Dish 1 - Honey mustard rosemary roasted chicken
Dish 2 - Asian chicken skewers with peanut sauce
Dish 3 & 4 - Teriyaki salmon, Chirashi Sushi
Dish 5 - Vietnamese-style Honey Pork & Rice Noodle Salad
The final product I'm sharing from Sasha's Fine Food is skinless cod fillet from Keohane's of Bantry. This is a small, award-winning fish family-run company in the town of Bantry, County Cork, nestled in the south-west of Ireland on the edge of the Atlantic coast. The fish from Keohane are sourced from the local area and the freshness secured in a unique skin-filmed packaging.
This particular cod is different from the ones we are used to locally. The one we normally see here is in fact Chilean Sea Bass or many people call it "Snow Cod". The texture is softer, more flaky and it's a very oily fish, commonly steamed or pan-fried.
Whereas the one from Keohane is the Atlantic Cod, where the texture is much firmer with more bite, and it's much leaner as well. It reminds me of the Bird's Eye brand of Cod Fish Fingers that I used to adore when I was young.
Recently I participated in a Cooking Contest and it got me intrigued with western cuisine as well as food plating. So what better opportunity to practise, by using the 2 pieces of cod fillet.
Herb crusted fish fillet seems to be a common way of cooking fish fillets; I've never tried it before, but it's actually very easy. Simply sprinkle the cod fillet with some sea salt and black pepper on both sides, pan fry for a minute on both sides to get some colour, top the fillet with a blended mixture of panko bread crumbs, sweet basil, parsley, parmesan and olive oil, and finally air-fry (or bake) the fillet till cooked and golden brown. I chose to serve the cod with some grilled vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, bellpeppers and cherry tomatoes, with a drizzle of olive oil and caramelised balsamic vinegar.
I like how the dish turns out, the crispy crust works very well with the cod fillet, providing a varying texture to the fish in each bite. Also love the grilled vegetables and I thought the caramelised balsamic vinegar adds a nice touch, enhancing the natural sweetness of the vegetables.
In terms of plating, I'm not satisfied with how the dish looks overall, probably the plate is a tad small and the combination of ingredients look too busy. Well, gonna try again.
Worried that my picky kiddo won't accept the herb crusted fillet, I used a different method of cooking for the other piece of cod. This is more like breaded or fish & chips style, definitely more welcomed by kids. Likewise it's pretty easy to prepare, sprinkle both sides of fillet with salt and pepper, coat the fillet with corn starch followed by egg and then a mixture of cereal, panko breadcrumbs and parmesan, finally shallow-fry till cooked and golden brown. My kiddo loves creamy potato so that's the choice of carbo for him.
For the creamy potato, first slice the potato and steam till cooked, mash the potato with some butter and whipping cream, finally add salt and pepper to taste. The cod fillet seems too dry so I also made some avocado yogurt mint sauce to go with it.
My kiddo loves the cod fillet. He doesn't like our local snow cod at all but this is accepted by him (but of course salmon is still his utmost favourite fish).
This post concludes all the 4 product features from Sasha's Fine Food. It has been great fun cooking with such excellent quality products and really an honour to be able to work with the company.
Looking forward to more cooking and baking adventures ahead!
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