Rick Stein’s cod with Puy lentils and red wine sauce recipe

“This recipe demonstrates how to pan-fry a thick fillet of fish with the skin on. Most of the cooking is done skin-side down over a moderate heat and only the last 15 per cent of the time is with the fillet turned over,” says world-famous chef Rick Stein. “This ensures that the skin has a pleasing brown colour and crispness. The other point of this dish is the French ideas of using Asian spices in a sotto voce manner in butter sauces. I think you will find the Puy lentils go very well here. Alternative fish: barramundi, blue cod, blue-eye trevalla, coley, haddock, hake, hapuka, Murray cod and pollock.”

Rick Stein’s cod with puy lentils and red wine sauce

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

4 x 175g pieces of thick skin-on cod fillet
75g unsalted butter
50g each onion, carrot and celery, finely chopped
A small pinch each of ground allspice, ground cloves and grated nutmeg
A large pinch of curry powder
600ml red wine
600ml chicken stock
1tsp sugar
1tbsp plain flour
Salt and black pepper

Lentils:
50g dried Puy lentils
300ml fish stock
1 clove and 1 bay leaf
2 slices of peeled onion
½tsp salt

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients for the lentils into a pan and simmer for 20-25 minutes until tender. Drain, then cover and keep warm.

2. Season the cod with salt and pepper. Melt 50g of the butter in a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat. When the butter is hot and starting to foam, add the cod fillets, skin-side down, and cook for 8 minutes without turning. Carefully turn to cook the white side for a couple of minutes, then remove the fish from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

3. For the sauce, add the chopped onion, carrot and celery and spices to the melted butter in the pan. Fry over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, then add the red wine, stock, sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil and boil until the sauce is reduced by three-quarters and is concentrated in flavour. Strain into a clean pan and keep warm.

4. Mix the remaining 25g of butter with the flour to make a smooth paste (beurre manié). Bring the sauce to the boil, then whisk in the paste a little at a time. Simmer for 2 minutes until smooth and thickened.

5. To serve, spoon the lentils on to 4 warmed plates and place the cod, skin-side up on top. Spoon the sauce around the lentils and fish.

Extracted from Rick Stein’s Cookery Course: Recipes and techniques from a lifetime in the kitchen. Published in hardback by BBC Books, priced £30.  Available October 29