Alison Roman's Tomato-Poached Fish with Chile Oil | NYT Cooking

yeah so wow i'm really playing with fire here have not spilled yet i'm allison roman and i want you to cook more fish at home the way that i'm going to get you to do that is by cooking this recipe for tomato poached cod with chili oil and herbs it's extremely easy it comes together super fast and i think it's extremely delicious so for anybody who's afraid of cooking fish at home i feel like the most commonly you know described problem is that they're afraid their apartment's gonna smell or they're afraid that they're gonna overcook it or they don't know what kind of fish to buy and that's why i like this recipe because i feel like it solves a lot of those problems and answers a lot of those questions the fish that you're going to use i like to use a firm meaty white fillet that is skinless and boneless and there are about a gazillion types of fish that you can use for this but i like things like cod fluke halibut can be a little pricey but it's really good here um flounder any sort of firm unfishy skinless fish fillet i have two examples of the types of fish that i would use here on kind of either end of the spectrum so on the very thin side we have flounder and it's as you can see very thin very delicate and it's delicious and i love it in this preparation the only issue you run into is that you end up putting a lot more in the skillet so it can be really crowded it has a very mild flavor really delicate flesh it's almost never going to overcook i love this fish and then on the other end of the spectrum which is going to be a thicker fillet this is cod and as you can see this is like a big filet and it almost always comes like this where it's kind of split because they take a bone out here but i love this fish because you can buy one fillet you can feed four to six people just cut it into kind of nice steaks and they all snuggle in nicely in the broth it also has just like a very meaty kind of mild fish flavor for anyone who's not that into fish i feel like cod is a really great gateway fish the other important part is the tomato broth that we're gonna poach the fish in and that begins with a chili oil i like a lot of garlic if you like it less or you like it more feel free to adjust the amount of clothes but i'm going to start with four oh my squirrel's back i have a squirrel who lives in this plant out here oh he's eating the raspberries that's so great i left him a basket of raspberries i'm basically sleeping beauty up in here oh my god he's eating it in his little ham okay sorry five hours later all my garlic is peeled because we're toasting this in the oil you do want to make sure that the cloves are pretty uniformly sliced and shallow shallots are real mystery a lot of times when people hear one shallot they're like do you mean one shallot or do you mean well this is a bad example never mind cut it scrap that bot sometimes there's two in a packet whatever sometimes there'll be like two shallots in one this is still one shallot i like to separate them because it creates a flat surface for me to slice instead of it rolling around so i'm going to start it in the skillet it's the same skillet that i'm going to cook the whole dish in one skillet that's it i don't have anything to say about that so we're going to get started by making our chili oil and this is going to serve as the garnish after the dish is done and also the oil that we're going to start our broth in so i'm going to add the shallots and the garlic i'm going to add the chili like right before they're done because you're just kind of blooming the spices in the oil you're not necessarily wanting to cook them or toast them beyond like adding some hot oil so things are starting to happen you can see like the thinner bits are definitely getting golden and right when you start to see the goldenness happening that's when things will start to happen really quickly so don't walk away i'm gonna add the chili now and one thing i'll note when cooking garlic or shallots like this when you're trying to get them brown and crispy is that they will continue to cook after you remove them from the oil so i always take them out like just as they are right before the color that i want them and then miraculously like a minute later you'll look in the bowl and it'll be exactly the golden brown that you want so i like to get everything in there and then use a slotted spoon let me very carefully add most of this oil into here leaving about you know a thin layer two tablespoons or so and this is kind of like the amount of olive oil you'd want in a skillet when you're starting to make a tomato sauce which is exactly what we're gonna do these happen to be small and cute but you don't have to use small and cute tomatoes if you have a larger tomato just kind of cut it into chunks i'll leave some have some quartered because at the end then i'll get you know larger chunkier pieces and saucier pieces i like that variety [Music] once the tomatoes are added i'm going to season everything with salt and pepper where's my salt this is because you want to season the sauce at every step of the way but also adding salt to the tomatoes is going to help draw out their liquid which is going to encourage like the beginning of this sort of saucy situation that is happening in there so these are going to cook down for five to eight minutes ish just until they become really saucy really jammy kind of thick and at that point that's when we're going to add our fish sauce and some water to kind of thin everything out make sure that it feels brothy enough to poach our fish so this little bad larry is fish sauce and it's an ingredient that i use pretty much all the time it may seem weird to add fish sauce to a dish where i'm asking you to find fish that's not fishy but trust me hear me out see it through it doesn't add fishiness it adds just like a richness kind of like a meatiness that is going to take tomatoes which kind of already have a lot of those qualities and bring them to like a whole other level so this is definitely things are happening and if i'm feeling impatient i'm like oh i should have really cut them all into smaller pieces you can just encourage things to happen take the back of my spoon just kind of give them a smash with your spoon like this i would say we're almost there i don't i'm not looking for a puree i don't want it to be super silky smooth i like this like jammy beautiful saucy stitch and then also these larger thicker pieces that i can eat with my fish i'm gonna add just a few dashes of fish sauce you don't need a lot it may seem counterintuitive that i'm asking you to cook something down until it's like super concentrated and saucy and jammy and then add water but what that's doing is it's concentrating the flavors to begin with and that way when you're diluting it it's kind of like where it should be overall i'm going to bring that up to a simmer and then i'm going to taste it i'm gonna make sure that it has enough salt enough pepper and then i'm gonna add my fish and speaking of fish i'm gonna cut the fish now where is my cutting board i can't find anything here because i have too many things i am literally my grandmother i would probably just cut it on the paper but i'm trying to set a good example where is it it's clear so it's oh i know where it is nope that's not it i guess not quite clear but only i can see it oh yeah that's it um i think it's a really good idea to use a separate and plastic cutting board when cutting things like meat and fish i don't always do it with meat but i always do it with fish because it can be fishy so we're going to use cod and this piece i'll leave like that overall you should be getting about four portions from one and a quarter pound of fish there we go if i were using these you're probably looking at about one filet per person so you see why i feel in this situation it's probably easier for four people to go with a meaty or thicker fillet just so they all fit in the skillet but if i'm cooking for just myself or another person i feel like these thinner fillets totally fine to use i'm gonna season my fish with salt and pepper [Music] extremely delicious i'm gonna get a little more pepper you want to cook the fish in the most flavorful delicious liquid humanly possible okay so she is ready to go in and by she i mean all of these fishes and you'll see as i add them the liquid will keep kind of rising up the fish and by the time the fourth piece is in they should all be pretty much submerged no do i wow life comes at you fast [Music] whoo all right so i say to cover it news to me if you don't have a lid that fits your skillet a nice thing to do is use like a sheet tray or something like that that's just going to kind of cover and what you're doing is you're creating steam so the tops of the fish cooks evenly so i'm going to put these little fellas to bed and not even think about it for at least four minutes again if you're using those thinner fillets like tilapia flounder fluke it's gonna take probably closer to four and if you're using something thicker like cod halibut it might take closer to six and seven [Music] oh a good way to tell that your fish is done is that it goes from that translucent sort of pale pinkish color to a firm white opaque situation another way to tell is that you know when you press on it it should be firm and meaty not mushy or squishy that's pretty much it i'm going to serve this fish in a shallow bowl because it's so brothy i want it to kind of have somewhere to go my tortillas were frozen so i'm just reheating them so you don't think that uh i was ill-prepared and didn't defrost them before you guys all showed up so you could serve this with a multitude of things you could serve it with the frozen tortillas you forgot to pull out of the freezer you could serve it with a bowl of rice i've seen people do it with couscous with farro with other cooked grains i've seen people serve it with toast i feel like the possibilities are truly endless [Music] it's extremely heavy and then you want to top it with this extremely delicious shalloty crunchy chili oil from there i like to do both mint and cilantro but if you are feeling one or the other or neither that's also fine i love a ton of herbs especially with fish and then if you want and i do want mine you get those tortillas i was just warming them up because i like to make sure that they're warmed through you know and this is kind of like you know a dunk situation if that is your vibe or you can kind of eat it almost like fish tacos or whatever it is honestly so good i'm gonna eat it now is that i really love cod for this because it is really firm and flaky and has like almost zero fishy flavor whatsoever i love this dish so much and you do too i guess people really are cooking the hell out of this fish [Music] i'm very hungry so that is a tomato poached fish with chili oil and herbs and if you like this then i think you'll like all the other new york times cooking videos that we have and on a personal note i am extremely thrilled to see so many people cooking this dish because it was truly my mission to get you to cook more fish at home and honestly you're really doing it you are cooking this recipe so that brings me so much joy and thank you [Music]

Channel: NYT Cooking

Views: 559,555

Keywords: cooking, cooks, recipes, recipe, how-to, how to, kitchen, new york times, new york times cooking, nyt cooking, nyt, nytimes, alison roman, roman, alison, alison e roman, nothing fancy, dining in, dining in cookbook, nothing fancy cookbook, tomato, fish, chile oil, herbs, Tomato-Poached Fish With Chile Oil and Herbs, poach, poached, poached fish, how to poach a fish, fish recipes, easy fish recipes, easy, Tomato-Poached Fish with Chile Oil

Id: XZCc2fPAVgU

Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 13 2019