Newfoundland-Style Cod au Gratin

The terms au gratin refer to any dish that is topped with a white sauce (usually béchamel), cheese (usually cheddar or Gruyere) or bread crumbs mixed with bits of butter, and then heated in the oven until it gets brown and crispy.

Potatoes, crab or scallops are often prepared au gratin, but the classic Newfoundland version of this dish is cod au gratin.  Potatoes prepared “au gratin” are often referred to as “scalloped” potatoes, though the dish contains no seafood.

A true gratin does not need to contain cheese, although cheese certainly adds to the flavor. Béchamel sauce, used in the classic French gratin, is a basic sauce made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a flour-butter roux. The thickness of the final sauce depends on the proportions of milk and flour.

Back in the day, the original Cod at Gratin recipe consisted of cod, butter, flour, milk, onion, salt and pepper to taste, the dish was garnished with bread-crumbs and baked.

According to my research, St. John’s hotel kitchen used to use bread crumbs to top their Cod au Gratin but one night they ran out of breadcrumbs. It was a popular dish and they had to do something, so they substituted breadcrumbs with cheese. The following week when they went back to topping with only breadcrumbs, the folks sent it back demanding cheese be added.

This simple, hearty meal is truly a fantastic way to prepare fresh cod. It can be served with salad greens or steamed vegetables. Today there are many variation of this dish, adding root vegetables, utilizing different cheeses, breadcrumbs, percentages of milk, cream, spices or a combination thereof.  One has to be very careful not to stray too much from the original recipe before the taste changes and becomes a different dish. In my recipe I include cheese to the original ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound cod fillets*
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 cup mild cheddar cheese, grated

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add cod fillets and cook for 4 to 6 minutes; drain.

Make the béchamel sauce in a heavy saucepan by melting butter,

then stirring in the flour until smooth.

Remove from heat and gradually stir in half the milk.

Return to heat and beat until smooth and shiny. Gradually add remaining milk, 1/2 the cheese, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper. Cook, stirring, until sauce is smooth and thickened.

Grease a large au gratin dish, individual gratin dishes, other baking dish.  Pour a little sauce in dish,

break the fish into large chunks and layer fish, onion, sauce, cheese and sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.

 

Bake uncovered for 15-30 minutes until sauce bubbles and cheese begins to brown, and fish is completely cooked.

*Ingredient Note: Overfishing and trawling have drastically reduced the number of cod in the Atlantic Ocean and destroyed its seafloor. A better choice is Pacific cod (aka Alaska cod); it is more sustainably fished and has a larger, more stable population, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, click the image below for more information.

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