I recently spent a lot of quarantine time with my boyfriend's family in Groningen. And that's when I got to know his mum's delicious visschotel. A "visschotel" is the Dutch word for ... well ... a fish dish? In her own student times, his mum created this dish with a bunch of friends based on a traditional Portuguese dish. It's so delicious that when I make it myself I have to try hard not to eat the whole thing in one sitting. It's a lot of carrot, some cod and a creamy béchamel sauce. Divine!
Ingredients (3-4 servings)
~5 large Carrots
1 large Onion
300g Cod fish
40g Butter
40g Flour
150ml Milk
150ml Vegetable Broth
1 Egg
Pinch of Nutmeg
Pepper
40g grated Cheese (I prefer Parmesan or Gouda)
Some black Olives
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Peel and grate the carrots into a large bowl. Chop up the onion and mix with the carrots. Give the fish a rinse under cold water. Gently pat it dry with some kitchen paper and cut it into chunks of about 3x3cm.
In a small pot, melt the butter on medium-low heat. Don't let it burn or brown. Add the flour and mix until it turns into a dry looking lump. You may need to add some extra flour, in case the mixture is still too liquid. Add the milk and broth bit by bit. It is very important that you keep stirring continuously and wait until the flour-butter mix has fully absorbed the liquid before you add more (otherwise the béchamel gets lumpy and we don't want that. Nobody wants that). I basically add some broth, stir until it's absorbed, then I add some milk, stir until it's absorbed, and so on... Do this until the béchamel has a thick pudding consistency (if you draw your spoon through it. If it leaves a trail your béchamel is ready. If smoothes out again, increase the heat a bit and stir for a bit longer).
Remove the béchamel from the heat source and leave to cool for a bit. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and add some tablespoons of the slightly cooled béchamel. Stir well and then add the egg-mixture to the pot of béchamel sauce (doing it like this will prevent the egg from clotting into nasty little bits before you've finished stirring it in). Season the béchamel with pepper and nutmeg, and stir in the grated cheese until it's dissolved.
Fill half of the grated carrot and onion into a baking dish. Lay the fish pieces into equidistant rows. Cover with the remaining grated carrot and onion. Pour the béchamel evenly over the dish, push some olives into the mix and place in the oven to bake for about 20-30 minutes. When the dish is turning slightly brown at the top it should be ready. To make sure the fish is done, probe a piece from the centre. The fish should no longer be smooth or shiny but have a texture to it.
Comments