today we are making a pan grilled
Spanish cod with an almond picada sauce
ladies and gentlemen this is truly such
an incredible cod dish loaded with
flavors easy to make and done in under
30 minutes it's simple enough for a busy
weeknight yet elegant enough for a
special occasion guys this is one of my
favorite ways to serve cod now really
quick two things to make the almond
picada sauce I'm gonna be using a
mortar and pestle as they do in Spain if
you don't have one of these no big deal
you can use a food processor and for the
second thing what gives this dish that
magical flavor the saffron make sure you
use real saffron don´t use the fake or
imitation stuff as always I'm using
saffron threads from golden saffron you
guys know that I use a lot of saffron in my cooking
and this is one my favorite go-to brands
truly some grade 1 high quality premium saffron
link in the description box below
where you guys can get this
alright folk´s lets get started 
we're gonna begin by making
our almond picada sauce
I've got a small fry pan I'm gonna heat this with a
medium heat and I'm gonna add in 12
blanched marcona almonds and toast these
between 4 to 5 minutes like all other
nuts the secret to dry roasting almonds
is you want to mix them continuously
that way they all toast evenly and none of them burn
after dry roasting our almonds for about
four minutes and they have that
beautiful light toast to them let's go
ahead and remove this from the heat and
transfer them into a mortar next up
we're gonna grab two cloves of garlic
finely mince them and add them into the
mortar with the almonds
now we're gonna grab a handful
of some fresh parsley and finely chop it
we'll add the chopped parsley into the mortar
it equals about 1 tablespoon
add in 1 slice of baguette this one's nice and hard
I left it out overnight
that way it would harden up pinch in
half a teaspoon of saffron threads and a
quarter teaspoon of fine sea salt now
using a pestle we're gonna pound down on
this mixture until we form a paste
and once everything's well mashed together
look at that no big chunks of anything in there
let's go ahead and add in two tablespoons 
of extra virgin olive oil
and mix it together until everything
is well combined
okay guys we're moving on to the cod
I've got this beautiful filet here of
cod this is 390 grams which is about 14
ounces I bought this frozen and fully
thawed it out just because it makes
things a lot cheaper I'm gonna pat it
down completely dry with some paper
towels and cut it into two fillets
and the reason why you want to completely
dry frozen fish that's been thawed out
is so it removes any of that extra
moisture in there to give the fish a beautiful texture
now we're gonna drizzle
some extra virgin olive oil on each fillet
rub it in there and we'll season the cod with some sea
salt and freshly cracked black pepper
okay guys let's start cooking our cod now the
method we're gonna cook this in is
called the A LA PLANCHA very popular
here in Spain basically it translates to
pan grilled what it is is a hot surface
with no fat in the pan so it's very
important to use a nonstick frying pan
let's go ahead and heat this with a
medium heat after heating our pan for
two minutes on a medium heat let's add
our cod fillets in their seasoned side down
after cooking our cod fillets for
exactly three minutes let´s flip them
the thickness of these fillets are about
half an inch
after cooking our cod fillets for exactly
six minutes that is three minutes per
side let's go ahead and remove them from
the pan and transfer them into a dish
now using the same pan with the same
heat I'm going to add the picada sauce in there
and you want to mix it around
and we're gonna cook this for about 30
seconds you don't want to go any longer
after mixing this for 30 seconds this
is done let's remove this from the heat
we'll divide our picada sauce on top of
each fillet
and garnish the dish with a slice of lemon
okay guys our cod dish is done how
beautiful does this look I'm gonna cut
it open that way you guys can see what
it looks like inside and give it a try
seriously guys this looks so good here we go
simply beautiful what an extraordinary
flavor to this dish and that cod is
perfectly cooked three minutes per side
about half an inch thick on the fillets
you don't wanna overcook it nothing
worse than overcooked fish beautiful
texture to that cod and then that
picada sauce with the almonds the saffron
the garlic it's an explosion of flavors
you know typically the sauce comes from
Catalunya in the north of Spain and they
use it to thicken up other sauces
but it's so good on its own with all these
amazing ingredients you guys saw this
so easy to make done in under 30 minutes
a beautiful cod dish really quick before I
go I'd like to thank one of my new patreons
David Blom
thank you so much for joining Spain on a Fork
on patreon I truly appreciate you
if you guys would like to support Spain on a Fork
on patreon link in the description box
below
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until the next time...Hasta Luego!!
