Tropical Cod

One of the things I got from the Philly food swap was tropical conserves, which I was excited to try on fish. It is important to note that conserves are NOT a jam, jelly or preserve. They are made from cooked dried fruits and nuts and have a very thick, chunky texture, so they make a pretty good topping on fish and chicken.

I decided the tropical flavors would pair well with cod, which doesn’t usually taste too fishy to me. You can also soak the cod in milk to eliminate some of the fishy flavor if you really want to. This is not really a recipe since I am just putting the conserves on some fish,  but this is how I cooked it.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb of Pacific Cod fillet
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 4 oz tropical conserves
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the cod fillet into three equal pieces and coat each piece in the coconut oil before placing on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil(for easy clean up later)
3. Cook the fish for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the cod from the oven, spread an equal amount of conserves onto each piece then return the tray to the oven.
5. Cook for 5-10 more minutes or until the fish is opaque but juicy.

I served this fish over my butter lime black radish side dish and it was super good. You could use any kind of conserves you want and could probably even substitute in a preserve or jam in the conserves place if you wanted a very sweet dish. I doubt jelly would be good but you could try it and let me know how it is.

Anyways, because I am not sure the exact way the tropical conserves I used were prepared, I cannot give an accurate estimation of the nutrition, but this is still a pretty healthy and yummy dish.

Philly Food Swap

Yesterday, I attended the Philly food swap at the library..Essentially, a bunch of people bring homemade items to exchange with others. There is really no limit to what you can bring as long as it is homemade and consumable. I have seen everything from laundry detergent to chocolate chip cookies and people are super creative so there is usually a  wide variety of options.

I have attended the exchange a half a dozen times over the past few years and every time I have brought a sweet item(like fudge, cupcakes, donuts and other baked goods) because that is my favorite thing to experiment with and to eat. However, I figured a lot of people would be trying to stick to those pesky new years resolutions and as I am also trying to be healthier I decided to make natural deodorant(tutorial here) and homemade cheez-its (recipe here). I know this is a super random combination but that is what I decided on and both were a hit!

I got all the items I wanted (except for a celery lavender simple syrup that I will definitely be trying to replicate) and have been trying to stop myself from going full-glutton and gobbling up all my spoils in a day. Below is a picture of all the wonderful stuff I got .

It’s kind of hard to see everything but I got: irish cream, grapefruit mint sugar scrub, drupe fruit complex( this is a fruit I previously didn’t know existed but it is similar to a peach and is delicious in this alcoholic drink), savory seed granola(which i wasn’t expecting to like until I tried it and fell in love), and cherry almond granola, raspberry shrub, white chocolate craisin oatmeal cookies, tropical conserves(which is going to be amazing on fish), earl grey tea biscuits(which I am definitely going to try to replicate because they are amazing), and a mini soy candle.

This soy candle is one of the cutest things I have ever seen and I love it so much I don’t even want to burn it. Here is a close up of it:
Come on…adorable, right?

Overall, it was a super successful exchange and I plan on replicating some of this stuff and using others in recipes so look out for those in the next few weeks.