Being an island nation we tend to be more conscious of our seas and the fish within them than perhaps landlocked countries. That said I have always wondered why, like the Japanese, we don’t eat more fish in our diet. Growing up my parents would always have fish on Friday, which was pretty typical of Christian families of their generation. Today however, I don’t wait for Friday to have fish and on average we probably eat seafood a couple of times a week.

I try to be as innovative as possible (see here for my post on foraging for cockles)  in the way that I prepare and cook it. Grilled or baked fish with a squeeze of lemon or fish pie is all very delicious but there are so many other ways to cook seafood that I hope the recipe that I will show you today will encourage you to give it a try and that it will become part of your culinary repertoire.

Recently I was contacted by LOAF App, (short for ‘love of all food’),  to come up with an exciting recipe focusing on the theme of ‘fusion’ that will go onto the app and be part of a competition (more about that in a moment). For those of you who have not yet heard of LOAF, it is a fabulous new recipe app, that is free to download, that has a wide range of recipes from bloggers and chefs, in a standardised format that is easy to follow and replicate at home. You can even add your own recipes and share them with other users. (Write ups on the app here and here).

LOAF is working in partnership with the MSC Fisheries Standard (Marine Stewardship Council) on an exciting campaign, which gets the public cooking whilst being more informed on which seafood we should be buying. As part of the competition I have focused on fish that has the MSC Fisheries Standard blue label (see photo above). My recipe is now live on the LOAF app site for you to cook at home. You then need to photograph your efforts of my recipe, put them up on the LOAF site and I will then judge the winner of who I think made my dish best. The winner will be awarded £75 worth of free food shopping from either Sainsburys (UK), Wholefoods (US) and Coles (Australia).

85% of the worlds’ seafood are either at capacity or over fished. Buying seafood therefore that has the MSC blue label sticker on it is something that we all need consciously to do if we are to protect our oceans for future generations. The label tells the consumer that the seafood product you are buying is ‘certified sustainable seafood’. Fisheries are assessed to check if they are well-managed and sustainable. I urge you to look at the following Youtube video explaining the Fisheries Standard’s principles and scoring.

The standard has been developed in consultation with scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups. Today we are all more conscious of food origin and therefore by buying MSC blue label food is a no brainer as it is fully traceable to a sustainable source. The MSC Fisheries Standard have also put together a product finder so that you can find sustainable fish and seafood wherever you are in the world. Take a look here to see how it works.

So the recipe that I have come up with takes 15 minutes max to prepare and half of that is making the paste. It’s origin is from Kerala and I recently watched a similar recipe being made. I have been doing something similar for years, albeit without the coconut addition. It is steamed as opposed to baked, grilled or fried. If you want to be truly authentic you can source a banana leaf to wrap it in, failing that baking parchment works just fine. Rice would be perfect to accompany this dish. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try and post your photograph up on the LOAF app site. EASY.

Coconut, Coriander and Mint Cod 

Paste ingredients

2 large handful of fresh mint leaves, stems removed

1 large handful of fresh coriander leaves, stems can remain intact

1 tsp of fresh grated ginger

1 tsp of grated garlic

1 green chilli, finely chopped

50g either freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut

 1 limes, juice only

salt, to taste

******

1kg cod loins (MSC blue label)

baking parchment

1. Put all the paste ingredients together in a blender to make a fine paste. Add salt to taste at the end.
2. Cut the baking parchment so that it wraps over the cod loin completely.
3. Place the paste all over the top of the fish and lay it in the centre of the baking parchment.
4. Carefully wrap the fish so that the ends are completely enclosed.
5. Warm a frying pan (or Indian tawa if you have one) and when it is hot lay the cod parcel onto the pan. It will cook by the steam that will be created within the parcel. After 4 minutes turn the fish parcel over for another 4 minutes. If it looks as if it needs a little longer leave it for another minute and it should be ready.

Note: You can also use banana leaf instead of baking parchment. If using a banana leaf you need to hold the leaf carefully over a gas flame in a sweeping motion so that it softens. Do this on both sides and then cut it down to size so that the fish can be completely covered by the leaf.

You can bake the fish in the oven (180 degrees) for 15 minutes if you prefer but I suggest wrapping the fish in baking parchment papillote style – see here so that it does not dry out and steams itself whilst cooking.