Fishy Friday: Cod Chowder Pie

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

This month’s fish recipes will give you options beyond fried fish dishes. These days DH loves this Cod Chowder Pie. But surprisingly, when we lived in Iowa, we really enjoyed the Norwegian-influenced lefsa covered with boiled cod and buttered potatoes. It might not sound appetizing, and there was no plate-appeal, but it was delish, when made right. Without a lefsa source here in Arizona, it’s fallen off our menu rotation. Trust me on this: Flour tortillas are a poor substitute for lefsa both in texture and in flavor. Just to save you the trouble.

This recipe serves 4-6 depending upon side dishes. For us, it’s four servings since we just use a side salad. But if you were to add more substantial sides, you could stretch it to six servings. My recipe is an adaptation of Cod and Corn Chowder Pie in which I substitute green onions for chives and increase the mayonnaise from ¼ cup to ½ cup for a creamier pie.

Cod Chowder Pie (serves 4-6)

1 ¼ pounds cod (or other mild white fish)

1 lemon, zested

½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning, divided (recipe follows)

2 green onions, sliced

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 large eggs

½ cup mayonnaise

1 cup frozen corn kernels, slightly defrosted

1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons panko, divided

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Also spray a 9” pie plate.

Zest a lemon and set aside the zest. Cut lemon in half.

Lay fish on baking sheet and squeeze ½ lemon over the fish. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning. Bake for 8 minutes, or until fish flakes.

While fish is baking, chop the onions into small slices. Whisk together eggs and mayonnaise. Add rest of Old Bay Seasoning, corn, and ½ cup of panko.

Shred baked fish into bite-sized pieces and fold into egg and mayo mixture. Transfer to pie plate, packing it gently.

Top with remaining panko and drizzle with butter. Bake for 15 minutes until the top is golden and the pie firm and cooked through. Squeeze the other half of the lemon on top right before serving.

I don’t keep Old Bay Seasoning on my shelf because I don’t use it often enough to justify buying a whole bottle. So I whisk up these ingredients as a Make-Your-Own recipe to keep the quantity small. I use Jan’s recipe from the Allrecipes.com site.

M-Y-O Old Bay Seasoning (makes about 7-8 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons celery salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 pinch dry mustard

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cardamom

1 pinch ground allspice

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground ginger

Whisk celery salt, paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mustard, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, cloves, and ginger together in a bowl. Store in an airtight container.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

DH: “We haven’t had this in a while.” Me: “I know. Sometimes it’s hard to find cod. And then I forget about the recipe.” DH: “I like it. Try to remember to make it more often.” Okay, then.