One Pan White Fish, Tomatoes and Beans

Two recipes: for white fish baked with tomatoes and beans, and a quick caesar salad with leftover roast chicken

Hello! My name is Rebecca May Johnson, I am a writer and cook and this is my Substack. This newsletter has recipes for one pan white fish with tomatoes and beans, and a quick caesar salad made with leftover roast chicken.

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One Pan White Fish, Tomatoes and Beans

There was a family emergency on Saturday and I went over to cook dinner at my brother’s house, and did a drive-by at the supermarket en route for something that could be made while helping look after children and so didn’t involve too much prep – but which would also nourish my sister in law and brother who had been eating out of the freezer while looking after their newborn and two older children.

I’d made something along these lines for them years ago - but here, to save the time of peeling potatoes and for extra protein, I added tinned beans to the pan. I used borlotti and cannellini beans, but chickpeas and butter beans or a mix of the above would work just as well. Also to save time from making my own, I bought this Chovi allioli to eat it with – it’s one of those things like chilli crisp that it becomes tempting to eat with everything – oven pizza crusts especially.

We had a bag of spinach cooked at the last minute in 1cm of boiling water with a lid on, to go with it and ice cream for pudding.

Ingredients

4 fillets of cod (or another white fish fillet), rubbed with a little olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper
200g frozen small prawns
1 X 200g chorizo ring (cooking chorizo) sliced into 1cm pieces
2 tins beans (I used 1 borlotti, 1 cannellini) - reserving the liquid from one tin to add in
750g small-medium size tomatoes
120ml white wine
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red onion, roughly diced
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 small pieces of butter to put on top of each fillet of fish

to finish
1 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

How to make

Pre-heat the oven to 180C, fan. Put the tomatoes, chorizo, onion and garlic in the pan with the olive oil and a pinch of salt and grind of pepper and put in the oven to cook for 15 minutes. Then add the beans and liquid from one tin, the wine, the prawns and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. When you are ready to eat, put the cod on top of the beans with a piece of butter and bake until the fish is flaking, around 10 minutes.

When the fish is cooked, squeeze over the juice of a lemon and sprinkle over parsley. Taste beans for seasoning and add further salt and pepper if desired.

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Caesar salad

On Thursday I roasted a chicken in my favourite way: 1 tablespoon of olive oil rubbed all over, then 1 rounded teaspoon of fine sea salt rubbed all over. 30-40 minutes in the oven at its top temperature (c. 220 C fan) or until golden brown all over, then add potatoes and around 1 hour at 180C – or until the legs move around easily when you move them. If the breast begins to get too browned and I fear it burning, I put a square of foil over it to protect it. That night I had a whole leg (drumstick + thigh) while it was hot the first night - as did Sam, with cooking juices, potatoes and spinach. Then the next evening I made caesar salad.

Everyone has their own take on a caesar salad and I can enjoy it in many ways - one of the best ever was at Pizzeria Ruby in Arkansas last year. They add pickled chillies as a garnish and serve it in huge family style bowls.

This is a version similar to one I made for my friend Lily when she’d just had a baby two years ago, and needed some substantial nourishment – hence the addition of an avocado - which also helps with moisture if it’s good and ripe. I prefer anchovies to be in the dressing to in the salad itself. As a side I cubed then fried leftover roast potatoes in chicken fat, too, which was a good decision.

Ingredients

a generous amount of leftover roast chicken - white meat, ideally, torn into bitesize pieces
1 ripe avocado, cubed
50g parmesan, shaved with a potato peeler or grated – and extra to serve, quantity at your discretion
two slices of bread to make croutons
1-2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed, dried and torn into large pieces

Dressing

6 anchovies
1 large clove of garlic
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 rounded tablespoons of mayonnaise (I used Hellman’s - the point of this is to add some eggy-ness to the flavour, use whichever you prefer)
juice of 1/2-1 lemon
salt and black pepper

How to make

In a pestle and mortar or on a chopping board with the flat side of a large kitchen knife, mash up the garlic with a generous pinch of salt. Then add the anchovies and do the same to them, keep bashing until they are a paste. Then, in a bowl or still in the pestle and mortar, mix in the olive oil and the mayonnaise really well, then add the juice of a lemon to taste. Season with black pepper and extra salt if desired.

To make the croutons: lightly toast the bread in the toaster, then tear into bite size pieces and toss in a frying pan with a tablespoon of hot fat until crispy. On this occasion I had leftover chicken fat, but I also use olive oil, or butter. Sometimes I also rub the bread with garlic, but did not on this occasion.

Put everything – lettuce, chicken, avocado, parmesan shavings, croutons, and all of the dressing in a large salad bowl and mix really well. Serve immediately, with extra parmesan on top.

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Eating note

Sam made a large rösti for breakfast by grating some potatoes, squeezing out the liquid. Adding it to a frying pan with foaming butter then putting it in the oven. He served it with fried egg and it was so good. His mother Emily used to make them for him and his brother and called them potato cakes.