Cod with sausage and shellfish. Quick. Easy. Dinner

I’m doing something very similar to this tomorrow night for some friends. Where I’m going to vary it, is to give it a Moroccan twist with the addition of some fresh Merquez lamb sausage and some preserved lemon slices.

I’ll prep the cod steaks and have the bread crumbs at the ready with the oven preheated.

Just before the cod goes into the oven, I’ll start to pan saute the lamb sausage with some sliced sweet onions in some extra virgin olive oil and minced garlic. When that’s beginning to get happy, with a splash of white wine, I’ll put the cod into the oven.

Then I’m going to add the shellfish, the sliced preserved Moroccan lemons and a rich tomato broth made with seafood stock. The chef uses chicken stock which is also good, but I want a really deep oceanside taste going on. Knowing me as I do - and why shouldn’t I? - I’ll probably be tempted to toss in some sort of vegetable like chunks of zucchini and some dark olives to the mix. Probably a anchovy fillet or two as well to deepen the flavor components.

The plating and presentation will be the same.

We’ll have a green salad with fresh oranges and almonds - in my light, homemade viniagarette dressing to start, along with some freshly baked multigrain popovers. Accompanying the main dish will be some escalloped potatoes. The fish dish will be pretty rich, so pairing it with something very simple like the potatoes is key.

To finish, a twelve whole grain Meyer lemon cake with a lemon glaze and Peet’s coffee (of course!).

New Zealand 'Green Lipped' Mussels Gumbo

The grocery shopping expedition yielded some excellent, fresh okra and some wonderful, fresh New Zealand ‘green lipped’ mussels - which we like in a seafood broth with sausage and some vegetables. It’s a great thing to dunk artisan bread into.

Besides being fast, easy and healthy, it’s also fairly light on the budget and waistline. The mussels were $5.99 a pound and with the vegetables and sausage (another couple bucks for fresh, in-house made Marquez lamb sausage ) it’s not too expensive considering we fed three adults. Nobody went hungry.

It’s a simple matter of prepping the vegetables

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