Blue-eye cod recipe: a simple carrot puree done right

Blue-eye trevalla turned up at the fish co-op in Nelson Bay last Tuesday looking better than it had in weeks, firm flesh, clean smell, skin still glossy. That’s the fish I want you cooking this weekend, and I want you cooking it properly, not poaching it in stock because some cookbook told you fish is delicate. Blue-eye is a robust fish. It can take heat.

This blue-eye cod recipe is one I’ve made a hundred times over the years, first in restaurant kitchens around the Hunter where you didn’t have the luxury of overcomplicating a fish dish because the pass was already chaos, and now at home on a Sunday when I’ve got the time to do it slowly instead of fast. Same result either way. Crisp skin, a puree with actual body to it, and nothing else fighting for attention on the plate.

Why blue-eye cod is worth the price

It’s not cheap, I’ll give you that. But it’s a dense, meaty fish that holds together in the pan instead of flaking apart the second you look at it sideways, and the skin crisps up better than most white fish going. The Australian Dietary Guidelines put fish on the menu two to three times a week for good reason, and if you’re only going to buy the good stuff occasionally, blue-eye is one worth spending on. Have a look at eatforhealth.gov.au if you want the actual guidance rather than my opinion on it.

Getting your pan properly hot

This is where most people go wrong and it’s not really about the fish at all. Get your pan properly hot before the fillet goes anywhere near it, a heavy stainless or cast iron pan, oil shimmering, and don’t crowd it. If you put a cold fillet into a lukewarm pan you’ll get grey, sweaty skin instead of the crackling bronze you’re after. I’ve watched cooks turn the heat down the second the fish starts to sizzle because they panic about burning it. Don’t. Trust the pan, trust the fat, and leave the fillet alone for the first few minutes so the skin actually renders and crisps rather than sticking and tearing when you try to flip it too early.

The carrot puree bit nobody bothers with

Carrot puree gets treated like a garnish, something you swipe across the plate for the photo. Done properly it’s a genuine sauce in its own right, sweet, buttery, with enough salt and acid running through it to hold its own against a rich piece of fish. The trick is cooking the carrots slowly in butter and a splash of stock rather than boiling them in water and hoping for the best, then blitzing while they’re still hot so the puree stays silky instead of grainy. A stick blender does a passable job. A proper high-speed blender does it better, and honestly, if you’re going to the trouble of a good fish, don’t muck about with a puree that’s got bits through it.

Ingredients

• 4 x 180g blue-eye cod fillets, skin on, pin-boned
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 20g butter, plus 40g extra for the puree
• 1 lemon, half juiced, half cut into wedges
• Sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper
• 500g carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
• 1 small brown onion, finely sliced
• 250ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 60ml pouring cream
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 2 tbsp salted capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

1. Melt the 40g of butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat and add the onion. Cook gently for 5 minutes until soft but not coloured.
2. Add the carrots and stock, bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 18 to 20 minutes until the carrots are properly tender, not just cooked through but soft enough to mash with a fork against the side of the pan.
3. Tip the carrots, onion and any remaining stock into a blender, add the cream and nutmeg, and blitz until completely smooth. Taste as you go and add salt gradually, carrots vary a lot in sweetness and you don’t want to oversalt them. Keep warm.
4. Pat the fish fillets dry with paper towel, this matters more than people think, and season both sides with salt.
5. Get your pan properly hot over medium-high heat with the olive oil. Lay the fillets in skin-side down and press gently with a fish slice for the first 20 seconds so the skin doesn’t curl away from the heat.
6. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes without moving the fillets, until the skin is deeply golden and crisp and you can see the flesh has turned opaque about two-thirds of the way up.
7. Add the 20g of butter and lemon juice to the pan, flip the fillets, and baste for another minute or two until just cooked through. Remove from the heat.
8. Spoon the warm carrot puree onto plates, sit the fish on top skin-side up, scatter with capers and parsley, and finish with a wedge of lemon on the side.

Serving it up properly

I like this dish on its own with nothing more than a green salad or some blanched greens dressed simply, because the puree and the fish are already doing the heavy lifting. If you want a proper plate for a Sunday lunch, have a look at how to build a balanced plate without dieting, it’s the same logic I use in the kitchen, protein, something from the ground, and don’t overthink the rest.

A variation worth trying

Swap the capers and parsley for a spoon of salsa verde if you’ve got some knocking around, the one from our chargrilled chicken with salsa verde recipe works just as well over fish as it does over chicken, and it brings a sharper, herbier note against the sweetness of the carrot. If blue-eye isn’t in at your fishmonger, barramundi or a firm snapper fillet will both do the job, have a look at our barramundi with fennel and orange or herb-crusted snapper with crushed peas for other ways to treat a good piece of fish without fussing over it.

My contrarian bit, for what it’s worth: I don’t rate steaming fish as the healthy option it’s spruiked as. You lose the skin, you lose the Maillard reaction, and you end up with something that tastes like it apologised for existing. A hot pan and good technique gets you a healthier meal than most steamed dishes anyway, minus the sad grey skin. Have a read of healthdirect.gov.au on the benefits of oily and white fish generally, it backs in eating more of it regardless of how you cook it, within reason.

Get the pan hot, don’t rush the puree, and taste as you go. That’s the whole recipe really, the rest is just carrots and a good fillet of fish.

— Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen