Three Color Dish with Codfish

The main course is a dish for two, which was inspired by Claus Schlemmer’s cod arrangement and some other coincidences. One of them was the fact that yesterday at the market I could not resist the cod loin fillet and now got into utilization compulsion. Since Saturday evening is due to the parental Advent visit, there is enough time for a little preparation, which also gave the dish its name.

So I take

• 250g cod loin fillet
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tablespoons of white wine

and drape the whole thing under a piece of household paper for a day in the fridge (next time I’ll put some foil over it, so the fruit doesn’t smell of garlic!). The garlic soaks into the fish so nicely. To cook, I turn the whole thing over (without kitchen paper) and put the dish in the oven at 80°, where it should sit for 30 minutes covered with a few pieces of butter. I don’t want it quite as glazed as Claus' fish….

Done! Now I can take care of the other two colors. The planned risotto gets beet, in addition there are the outer leaves of the

• Spinach (400g raw weight),

which I actually bought for the spinach soup. This is conveniently already cleaned, so I can directly put on the rubber gloves and cut the beet into smallest cubes.

Here are the ingredients for the risotto

• 1 tuber of beet (80g), finely diced
• 1 spring onion, finely diced
• 1 sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons dried porcini mushrooms, soaked and finely diced
• 4 pimento seeds, mortared
• 150g risotto rice
• 80 ml white wine
• 400 ml chicken broth
• olive oil
• salt
• 20g parmesan
• 2og butter

I also peel a second beet tuber and put it sliced into the white wine, which then becomes red wine and provides extra color in the risotto. I cook the slices separately later for a salad the following day.

I now prepare the risotto in the classic way - sauté the onions, mushrooms and spices in a little olive oil, then add the rice and let it become transparent. Then add the wine and finally the broth in portions until everything is stirred in and boiled down. Of course, this takes 30 minutes, so I actually started too late, since the fish is about to call.

Thought I… After 30 minutes the fish is still almost cold, very raw and the butter on top is only slightly melted. Crap, how can this happen? Apparently I have to heat with convection for fish too, I missed that. Or the fish came too cold from the fridge? Anyway, now something has to happen, because the wife is already getting impatient and the risotto won’t wait forever now either. I help myself with a pan in which I put water and the Parmesan grater as a spacer. The fish goes on top without garlic and a lid over it. Then it just steams. This works wonderfully and the fish turns out exactly as it should in 10 minutes. Whew, again a breakdown balanced….

Now put it in the pan for 1 minute at maximum heat to give it a touch of crust!

Along the way I reduce

• 50 ml chicken stock
• 50 ml cream

to a thick consistency, add a few spinach leaves and grind everything with a magic wand. Strained through a fine sieve, it becomes a little decorative sauce.

In the last few minutes, I saute the spinach in a little olive oil, grate the Parmesan and add it to the risotto with the butter. In retrospect, I would say that for the beet variant even 10g of cheese would be enough, it somewhat crushes the flavor of the vegetables. However, the cod turned out very aromatic, now quite tender and flaky and giving off a light but spicy garlic scent. This is what steamed fish must be like!

Quickly drape everything on the preheated plates and quickly made the obligatory blog photo, then we let it taste.

skrei filet with garlic, purple beetroot risotto, very green sauteed spinach