Galton Blackiston serves baked cod with a vibrant herb crust, providing colour and texture to this beautiful dish. Both the herb crust and the parsnip purée are created in a Vitamix – the herb crust benefiting from a consistent, fine texture and the purée from a silky-smooth finish.
To begin, make the parsnip purée. Peel the parsnips and dice into small pieces. Place in a saucepan, cover with cold water and add a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and simmer until very tender
450g of
parsnip, peeled and diced into small pieces
2
Drain thoroughly and transfer to a Vitamix. Add the cream, season with a little freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and select Variable 1. Start the machine, gradually increase to Variable 8 and blend for 30 seconds, or until you have a silky-smooth purée. Taste again and adjust the seasoning if necessary
To make the crumb for the cod, remove the crusts from the bread slices, add the bread to the Vitamix and pulse until you have breadcrumbs (do not pulse too much), you want an even crumb
3 slices of stale bread
4
Add the herbs and garlic and continue pulsing until you have a fine herb crumb mixture, which is a vibrant green colour. Remove from the Vitamix and place in a bowl
Next, melt the butter and dip one side of each cod fillet into it. Spread a thin layer of creamed horseradish over the buttered side, and then press this side of the fish into the breadcrumbs
Place the cod in the oven and bake for 5–10 minutes according to the thickness of the fillets. The fish is cooked once the flesh just starts to flake when pushed with your finger
9
Using a mandoline, slice the carrots lengthways and heat through in a pan of salted boiling water with a knob of butter. Drain and season
You can colour the crumb topping a little more by finishing it under a hot grill, if preferred. Serve with warm parsnip purée and ribbons of baby carrot
There can't be many Michelin-starred chefs who started out selling homemade cakes, biscuits and preserves on a market stall in Rye in 1979. Yet, the quietly spoken, endearingly eccentric Galton Blackiston isn't like other chefs.
