Cod and king prawns poached in a pan of slow-sweated fennel and leek with white wine and crème fraîche.
Yield and time
- Serves: 4
- Hands-on: 10 minutes
- Total: 25 minutes
Ingredients
The pot
- 40g salted butter
- 2 fennel bulbs, fronds reserved, thinly sliced
- 2 leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 300ml dry white wine
- 300ml crème fraîche
- 500g Rankin cod, cut into bite-size pieces
- 24 raw king prawns, peeled and deveined (six each)
- A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Black pepper
To serve
- A sourdough boule, sliced thick
You’ll need a wide shallow lidded pan (a 28cm sauté pan or a shallow casserole) so the fish has room to sit in one layer when it goes in.
Method
Trim the fennel bulbs (2). The bulb comes with long pale stalks on top that turn into the feathery green fronds; the bulb itself is the bit you cook. Cut the stalks off where they meet the bulb, snip the fronds off the stalks, and save the fronds in a small bowl for garnish later (the stalks are tough; bin them or save for stock). Slice a thin layer off the woody root at the bottom. Stand the bulb on the cut root and halve it top-to-bottom. Each half has a small dense triangular core at the base where the root used to be; cut it out with two angled knife strokes, the same way you’d core a tomato or a cabbage. Slice the rest thinly into pale half-moons.
Trim the leeks (2), wash any grit out from between the layers, and slice thinly into rounds.
Melt the butter (40g) in the wide pan over medium-low heat. Tip in the sliced fennel and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir to coat, put the lid on, and leave it to sweat for ten minutes, stirring every couple of minutes so nothing catches. The fennel should soften and turn translucent but not take colour.
Add the sliced leeks. Put the lid back on and cook for another five minutes, stirring once or twice, until the leeks have collapsed and gone glossy.
Take the lid off, raise the heat to medium, and pour in the wine (300ml). Let it bubble for two minutes; the alcohol cooks off, the smell sharpens then mellows. Stir in the crème fraîche (300ml). Simmer for another two minutes, until the sauce has come together into a loose coating around the vegetables and reduced by about a third.
Pat the cod (500g, cut into bite-size pieces) dry on kitchen paper. Tip it into the sauce and stir gently so the pieces are coated and mostly submerged. Scatter the prawns (24) over the top. Put the lid back on and drop the heat to low. Leave it for six to eight minutes; the cod is done when it’s just opaque and flakes if you press a piece with a spoon, and the prawns are pink and curled tight.
Off the heat, taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. Scatter the chopped parsley over the top, then the reserved fennel fronds.
Bring the pan to the table and ladle straight from it onto warm plates, with thick slices of bread on the side for dipping into the sauce.
Storage
Best straight off the heat; the cod tightens and the prawns toughen the second time around. If there are leftovers, fridge them for one day and reheat very gently in a small pan with a splash of milk, just until warm through. Bread on the side as always.