Until lately. I'm actually on a campaign to learn to like it because, healthwise, I should eat more fish and cod is both sustainable and affordable at around $12/lb where everything else, what little there is of "everything else", costs about twice that. I've cooked it about three times in the last six months, but treated it the same way each time--coated with bread crumbs (seasoned with herbs and, sometimes, parmesan) and oven-baked.
Oh, let me segue for a sec. In Jeffrey Steingarten's book, The Man Who Ate Everything, he details the fact that when he was first offered the Vogue food writer/critic gig, he felt unworthy because like most people over the age of 12 he had acquired a goodly list of somewhat unreasonable aversions and dislikes. Kimchi, swordfish, anchovies, Greek food, miso, mocha, chutney, sea urchins, felafel, clams, cranberries, okra, and refried beans were among them. He looked into cures, and after rejecting brain surgery and drug dependence, concluded that exposure, plain and simple, was the answer: "Most babies will accept nearly anything after eight or ten tries." So he set forth, and every day for six months he ate at least one food that he detested. The result? Of kimchi he hilariously writes, "...the national pickle of Korea has become my national pickle, too". And so it went, apparently, for most of his other aversions, enough to deem himself finally a "perfect omnivore" and become an equally perfect pain in the ass at dinner parties when seated next to someone who dared avoid something on their plate just like he used to do. (Step Six of his six-step program was "relearn humility".
) To me it's pretty obvious that I'll never be able to consider runny egg yolks or any condiment that looks like my grandmother's hand cream acceptable food, but I've overcome and even learned to love most of my longheld aversions, so cod, I'm thinking, should be easy. I just have to apply myself.
Toward that goal,I bought a nice fat 12 ounce filet at Whole Foods in Seattle yesterday. So, with cod in hand--so to speak--I ask, what shall I do with this fish? I'm tired of my neophobic reliance on coatings to make something that others obviously enjoy taste palatable and am ready for the next step.
What are your favorite ways of preparing cod?
That's ok Mike, it was my thought also.