Cod.

Is fish expensive or what ? But just look at how beautiful this piece of Cod looks. It says buy me and I will bring pleasure to your taste buds for a long time. I was not disappointed.
Nearly £8 brought me enough for 3 people so that's not so bad really. Normally I would be crying my heart out as I waste I mean pour a bottle of beer into some flour to make a batter and deep fry it to accompany some chunky Kev chips but I read on the web that Cod and Black pudding was a marriage made in heaven so I thought I would pop along to the wedding and see if I could pull one of the bridesmaids ! ha ha.
I had some smoked black pudding which I had purchased at the taste of Edinburgh food show so was going to use that. Yes I know I brought quite a bit of smoked product at the show but the passengers on the 6.30 pm train out of Edinburgh should be grateful that my mate Alan talked me out of buying the un vac packed kippers that I wanted to !
Anyway I decided on a white sauce to go with the fish so made a roux, then a bechamel and then added some fish stock , some English mustard, grated mature cheddar cheese, a dollop of creme fraiche and then let it infuse for 15 minutes before finishing it with a handful of chopped chives out of the garden and not a handful of grass which I did on one slightly drunk occasion.

My neighbour Mrs Wilkins has a husband who has an allotment. He grows Broad beans but they don't like them so as they say "their loss is my gain" and as they are now in season its time to take full advantage of them. (that's the beans and not Mr and Mrs Wilkins)

Usually I would boil them and then take the tougher outer skin off that then reveals a beautiful sweet green pod. On this occasion I didn't which was lazy really but they still tasted fab. I sauteed some mushrooms off added the diced black pudding and then added the hot beans to the pan and mixed them together. I made some mash and then plated up.

The  sauce even though I say so myself was very moreish. A splash of white wine or cider would have added another tasty dimension to it. The mash made the dish a little heavy and probably would have been better with a few diced sauteed potatoes but I had this on Sunday so I was left with the same feeling I would have had after a Sunday roast.
The black pudding was not over powering the smokey flavour was very subtle and was a wonderful compliment to the cod.
The cost of fish is high which is hard to take considering we live on a Island but for something so outstanding in quality I didn't mind paying. I loved this dish and hope that the Cod supplies are going to improve over my life time and eating wonderful produce like cod does not become a distant memory.