It was date night in at our place on Sunday night. I donned my new apron from Anthropologie (Jorge has a manly one too).
Wine flowed while we cranked up our wedding party playlist on Spotify and set out to preparing a pretty, candlelit table full of Spanish tapas.
I thought I’d share one of the recipes with you – red peppers stuffed with cod and a bechamel sauce. They’re really easy to make and tasty too.
Ingredients for 2:
- 2 red peppers.
- 2 small boneless cod fillets
- Olive oil
- 4 tbl flour
- 1/3 cup fish stock
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1/2 lemon
- Small handful of parsley, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup grated cheese (could be parmesan, Manchego or whatever your favourite)
- Salt and pepper
First, preheat the oven on high.
Then, cut the tops off of the peppers, scrape out the insides and rinse them clean. I felt a bit like I was carving a pumpkin with this task and was tempted to poke out some eyes and a set of fangs, but I restrained myself. Set the peppers aside.
In a frying pan, heat a bit of oil. Cook the garlic for a minute or so. Add the cod and cook on both sides until it flakes apart. Using a spoon, gently chop it all up and add some salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
For the next part, you’ll be whipping up a thick bechamel sauce that will be ready when it’s a similar consistency to peanut butter.
Heat 3 tbl oil on medium high heat. Add flour and don’t stop stirring. Cook for about three minutes, scaping the sides and bottom so it doesn’t burn. Then add the wine, fish stock and milk slowly, stirring continuously.
Once you have the right consistency, add the fish back in along with the juice from half a lemon, the parsley and cheese. Cook for a few minutes more.
Spoon this filling into the peppers.
Place in an oven-safe dish, cover with foil and bake them until the skin on the outside starts to appear wrinkly.
You can eat them any way you like, but we had them as part of our tapas menu. Alongside the pimientos rellenos con bacalao, we had tortilla (classic spanish omelette with potatoes), serano ham, chorizo, olives, bread, huevos rellenos (stuffed eggs with tuna and olives), albondigas (meatballs with a carrot sauce, paprika and saffron), pan tumaca (toasted baguette rubbed with tomatoes and garlic with olive oil) and tomates aliñados (tomato salad with olive oil, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper).
Enjoy!
(PS: Some of my favourite dishes – yellow bowl, red bowl, giraffe plate and here’s some more recipe inspiration!)
2 Comments
Diana Mieczan
November 12, 2014 at 1:49 pmCrikey, we SO need to have a dinner date together:) I’m saving the recipe for the weekend – it looks incredible! Also, I love your apron and your tablecloth is so pretty. Cheers to delicious food and wine:) Happy Wednesday, dear.
littleobservationist
November 12, 2014 at 4:38 pmI’m so up for that if we ever find ourselves in the same city! Let me know what you think if you try these. Cheers to delicious food and wine indeed 🙂 x