Cod (also called codfish, or, in some places, scrod) is a white-fleshed “flakey” fish that is high in many nutrients now recognized as exceedingly good for your blood, heart and brain. It’s a popular seafood item in restaurants throughout the United States and in many European countries.

When I dine on cod, I think of icy cold waters and northern lands like Canada, Iceland, Norway and such. Indeed, cod played a vital economic and cultural role for centuries in these countries; even the Vikings subsisted at times by consuming large quantities of this fish. Later, when the frigid waters of the North Atlantic were found to be teeming with cod, England and France almost went to war over who would control this abundant protein source–the fishermen of New England or those of the French maritime colonies of Canada.

Today, codfish stocks in the North Atlantic are under threat from overfishing, and restrictions on the taking of cod have been put into place to give those stocks a chance to recover. Cod from other waters–notably the North Pacific–remains more-or-less widely available, fortunately. You can still enjoy a dish of cod and know that you’re getting plenty of vitamins A and D along with those omega-3 fatty acids that do wonderful things to keep your heart in good shape.

Cod is a mild-flavored fish, so it is often enjoyed by people who don’t like fish that is, well, too “fishy” tasting. Because it is mild, it can take a lot of different seasonings and flavorings, making it an especially versatile seafood.

Cod is an outstanding baking fish, and as you might guess, there are many ways to bake cod. Here’s a basic recipe that will serve you well. Feel free to experiment with it, though. It’s hard to go wrong with cod, so play around with adding other ingredients that come to mind or varying the amounts of the ones shown here.

Ingredients

1 lb. cod

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon onion powder or onion salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

Lay the fish in a greased ceramic baking dish. Combing all of the other ingredients; pour this mix over the fish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

This recipe takes a mild-tasting fish and adds piquancy through the onion powder and, especially, the crushed red pepper. You’ll be serving up a big helping of brain- and heart food at the same time.

Sarah Sandori is the food and entertaining columnist for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Have you ever wanted to be able to exactly duplicate a favorite dish from a favorite restaurant? Check out Sarah’s article where she reveals her source for the most mouth-watering secret restaurant recipes in America: www.solid-gold.info/most-wanted-recipes.html

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The Northern Mexican diet is considered by many to be one of the three healthiest diets in the world. Beans, generally pintos, which by the way are the healthiest of all beans, are paired in many dishes with corn, especially corn tortillas. This amazingly simple diet is quite sustainable and with the addition of chiles in salsa or fresh or pickled chiles such as jalapenos—the diet is quite tasty.

The benefit you receive from eating chiles in healthy Mexican recipes coupled with a balanced diet and a moderate amount of exercise is that weight loss or at the least maintenance is assured. You will not be as hungry when you eat spicy and will also eat less.

Chiles also act to reduce stress, reduce facial wrinkles, increase heart health, assist with digestion and circulation and have been known to cure endless amounts of physical ailments. Cooking healthy Mexican recipes makes it easy to begin the chile-a-day habit. You can learn lots of healthy Mexican recipes during Jane Butel’s weekend or weeklong cooking schools or join “Cooking with Jane”, Jane Butel’s cooking club. For additional information, join the enewsletter mailing list for Butel’s Bytes.

To select chiles for cooking, if you are searching for milder chiles, always select ones that have broad shoulders and blunt tips—conversely, select chiles with pointed tips and narrow shoulders for hotter dishes. This is important because you can have up to 35 different piquancies on one plant at a time.

Mexican foods frequently contain chiles, though not as spicy as north of the border New Mexican or even Tex-Mex cooking. In Mexican cooking they use less chiles or marinate them in lime juice if there is a concern they will be too hot. The exception is in the Yucatan where the Mayans have long used the really hot habenero chiles.

In Mexico, the ubiquitous sour cream and lots of cheese are not found—those are basically commercialized preparations of fast food American Mexican restaurants.

An example of a healthy Mexican recipe for sauce that is used from morning to night, is the Pipian sauce, a delightful, nut like tasting sauce that is really yummy on eggs, tacos, as a dipping sauce, over vegetables and meats. It is from Oaxaca and once made keeps well in the refrigerator and can be frozen if desired.

Here’s the recipe—

Pipian Sauce

Yield: 4 1/2 cups (approximately)

1 teaspoon ground chipotles 1 cup green pumpkin seeds or pipian 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 cup sliced scallions, including the greens 1/2 cup cooked or canned tomatillos, drained and chopped 2 cups chicken broth

1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot skillet until they start to brown, taking care not to let them burn.

2. Combine the chile, toasted seeds, cilantro, scallions, and tomatillos in a blender along with 2 cups of chicken broth and puree until smooth. Keeps well in the refrigerator for two weeks or frozen in a sealed container.

Jane Butel, the first to write about Southwestern cooking, has published 19 cookbooks, several being best sellers. She operates a full-participation weekend and week-long vacation cooking school, an on-line school, a cooking club, a monthly ezine, a mail-order spice, cookbook, Southwestern product business and conducts culinary tours and team-building classes. For more information on this article go to http://www.janebutelcooking.com/Public/Articles/index.cfm? , 1-800-473-8226.

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Easily the best way to please someone dear to you is to make him a Romantic Dinner. We’ve gone one better and prepared a special collection of Romantic Dinners.

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