Black Cod with Strawberry-Mango Salsa

So I rediscovered my love of mangoes recently.  I haven’t had one in forever, but I found one at the grocery store recently and it was so cheap and so pretty that I just had to have it! Living in southern California has several perks and one of them that I’ve discovered is a consistent supply of extremely cheap and extremely fresh produce.

And if you give Sarah a mango she naturally has to buy some strawberries.  And when she buys some strawberries, she naturally needs to get some fish.  And when she gets some fish she needs to get something a little bit spicy. And when she needs something spicy she needs to make a salsa.  You see where I’m going with this right?

(Sarah. Mouse. Mango. Cookie.. ahem…)

So essentially, this recipe was developed as a result of the bizarre functioning of my brain and a beautiful, but impulsively purchased, mango.  The end result ended as a highly delicious and colorful meal that I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good summer entree.  You can definitely play around with the fish choice in this dish- I chose Black Cod (aka Sablefish), which worked very nicely.  I could imagine the salsa going really well with halibut, mahi mahi, or tuna as well.  If you’re not a seafood person the salsa would also be a good accompaniment for grilled chicken.

That being said, if you are not a seafood person you should seriously reconsider your lifestyle choice for the purposes of trying this recipe.  It’s that good, I swear.

This recipe calls for half of a mango and 3 large strawberries.  Save the rest of that mango and eat it plain or over yogurt.

The salsa is extremely easy to prepare- just dice all the ingredients and toss with a little lime juice.  It’s so fresh and fruity you’ll be wondering where this recipe has been your whole life.

The black cod is extremely easy to prepare as well- just involves a quick sear on both sides. I tend to use my non-stick skillet when I’m searing fish due to the fragility issue- I’ve definitely ruined a piece of salmon or two getting it stuck to the bottom of the pan. Still tasty, but not so pretty.

The other issue I ran into when cooking the black cod are little bones along the middle of the fish that hadn’t been completely removed by my fishmonger.  A quick google search informed me that this is pretty standard and that you can easily remove these with a needle nose pliers.  That seemed like nonsense, so I cooked the fish before deboning and everything was easily removable with my fingers alone after the fish was cooked through (the meat was softer and the bones were more easily removed).  If you are serving this for company you may want to elect the more sanitary option.

Another note about Black Cod- it’s an extremely tender fish, deliciously flakey, and has high fat content.  If you’re not familiar with Black Cod, the texture is somewhat similar to Chilean Seabass. Don’t worry about the fat content though- it’s all the good Omega-3s that you are supposed to consume with high quality seafood. And the fat content is what makes the flavor and texture of this fish particularly awesome.

Black Cod with Tropical Fruit Salsa

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Ingredients

  

• 1 lb Black Cod
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 ripe mango diced
• 3 large strawberries diced
• 1 jalepeno diced
• 3 tablespoons red onion diced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro roughly chopped
• Juice of 1 lime plus additional lime, cut into quarters, for serving
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

 

• Prepare salsa by combining mango, strawberries, onion, jalepeno, cliantro, and lime juice in a bowl. Toss to combine and set aside.
• For the cod- salt and pepper the cod on both sides. Heat oil in non-stick saute pan on high. Sear cod on each side until fish is opaque throughout. This will take approximately 3-4 minutes per side, but use your judgment depending on the thickness of your fish.
• Serve fish with generous amount of salsa spooned over the fish. Garnish with a lime wedge.