Today’s meal is a lemon cod with sides that I already had in the freezer. The newer freezer side is a bag of ready-to-roast smashed Brussel sprouts. I really like Brussel sprouts but can’t consume the amount that you get fresh fast enough and they do not taste good reheated, so I thought I’d try out this frozen bag so I can pull out only what I want for one meal.
The recipe I used is supposed to be used with Haddock but it wasn’t available at my grocer so I simply picked a fish that I don’t tend toward (typically Salmon and Tilapia). However, lemon recipes are common in all fish as far as I’ve seen. You can find the original recipe here. I strayed from it quite a bit.
I didn’t broil. I baked. I’ve never broiled before and I wasn’t sure if the veggies and rice could cook that way. I wanted to cook it all at the same time. This might have been the fatal flaw as my fish turned out…overdone? It was chewy. The Brussel sprouts also cooked faster than the rice warmed which I hadn’t expected.
Steps I used to make this Lemon Cod:
First I preheated my stoneware with oil in the oven. I believe to 375 degrees. I used another fish recipe to set that time in combination with the Brussel sprout instructions.
Then I mixed up the lemon sauce per the recipe. I didn’t read the instructions well because I brushed the fish before cooking it with the mixture which was supposed to be applied after. It was a simple lemon sauce, except for the dried mustard, so I guess I assumed what my other recipe does and put it on first.
I also added some remaining mixture to the rice and Brussel Sprouts which were what I cooked in the bakeware. The fish was in a dish with aluminum.
How it turned out:
While ultimately simple, none of the cooking times worked out. The Brussel Sprouts, as you can see are very dark, though don’t taste burnt. The rice was still frozen in places. The fish was cooked but didn’t seem to absorb the flavor as well as in my similar Tilapia recipes and I must have overcooked it in the end as it was chewy.
I think the rice probably just should have been thrown away. It had been sitting in my freezer for quite a while and was nearly expired when I cooked it. It seemed still uncooked and flavorless even with the lemon juices added to it. I definitely can’t fault the recipe for any of this as I essentially didn’t follow the recipe at all. There was far too much improvising.
I had selected the recipe to try because I wanted to try a different type of fish and end the end I wound up with a very common type of fish. I’d like to add in a fish dish weekly or at least biweekly.
The Brussel Sprouts were good but had soaked up some strong lemon spots. I think a basic salt and pepper mix would have been best.
Comment below what your favorite fish dish is. I may give this one a proper try in the future if I can acquire Haddock. Until then I think I’ll turn back to skillet fish dishes for Salmon. I used to make a skillet Salmon that was caramelized back when I lived in Seattle, but I don’t remember what was on it anymore.