Baked Cod with Montpellier Butter

Cod is a wonderfully mild white flaky fish.  It’s happy seasoned with anything from fresh herbs to punchy marinades.  It’s beautiful baked or grilled and when leftover it begs to be the star in a batch of fish chowder.  After recently learning about freezing fresh herbs in butter or olive oil, I began to do a little compound butter research and decided Montpellier Butter would be the perfect pairing with our baked cod.

Compound butters, like a sauce, are a great way to enhance the flavors in a dish.  They can be as simple as a one ingredient add, like parsley or red pepper.  Or they can combine a number of ingredients creating more complex flavors.  Since cod is so mild, it welcomed this flavor packed Montpellier Butter.

The recipe includes several different herbs and leafy greens, which are all blanched for 1 minute before being incorporated with the remaining ingredients in a small food processor (or by using a mortar and pestle).  Once all ingredients are well chopped and combined, they are rolled into a log using plastic wrap and then chilled.

One pat of this beautiful Montpellier Butter made this Cod by God!!  Wow.  And we returned the unused compound butter to the freezer for a quick go-to flavor add at our finger tips.  Just one more way we’re hanging on to our fresh herb flavors!!

Baked Cod with Montpellier Butter

Libby with Lemony Thyme

Baked Cod is a wonderfully mild white flaky fish begging for added flavor. This beautiful Montpellier Butter was the perfect add.

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Course Sauce, Seafood

Ingredients

  

For the Montpellier Butter…

• 1/2 lb. unsalted butter softened
• 2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup watercress leaves
• 1/4 cup spinach leaves
• 1/4 cup parsley leaves
• 2-3 Tbl. tarragon leaves
• 1 shallot fine diced
• 1 garlic clove fine diced
• 2 cornichons
• 1 tsp. capers
• 2 anchovy fillets or 1 tsp. of anchovy paste
• 2 yolks of hard boiled eggs
• pinch cayenne pepper
• sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

For the cod…

• 1 lb. cod fillet washed and dried

Instructions

 

For the butter…

• Blanch herbs and leafy greens in boiling water for 1 minute, then plunge in cold water bath before drying completely.
• Combine all other ingredients except butter and olive oil in small food processor or mortar and pestle and grind until smooth.
• Empty processor bowl into small bowl and add butter and olive oil mixing with wooden spoon until well combined.
• Spoon butter mixture onto plastic wrap and roll into a log.
• Chill until well set.

For the cod…

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Wash and dry cod and place in baking dish coated with cooking spray.
• Season with salt & pepper.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
• Top with a Montpellier butter slice just before serving.

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