honey soy glazed cod

with soy butter rice and braised greens

Click here for the WTC recipe index, and scroll to the bottom of this post for a printer-friendly version of today’s recipe.

---

I have to admit something.

When I served my family this meal a few days ago, my oldest son, Mattis, said verbatim: “Mama, it’s not nice to eat fish! Why are we eating fish! We have to bring the fish back to the ocean! They’ll DIE if we eat them!”

Yep. My own child doesn’t even know that eating fish is a normal thing. Meaning that, while I have bemoaned in the past about how you should all be cooking more fish at home — I clearly am not practicing what I preach. Mind you, we do cook salmon at home somewhat regularly … but we call it “pink chicken” in a vain attempt to convince him to consume it.

P.S. Since I know all of the parents of small children are wondering: Mattis (age 3 1/2) ate all of his rice, a few bites of the kale, and zero bites of fish. Calum (age 2) ate absolutely everything, and then half of my plate, which I hadn’t touched yet because I was busy feeding Cash (age 0). Sound about right?

---

so how can I convince you to cook this even though I never cook fish either?

Lemme lay this out for you:

• It is outrageously delicious. Seriously. You will feel like a freaking rockstar cooking this. It’s restaurant quality.

• It’s so fast. Takes 30 minutes to cook. Use frozen rice to make things even faster.

• You will probably only have to buy three ingredients: the fish, the greens, and fresh ginger.

• Cod is not “fishy” tasting. It is even less “fishy” here, where it is enveloped in a sweet and salty sauce.

• No, it won’t stink up your house. We are sort of poaching it in the sauce, not searing it, so fishy plumes of smoke will not be wafting up out of your skillet and into your upholstery.

• How do you buy fish? Re-read this old WTC article. In sum: Try to find a local fish market. Otherwise, buying frozen fish filets at your grocery store is usually your best bet since the “fresh” fish behind the meat counter has typically been frozen then unfrozen for them to display. So buying frozen fish and thawing it yourself right before you cook is likely the fresher option. To thaw frozen fish, place it in its vacuum sealed packing in a bowl of room temperature water. It should be thaw in about 20 minutes!

• Afraid of fish bones? All the more reason to buy your fish from a fish market (aka a “fishmonger”). Ask them to remove all of the bones! If you do get home and notice bones (run your fingers all over the fish before cooking it to check for them), just use your fingers or some tweezers to pull them out.

• If I still haven’t convinced you to cook fish, the substitutions this week are plentiful (steak, shrimp, chicken, tofu — there’s something for everyone!).

---

restaurant-quality flavors

The flavors in this meal are insane. First, we sauté the ginger and garlic to bring out their maximum flavor, then stir in soy sauce, honey, butter, and lime juice for an obscenely addictive salty-sweet-smooth-tangy sauce that you won’t believe came out of your kitchen.

It’s light and refreshing while simultaneously being a total flavor explosion.

And I promise: Even if you think you hate kale, you’re going to like this. The way it soaks up the sauce!

---

fish lovers unite

Do you cook a lot of fish? Please share with the class! What are your favorite ways to cook it? Any tips and tricks? Where do you get it? We all need to be eating more fish — help us!

---

honey soy glazed cod

Serves 4

Cook time: ~30 minutes

Tools (my favorite tools linked below, as always!):

• Small saucepan or rice pot

• Microplane or box grater

• 12- to 14-inch nonstick skillet

Soy butter rice:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 1 garlic clove, peeled (we’ll grate it right into the saucepan!)

• 1 1/2 cups sushi rice, rinsed (you can use any white rice here — and yes, brown also works, see the notes below the recipe)

• 1 3/4 cups water

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce