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Times
16-07-2025
- General
- Times
Tomás Gormley's cod en papillote recipe
Cooking fish en papillote — wrapping it up and steaming it gently — sounds more technical than it is. While parchment paper or tin foil is the modern go-to, people have been cooking this way for ever, from banana-leaf steaming in South America to clay-pot cooking in Asia. Here, sweet, slow-cooked leeks and wild garlic create a mellow, allium-rich base that makes everything taste better, while romesco — a smoky, nutty sauce born from Spanish fishermen making the most of what they had — brings contrast. Traditionally, romesco was about stretching ingredients, thickened with stale bread and ground nuts rather than just olive oil. This version keeps that spirit alive, with a touch of dark chocolate for extra depth. I first came across romesco while cooking in Catalonia during the summer months as a private chef early in my career. I was pretty out of my depth — or at least it felt that way at the time — so I stuck to recipes I knew I could get the ingredients for. Most of them came from the outstanding cookbook Catalan Cuisine by Colman Andrews, a deeply researched and practical guide filled with recipes, stories, and anecdotes about the region's rich history, language, and culture. It became an essential resource, not just for its insightful recipes, but for helping me to understand the context behind the food — which, in Catalonia, means everything. Serves 2For the cod en papillote • 2 fillets of cod (about 150g each)• 1 medium leek, thinly sliced• 1 small handful wild garlic, roughly chopped• 1 tbsp olive oil• 1 tbsp white wine• ½ Amalfi lemon, zest and juice• Salt and black pepper• Tin foil sheets For the romesco • 30g blanched almonds• 1 small slice stale bread, torn into pieces• 2 roasted red peppers (jarred or freshly roasted)• 1 garlic clove, peeled• 1 tsp smoked paprika• ½ tsp sherry vinegar• 3 tbsp olive oil• 10g dark chocolate (85 per cent cocoa or higher), finely chopped• Salt and black pepper 1. To make the romesco, toast the almonds in a dry pan over medium heat until golden, then set aside. Toast the bread in the same pan with a drizzle of olive oil until crisp. 2. Blend together the roasted red peppers, toasted bread, almonds, garlic, smoked paprika and sherry vinegar until mostly smooth. With the blender running, drizzle in the olive oil to emulsify. Stir in the dark chocolate while the sauce is still slightly warm, letting it melt into the mixture. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Set aside. 3. Now prepare the cod. Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas 6, lay out two sheets of parchment paper and divide the sliced leeks and wild garlic between them. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Place a cod fillet on top of each pile of leeks. Drizzle with white wine, lemon juice and a little olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and lemon zest. Fold the parchment over the fish and crimp the edges tightly to form a sealed parcel. Place on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 min, until the fish is opaque and flakes easily. • Read more restaurant reviews and recipes from our food experts 4. To assemble, open the cod parcels carefully and transfer the fish with its leeks to a plate. Spoon the stale bread romesco over or alongside the fish. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and scatter with a few wild garlic leaves for freshness. Tomás Gormley is owner and head chef at Cardinal in Edinburgh's Eyre Place (
Los Angeles Times
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Recipes for a ‘too good to be true' combo — chocolate and bread
A couple of weeks ago at my morning coffee klatch, an informal group of friends who look for each other every morning at Go Get 'Em Tiger on Larchmont Boulevard, the conversation went from passionate thoughts on 'The White Lotus' Season 3 finale to where to take a tween on her first trip to New York City to — and how we got here I don't know, but that's how conversations go in the klatch — the simple and decadent combination of bread and chocolate. Yes, bread and chocolate. Each word on its own evokes something comforting and delicious. Together, they're almost too good to be true. The chocolate croissant — buttery, layered and ever so slightly salty pastry with a single slim bar of dark chocolate at its center — is the most common example of the pairing. Chocolate Babka (aka the best babka) is nothing new. And then, of course, there is Nutella, the chocolate-hazelnut spread that Italian children are allowed to call 'breakfast.' I've never been a huge fan of Nutella. It's too sweet and the texture makes me feel like I'm eating melted wax — sugar is the first ingredient, followed by palm oil, so that explains that. But I could definitely get behind this homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread, which you can use to make Grilled Nutella and Pecan Sandwiches. The first time I encountered bread and chocolate was in 2001, over lunch in an olive grove in the hills outside Barcelona with Colman Andrews, the founder of Saveur magazine. We enjoyed an entire feast in that grove, but it's the dessert that has stuck with me. After clearing the table, the hosts, presumably the owners of the grove, left on the table bottles of green, fruity olive oil, dishes of sea salt and giant, half-eaten loaves of country bread, and set down blocks of dark chocolate broken up by stabbing it with a knife like a block of ice. As the sun began to set on the day and the conversation and wine continued to flow freely, we each ripped off hunks of bread, doused them in olive oil, arranged shards of chocolate on top, and sprinkled the whole thing with sea salt. It was exactly the sort of experience you'd write home about. Not long afterward, I hosted a party with grilled cheese sandwiches as the main event. (I love a party where I find ways to get people to make their own food, and a grilled cheese sandwich party is just that.) I borrowed a commercial panini press and set out loaves of sliced brioche, butter, olive oil, salt, sliced Gruyère cheese and Italian sliced meats, and let guests have their way with it all. Come dessert time, I set out a pile of foil-wrapped, slim dark chocolate bars. If you are looking for ways to find the child within any grown-up, give them the opportunity to make a grilled chocolate sandwich. Guests were in awe! They staggered around, eating crunchy, grilled bread oozing a layer of melted, glossy dark chocolate, amazed at what they had made — with just chocolate and bread. Chocolate bread pudding, such as Ray Garcia's Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding or Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding, turns the combination into a proper dessert. And if you're up for making something a little fancier (but not difficult!), try Nancy Silverton's Bittersweet Chocolate Tartufo With Olive Oil Fried Croutons. Which brings me back to breaking bread. Fondue, the ultimate bread-breaking, communal eating experience, IMO, is ready for a comeback, and that includes chocolate fondue. And in today's culinary world of 'anything goes,' it could get a lot more interesting. For the chocolate version, forget about those enormous, out-of-season strawberries with white centers and no flavor. Dip a salted, buttery or oily crouton in that chocolate fountain instead and thank me later. Not surprisingly, my friend Trisha Cole, a travel and food publicist and author of 'Life at the Dumpling,' a guidebook for living an attainable 'best life,' complete with homemade everything, poetry and teenagers who aren't pinned to their devices (she's living hers in Glassell Park), says that a baguette and dark chocolate is her family's go-to camping dessert. Bread and chocolate a dessert for discerning tastes, for those who appreciate simplicity, for 'ingredient' households (a.k.a. snackless homes) and for non-dessert people. And if you have the opportunity to enjoy it with red wine and the people you love, even better. Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts' insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they're dining right now. Nancy Silverton manages to make even the most unexpected combinations seem so perfect as to be obvious. Croutons? With chocolate? But of course! The croutons in this elegant dessert are fried in olive oil, salted and strewn over an ethereal dark chocolate truffle. She serves the truffle with a scoop of olive oil gelato on the side. Cheat with vanilla gelato topped with quality olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Get the time: 1 hour. Serves 8. Brioche is cut into chunks and set aside overnight to dry, allowing for maximum custard absorption. The bread chunks are then layered into a baking dish with chopped chocolate, thinly sliced bananas and custard, and set in the refrigerator to get down to the business of absorbing. Just before baking, more custard is added. The result: chunks of pillowy bread, crunchy on the outside and custardy on the inside, laced with caramelized banana and dark chocolate — proof that good things come to those who the time: 1 hour 20 minutes. Serves 16 to 20. You thought croissants were rich; try them soaked in heavy cream and egg yolks. With Studio City's legendary Pinot Bistro now closed for more than a decade, those who still remember the place — many regulars claimed to come for the chocolate croissant bread pudding — can make it at the time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Serves 6. With toasted hazelnuts and crushed Italian cookies rolled in with the dough, and a thick layer of chocolate glaze drizzled on top, this is not your bubbe's babka. The dough needs to rest overnight in the fridge, so you can go to bed dreaming about the slice (or two) you will enjoy with your morning the time: 1 hour 20 minutes plus rising time. Makes 2 babkas.
