Cod Provencal
Provencal doesn't have a particular recipe, but its food prepared in the style of cooking from the region of Provence in France. Provencal cooking uses ingredients that are naturally found in the region, such as extra virgin olive oil, garlic, olives, capers, thyme, fresh parsley, tomatoes.
This style of cooking is often used for chicken or whitefish, however I have very fond memories of my mother preparing Cod for me this way it was always one of my favourite meals as a teenager. In fact, writing this recipe has made me decide to cook it again quite soon!
The beauty of this dish is not only simple to prepare it's high in protein & relatively low in calories.
You can use any white fish that's firm, but my favourite is always cod. When choosing your fish for this dish remember to make sure all the portions of equal size and you're better to use a thicker rather than thinner piece. I do remember my great aunt using halibut for this dish, and I would think that fresh salmon would also lend itself to being cooked this way.
Ingredients serve 4.
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped.
1 medium onion either yellow or red peeled and sliced then cut in half.
Three or four medium size well ripened tomatoes cut into cubes.
5 sprigs of fresh thyme, keep one aside for decoration.
quarter of a cup a freshly chopped parsley preferably flat leaf
half a teaspoon of paprika
half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
half a teaspoon of good quality sea salt
4 loins of cod
Approximately 14 black olives pitted.
Approximately 2 tablespoons of capers
the juice of half a lemon
one teaspoon of cooking salt
one teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
Put the cod in a dish and drizzle them with lemon juice the cooking suit and black pepper on both sides, cover them and put them aside in a cool place or the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Put the olive oil in a large sauté pan with a lid, heat it over medium heat add the onions and garlic and cook them for about 3:00 to 4:00 minutes until they are slightly softened and translucent, it is important that they do not caramelise.
Add your chopped tomatoes parsley time paprika so and pepper reduce the heat put the lid on the pan and cook for about 12 minutes until the tomatoes are soft you probably would have to stare it every 5 minutes.
Add in the olives and the capers and stir.
Then take your card and place them evenly in the pan on top of the sauce, you can if you like garnish the fish with some more thyme.
Close the lid and cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the fish is just cooked through.
Fish continues to cook even when you turn off the heat, you do not want this overcooked because it will dry easily.
Adjust the seasoning with pepper and salt to taste,
Serve straight away, either on a bed of rice or the traditional way with French bread to soak up all the juices.
Watch point.
Don't be tempted to overcook the fish, really 5 minutes in the hot sauce will cook the fish to perfection!