2009 Goal #2: Crunchy Fish with Noodle Toss

It has just now come to my attention that my food blog has no pictures of what I made.

Um...yeah...about that.

Well, here's the thing with me. When I cook dinner, I serve it right away. I wasn't much for presentation if it's just me and Brandon. So, I just cooked, served, ate, and I reported the result afterward. Apparently, I'm breaking a food blog rule.

I promise I'll try to do better next time! But for this recipe I made last week (and the next one I'll post which I made tonight), you'll just have to forgive me.

For those who's been reading here a while, you'll know that I don't cook fish often because Brandon doesn't care for it much. However, the only fish that gets his approval is cod. I have some in the freezer from Fresh & Easy, so one night I started to look around for a recipe.

The only recipe I could find that I have most of the ingredients on hand was Rachael Ray's Crunchy Japanese Fish with Vegetable and Noodle Toss in her 365: No Repeats cookbook.

Panko Cod and Garlic Soba Noodles - Serves 2.

Fish:
2 pieces of cod. (about a pound)
Pinches of cayenne pepper
A splash of rice wine vinegar
About a cup and a half of panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of butter, melted.
Salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400F. (Then go work on boiling your noodles.) Season the fish with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Splash the vinegar and toss. Dip fish in melted butter then coat evenly in panko. Place on non-stick cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden and crisp.

Noodles:
1 bundle of soba noodles. (Mine came with 4 bundles. Having cooked up 2 proves to be too much for the two of us.)
A couple TBS of vegetable or olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, grated (or half a TBS of minced ginger from a jar)
1 cup shredded carrots. (According to the original recipe, you can add more veggies here like bell peppers, bean sprouts, scallions, and water chestnuts.)
1/3 cup of soy sauce
A splash of Mirin

Cook noodles to al dente, drain. After the fish goes into the oven, heat the skillet. Add oil, garlic, ginger and carrots. Cook for a minute. Add drained, hot pasta. Add the soy sauce and Mirin and remove from heat. Toss the noodles around until the sauce is all soaked up. Add a little pepper here if you'd like.

Serve noodles with the fish. Ta-da!