Poached Cod With Cherry and Wine Sauce

This was Danny's weekly home economics recipe The recipe is based on the one in Alan Davidson's excellent book, Seafood.

I provided minimal assistance, with tasks such as carrying a large pot of poaching liquid from the stove. Otherwise, this is pretty much the work of a nine year old. He stayed within budget, and the fish monger kindly gave him extra-nice cuts of cod at the sale price for the thin, frozen fillets. That was kind, and we promised to bring him the recipe next week.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 pounds of cod in thick fillets
Milk for poaching
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cherry puree ( we blitzed some frozen cherries in the processor)
1 cup fish stock or water (we used a bit of Worcestershire in water)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 whole cloves\Pinch cinnamon
2 teaspoons potato flour dissolved in a bit of water (in the US this is called," Potato Starch")
1 cup red wine (we used port)

Poach the fillets in milk until done (about 7-10 minutes at a simmer ought to do it, but take care to keep the poach gentle or the fish will fall apart). Remove to a plate, and keep warm in the oven at low temperature. Meanwhile, in a large pan, melt the butter, and stir in the puree. Add the fish stock, the sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and dissolved potato flour. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer until thickened-about 15 minutes. Next, pour in the red wine, and bring it almost to the boil. Drain the poached fish, then pour the sauce over.

We served this with cous cous, though the recipe suggested boiled potatoes. We also reduced it a bit after the wine went in, to burn off some of the alcohol. That is optional, but it also makes for a thicker sauce to pour over the cous cous.