Alaskan Cod.... oh my, its yummy!

      Fish and I are not friends.  The smell is icky and the texture is just gross.  Believe it or not, I will eat tuna fish sandwiches... don't try to figure that one out since even I can't understand it.  Canned tuna fish has to be one of the fishiest smells around! 

      In my quest for better health, for hubby and I, fish was just a no brainer to add to the diet.  I've heard that cod is rather mild tasting and this was one of the fish hubby enjoys, usually deep fried of course.  I wanted to find a recipe that gave me lots of flavors to bounce off my tongue along with the taste

 of the fish. 

     This recipe was indeed yummy... yep, the two words I thought would never cross my lips at the same time - delicious and fish.  The cod was not overly fishy tasting at all.  My only thing would be for me texture wise it was probably appeal to me more if there was a bit more of a crispy crust covering it.  Then I got this mind blowing idea....    I'm going to leave you hanging there for a second.  Here is this amazing recipe for cod that I adapted from the original recipe I found here

    Cod with Italian Crumb Topping

1/4 cup fine dry Italian bread crumbs (Next time I'm making my own bread crumbs)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning (I added even though I

used the seasoned bread crumbs... it just upped the flavor)

1 tablespoon cornmeal

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

 freshly ground black pepper to taste

Salt to taste ( I used 1/2 a teaspoon and it wasn't enough)

4 (3 ounce) fillets cod fillets

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 small lemon freshly squeezed

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare your pan for baking.  The original recipe said to coat the rack of a broiling pan with cooking spray.  I just covered a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly sprayed with a cooking spray.

2. In a shallow bowl or platter, combine the bread crumbs, cheese, cornmeal, seasonings, salt and pepper; set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine the the olive oil, mayonnaise and lemon juice.  Stir to make sure all ingredients are blended.

4. Pat the fish dry using a paper towel. 

5. Rub the oil mixture over both sides of the fish, coating it completely.

6. Spoon the crumb mixture evenly on top, or just dip it like I did and press the crumb coating on.

Bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork and is opaque all the way through.

I'm telling you, this fish turned out yummalicious! But now for that

bit of a cliff hanger I left you with...

I had just finished canning five pints of peach mango salsa (recipe to come another day I promise!)  and there was a bit left over in the bottom of my pan.  It isn't as pretty as the full package deal since it was just bottom stuff; all the best of the goodies had been put in the jars.  Still I wasn't going to let it go to waste so I put some of the remaining salsa on top of the cod and..... WOWZERS!  Talk about a mouth explosion!