Saturday, February 28, 2015

Cod Veracruz on Lime Quinoa

Tuesday 24 February
What makes a fish Veracruz?  Mainly a tomato base (i.e. the half can of crushed tomatoes left from Sunday); some garlic, oregano, and jalapeño; the saltiness of pimento-stuffed green olives and capers; and a big squeeze of lime.  With that good a sauce, you can use pretty much any fish; in this case, a pound of defrosted cod collops from Trader Joe's.
You can be opportunistic, too.  We had a little tupper of fiery jalapeño salad from Whole Foods, so chopped up the carrot and celery from that, threw it in, and tasted.  The result was already so fiery, we didn't have to use any of the actual jalapeños.
You need something bland to sop up that sauce, and recently we've been experimenting, successfully, with quinoa.  It's as easy and quick as rice, but with more texture and wholesome graininess.  This time we flavored it with the zest from the lime we were juicing for the fish sauce, so it was a perfect match.

No comments: