Mmm ... black cod :)

I *do* like fish (I *do* feel bad eating it, but obviously not enough to not be eating it :) ).

So, we went on this major cooking mission for our friends who came over to see Monty on tuesday. It was actually the first time that we cooked black cod, took a lot longer to prepare and assemble (we were doing it for 9 people!).

I often have this image (replete with sights, sounds and smells :)) in my head of how I envision a recipe to turn out, so it is obviously a good thing when I recognize the flavors and texture I expected. But it gets even better when I notice unexpected flavors that I like. So, that was the story with Mr.Black Cod (atleast for me) - the lemon-caper sauce worked really well with the delicate fish and dill added the right amount of flavor (I think a stronger herb like oregano or thyme would have made Mr.Cod unhappy). But the surprise flavor here seemed to be the mustard - I liked the earthy smell that freshly crushed brown mustard added to the fish (very different from adding yellow mustard powder) - I would go with an even stronger mustard flavor next time - maybe a rubbing of coarsely crushed mustard and peppercorns?

The other lesson for next time - we could have easily cut the baketime by 10 minutes. Cod seems even more delicate than rockfish, it definitely does not need an hour in the oven!

The puy lentil salad was decent - not as amazing as I'd have liked it to be, mostly because I cooked the lentils perfectly, but forgot to rinse them out and add a little oil, so they got all sticky. And I made too much of it, so it got really hard to toss the lentils with the tomatoes and pineapple. And it did not help that all these monkeys ate up the pineapple! *unbelievable* :)
And my poor shallots could not lend flavor because of the lentil overdose. *sigh*

The asparagus was happy. (Special order for the Abster - our resident almost-vegetarian who loves the bacon and hates half the veggies in the world!)

Fun times. Especially with Montster around :)