Cod Recipes: Baked, Pan-Fried, Confit and Fish Cakes

These cod recipes are the ways I cook cod at Casa Adora, 160km from the sea: baked, pan-fried, poached and confit, turned into fish cakes, or soaked from salt cod. I write for a mostly UK audience, so these are cod fillet recipes and cod loin recipes you can make with the pieces you'd find at a good fishmonger or supermarket counter, most of them cooked for one.

Cod is one of the most forgiving fish in the kitchen. It is mild, it flakes into big pearly pieces, and it takes to almost anything: a crisp crust, a cream sauce, chorizo and potatoes, or nothing more than good olive oil. The recipes below are grouped by how you want to cook it.

Jump to: How to Cook Cod · Baked Cod · Pan-Fried and Roasted Cod · Cod in Cream Sauce · Spanish Cod · Poached and Confit Cod · Fish Cakes and Salt Cod · Lighter Cod · What to Serve with Cod

How to Cook Cod

Start with the cut. A cod loin is the thick, chunky piece from the middle of the fish, and it forgives a little overcooking. A cod fillet is thinner, especially towards the tail, so it cooks faster and needs a closer eye. Either way, cod is ready when it turns opaque and flakes into large, moist pieces. Take it off the heat just before you think it is done, because it carries on cooking on the plate.

Fresh cod is only half the story in Spain. Bacalao, salt cod, is a different ingredient altogether and has to be soaked first, which is why it has its own section below. If you are lucky enough to find Norwegian skrei in season, it is worth buying, and there is a recipe for that too.

Where I buy my cod. Fresh cod comes from the fishmonger or the supermarket, and occasionally from Marta's village store. The frozen and salt cod I order online from Bacalalo, a specialist cod stall in the Mercat del Ninot in Barcelona. It isn't cheap, but it's very good, and it's where the Icelandic salt cod in my salt cod fish cakes came from.

Baked Cod Recipes

The easiest way to a good baked cod recipe is to protect the fish: a crust, a sauce, a foil parcel or a bed of vegetables. All of these keep the cod moist in the oven.

• Parmesan Crusted Cod – A crisp garlic-parmesan breadcrumb crust over a moist fillet, twelve honest minutes in the Casa Adora oven.
• Cheesy Baked Cod – A comforting, bubbling traybake with a tomato-and-pepper base.
• Cod Parcels en Papillote – Steamed in foil to perfection with saffron rice for a foolproof Friday feast.
• Roasted Cod Loin and Halloumi with Minted Pea Purée – Cod loin and halloumi straight from the outside kitchen oven, with baby sweet peppers and a vivid minted pea purée.
• Cod Timbale Recipe with Leek Mash and Cheddar – Cod folded into leek mash, formed in a ring mould and topped with mature cheddar and roasted red pepper.

Pan-Fried and Roasted Cod Loin

A thick cod loin is made for a hot pan and a short rest. These are the pan-fried and roasted cod recipes, including a couple from my son Danny, who buys his fish at Grimsby market.

• Pan-Fried Cod Loin – A simple, golden sear on buttery mash that lets the quality of the fish speak for itself.
• The Cod Has Come from Norway (Skrei) – Celebrating the arrival of the seasonal, pearly-white 'King of Cod'.
• Danny's Roasted Cod with Beluga Lentils, Asparagus and Endive – The most composed plate in the series: roasted cod on dressed beluga lentils with charred asparagus and caramelised endive.
• Danny's Roasted Cod with Chorizo and Potatoes – Cod loin roasted on a bed of sliced potatoes, cooking chorizo and white onion, finished with a rough parsley and garlic salsa.

Cod in Cream Sauce

A lemon cream sauce is one of the kindest things you can do to a piece of cod. It stays moist, and the sauce does the work. Both of these are elegant and unfussy.

• Baked Cod in Lemon Cream Sauce with Capers and Shallots – Cod baked in a rich lemon cream sauce with capers and shallots.
• Cod or Hake in Lemon Cream Sauce – Cooked in a luxurious, creamy lemon sauce.

Spanish Cod

Cod with chorizo, peppers and tomato is as much Iberian as it is British. These are the Spanish and Portuguese-leaning cod recipes.

• Danny's Cataplana — Cod, Clams and Chorizo – Cod, clams, prawns, potatoes and cooking chorizo sealed in a copper cataplana and left to do its work.
• Danny's Roasted Cod with Chorizo and Potatoes – One ovenproof pan, cod loin, cooking chorizo and sliced potatoes, with the chorizo fat doing all the work.
• Spanish-Style Cod with Peppers and Olive Oil Broth – Cod thawed overnight in the van fridge and cooked in a saffron-gold olive oil broth with red peppers and tomato, in one pan.

Poached and Confit Cod

Cooking cod slowly in olive oil is the most forgiving method of all. The fish stays silky, and it is almost impossible to overcook. This is the confit cod recipe.

• Cod Loin Poached in Early-Harvest Olive Oil — Black Beans, Confit Garlic & White Asparagus – Icelandic cod loin poached at 60°C in Montetucci early-harvest olive oil infused with confit garlic and lemon peel, rested on warm black beans with white asparagus alongside.

Fish Cakes and Salt Cod

Salt cod is cod preserved in salt, and it has to be soaked and rinsed before you cook it. Done properly, it makes the best cod fish cakes, and it has a long history on the Spanish table.

• Salt Cod Fish Cakes Recipe with Leftover Mash and Caramelised Onions – Icelandic salt cod soaked, poached and folded into leftover mash with slow-cooked red onions, crumbed in buckwheat sourdough and fried in olive oil.
• Ancient Egyptian Recipes — Salt Cod with Herb Dressing – Bacalao soaked and dressed with garlic, parsley, coriander, cumin and lemon.

Lighter Cod Recipes

If you want cod without the cream or the cheese, steaming and poaching are the answer. The cod parcels en papillote keep the calories down and the flavour up, and the roasted cod with beluga lentils is a plate with plenty of vegetables and pulses alongside.

What to Serve with Cod

Cod likes something soft and something sharp. In this kitchen it comes with buttery mash, a minted pea purée, saffron rice, beluga lentils with asparagus, or black beans and white asparagus. A crisp rocket salad with a lemony dressing is the easy option for the richer, cheesier recipes.

If you've enjoyed these cod recipes, you can buy me a coffee ☕ — it helps keep the site going.

Footnote

These cod recipes are part of my Inland Fish and Seafood hub, a collection of resourceful ways to prepare the sea's bounty from the heart of rural Spain.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef