Cod with Atlantic Prawns & Brandy Cream Sauce

My traditional July 4th dinner is a huge pile of ribs shared with friends, but I did that yesterday…as the Colonial Beach had their fireworks yesterday.

So for my 4th of July dinner this year, I decided to flip through my new cook book, Wild Atlantic. A book written by a local chef (local, if you live in Kenmare, Ireland). Since cod is a BIG staple in Ireland, I wanted to do something with cod, since I can get it at our local grocery.

I actually settled on a recipe called Dover Sole with Atlantic Prawns & Brandy Cream Sauce, with Spinach & Mushrooms. It’s actually a hybrid of two toppings the author offered. I had made cream sauces before, but never with brandy. And, yes, I used Cod instead of Dover Sole. Not a lot of Dover Sole around Colonial Beach. My recipe has many of the same ingredients, but I approached them in an entirely different manner.

I melted some Kerrygold butter in a glass baking dish, sprinkled in a little garlic powder and some pepper. I tossed my two small fillets in this to coat. Then I put them in a 400° oven for about 6 minutes to get an initial cook on them. Otherwise if I tried to broil the final, the outside would be black and the middle uncooked, as I planned a thick stack. I do this when I do my stuffed grouper.

Meanwhile I wilted a bag of baby spinach in a tall skillet (in some Kerrygold butter, of course). I usually saute some onions first, but this time I just wilted the spinach.

And I started my sauce. I sauteed two large sliced mushrooms, and then added 4 large shrimp. I don’t have prawns. And I only had 4 shrimp in my freezer. But they were big. 6 or 8 would have been better. I then added a miniature bottle (airplane size) of an apple brandy and cooked it down for a minute. Then I stirred in a few tablespoons (maybe a bit more) of heavy cream. I added about 3 tablespoons of cream cheese (my favorite white sauce trick) and then a final thickening of a small amount of cream with corn starch, blended and added in small amounts till the desired thickness. I also ground in some black pepper. Usually I would add some fine grated parm here, but I held back. I wanted the brandy to be the star.

Assembly time. I put 1/3rd of the spinach on top of one fillet, then put on half my sauce. For this portion, I cut 2 of the shrimp into smaller pieces. Then I put the second fillet on top and broiled this stack at high for a couple minutes. I tossed my two reserved shrimp in at the last minute to brown them off.

After pulling my glass tray from the oven, I put the remaining spinach on the dinner plate, placed the stuffed fish on top, poured on the remaining sauce and topped with the two broiled shrimp.

The result was one of the best white sauces I’ve ever made. The meal was delightful, but not too heavy (it would have been heavier with the parm).

A close Irish friend suggested I try doing this with a Spinach, Mushroom & Noilly Prat Sauce, an Irish approach to this meal. So that is definitely on my lineup in the future.

This sounds complex, but all 3 main parts happen at the same time, so you can have this in the oven in 20 minutes. And it is worth the effort. My effort doesn’t reflect the process in the cookbook, but I think the flavors are going to be almost identical.

I look forward to doing many more recipes based on “My Wild Atlantic Kitchen” by Maura O’Connell Foley, Kerry, Ireland (where my family is from). I’m guessing a distant cousin (I have an signed copy).