Monday, January 30, 2012

Salt Cod Dinner

This recipe took a little more planning than some of the others have. One thing that has been wonderful about this cookbook is the ease of preparation and cook time. You can pick a recipe and more than likely you'll have everything on hand in your kitchen and if you don't then you'll only have to pick up a couple items at the grocery store.

However, I do like it when she throws these types of recipes into the mix. She talks about preparing and serving a traditional Maine dinner. A complete meal.

"Probably no old-style Maine dinner brings more favorable comments than a salt codfish dinner. The salt codfish placed on a platter with pork scraps, surrounded with boiled potatoes of uniform size and small buttered or sliced beets, the fish topped with a plain or egg sauce, not only looks good but is good." 
                                                                                                                                  ~Marjorie Standish







My dad was just telling me the story of how his grandfather, my great grandfather, used to catch cod, salt it and hang it out to dry on the clothes-line. Then go up to it and peal off the skin as it dried. It was a sort of delicacy.

For this particular salt cod dinner I bought the cod already salted. The directions were to soak it overnight to freshen it up. But once the fish was soaked,  it was ready to go. I boiled the potatoes as a side, and lightly simmered the fish. The sauce was made from trying out salt pork and making a roux with the fat, adding milk and pepper.




The Serving suggestion in this particular recipe was to the fish on a platter surrounded by potatoes. The fish is topped with sauce and finely chopped fried salt pork. It looked delicious. If you're looking for a new fish dish to try out, give this one a shot. And write to me and let me know what you think!




Blue Elephant Cafe
12 Pepperell Square
Saco, Maine 04072
207-281-3070




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