Shallow Fried Cod with Vegetable and Saffron Risotto

Chica Andaluza

Ok, so the photo doesn’t do this dish much justice but I’m an honest Chica and I don’t have photoshop. We also eat ridiculously late so there’s no natural light. But what I show you is a delicious meal which would also be an amazing light vegetarian lunch or supper without the cod.

The risotto is creamy and delicately flavoured and, as a bonus, pretty healthy and low in fat too as it contains no cream or cheese. Granted, coating cod in flour and frying it in olive oil sort of cancels that out, but fish and olive oil are good for us, we all know that, so not only does this taste great it’s good for you too!

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Ingredients to serve 2 hungry people (and we’re always hungry)

  • 1 large piece of cod cut into about 6 large chunks and lightly coated in seasoned flour
  • About 150g risotto rice (I used carnaroli)
  • Approx half a litre of hot vegetable stock into which you dissolve about 5 strands of saffron
  • One roasted red pepper peeled and finely chopped
  • Half an onion finely chopped
  • 4 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic
  • 1 small courgette cut into fine dice
  • 1 large ripe tomato, peeled and finely chopped
  • About a dozen mangetout beans, finely shredded
  • Olive oil
  • Seasoning
  • Lemon to serve

The risotto is made in the usual way – start by softening the onion and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil, then add the pepper, tomato and courgette and cook until the courgette has softened. Add the rice and make sure it is coated in oil before gradually adding a ladleful of hot stock. Cook until the stock has been absorbed then add the next ladleful. Continue in this way until the rice is just starting to lose its bite.

At this point heat olive oil in a deep frying pan to a depth of about 1cm (you can also either deep fry or use less oil if you prefer). When the oil is very hot, gently lower in the cod pieces and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

While the cod is cooking add the shredded mangetout to the rice and a final ladleful of stock. Taste and season then place the cod on top of the rice. Turn off the heat and leave the rice to rest for a few minutes before serving with wedges of lemon to squeeze over.

56 thoughts on “Shallow Fried Cod with Vegetable and Saffron Risotto”

  2. Looks delicious Chica! I am visiting Barcelona from Australia at the moment and loving the food here very much.

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  3. I’m hungry just looking at the photo – and it’s only breakfast time.
    The fish makes me salivate and the golden colour – just gorgeous.

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  7. Exactly the kind of meal I’m craving at the moment – looks like pure comfort food, packed full of flavour and goodness!

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  8. Altho’ I have just has a very satisfying ‘putting all found in the fridge together with plenty of garlic and oyster sauce’ lunch were I able to reach into the screen – oh this is so my type of food! Luvverly!!!! And you have made it so simply in one pan: I have a habit of cooking the add-ons separately and adding during the last five minutes or so. This obviously worked so shall do it ‘your way’ over the weekend! I do add a glass of wine or verjuice after the onion has softened – perhaps am used to that little bit of extra flavour!! Absolutely lovely . . .

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  12. Oh that looks lovely! I’m making your fish curry this week. Might have to add these ingredients to next weeks list!

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  19. “Cod be praised!”…Every time I see a recipe with the ubiquitous cod in it, I instantly think of that Goodies episode with the cod wars and that HUGE cod that Graham grew that they ended up blowing up and turning into fish fingers. They don’t make kids programs like THAT any more now do they? ;). I think that you are putting a lot of faith in Photoshop Ms Chica…I have Photoshop but I can’t make my food pics look good unless I invest in back lighting, expensive props and a camera that sings the Hallelujah chorus all by itself as there is no WAY that this little black duck is going to go to school to learn to take photos of my humble offerings ;). Too much like hard work and pointing and clicking is the bomb 😉

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      1. Lets call it “old school” and you are hard and cool for shunning the manipulations of digital imaging…you just shoot it as you see it and give people the real thing, the truth of the image represented as nature intended it to be seen (is that working for you? 😉 ) The Goodies are a blast from the past and now that everything 70’s and 80’s is back “in” again, we can watch them with impunity knowing that we are even MORE hard and cool 🙂

      2. Fashions and trends eh? If you wait long enough something will come back into fashion (just like us ladies of a certain age)! I shoot from the (slightly ageing) hip and what you see is what you get!

      3. Shooting from the hip eh? You ARE a sly one! I tend to just point at anything vaguely in front of my face and that’s that. If it is lower, too bad…higher…too bad. That’s what chairs and sitting down was invented for. Pity getting back up and falling through chairs is SUCH a problem! ;). I wish I had kept my avocado and burnt orange kaftan now. I reckon I would have made a KILLING selling it to a vintage shop! 😉 My granny knitted purple poncho would have gone perfectly with it and my “long dress” that I wore to all the family weddings that was white with purple paisley print would have been fought over by fashionistas everywhere. I was SO far ahead of my time! 😉

      5. Because my vixen of a mother THREW THEM ALL OUT when I left home that’s why! Oh the looks of admiration that I would have drawn doing my fortnightly shopping in not only my gorgeous kaftan/poncho combo but my high cork wedgie heels as well! I could have teetered my way into high society if it wasn’t for the nefarious intervention of my bolshie mother…sigh… always a bridesmaid…never a bride…mutter…mutter…

      6. Mothers eh L Actually, mine was/is pretty funky and I do own at this moment in time two pairs of high cork wedgie heels. Can’t actually walk in them you understand (I look a bit like a bad drag artist teetering around) but the fact that they are in my possession makes me happy J

      7. Oh you LUCKY GIRL! I would just stroke them and remember the 70’s which unlike the 60’s you most probably remember with great clarity (I mean who could forget turning your ankle every damned week on those flipping cork wedgies eh?!) I wouldn’t be able to pull of the drag queen as they are adroit at strutting around on 2 foot high stilettos (KUDOS DRAG QUEENS!) I would just stand there staring off into the distance looking vague and interesting (my equivalent of Billy Connelleys “wind-swept and interesting” 😉 )

  21. Love your blog, in fact it is one of the few I follow on a regular basis, I just don’t have time to look at that many. Just wanted to let you know I put a link on my blog to yours since I enjoy it so much, I hope my readers will take a look as well. And I love cod, this recipe is going into my ‘gotta try this sometime’ file.

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