and chervil. Be less generous with the parsley. Add some dill. Poach this for 20 seconds in boiling water. Remove and transfer to an ice bath. Drain and blender until you have a smooth, green mixture. When the sauce starts to thicken, fry the cod in butter until it’s nicely browned and opaque. Four minutes before the cod is ready, add the green mixture to the reduced sauce and warm through and through. Do not boil.
Add the sauce to a deep plate and serve the fish on top of the sauce. Garnish with chervil.