Fish and Seafood

Baked Cod with Ritz Cracker Topping

Once years ago, when I was six years old, visiting my aunt and uncle in Washington D.C., I ate an entire box of Ritz crackers. We never had anything like those crackers at home, so buttery, so delicious. And once I started, I couldn’t stop eating them.
They are banned from my house for the very reason that I still find them impossible to resist. Banned with the exception of this recipe. Have you ever had white fish, baked with a Ritz cracker topping? It’s such a standard in New England that you’ll even find a Ritz cracker and butter mixture already packaged in plastic containers for sale at fish markets.

It’s so easy, all you have to do is put the fish fillets in a baking pan, smother them with the topping, and bake. And the taste? Like lobster—infused with butter. Can you use a different cracker? I don’t think so. You can, of course, but it just won’t taste the same.

Baked Cod with Ritz Cracker Topping Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 20 minutes

Any white, lean fish will work with this recipe. In New England, cod, haddock, pollock and hake are traditional, but walleye, catfish, bass, snapper, Pacific rock cod, striped bass or Gulf Coast redfish will all work.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds skinless cod fillets
• Salt
• 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers (about 34 crackers)
• 5 Tbsp unsalted butter
• Lemon and parsley for garnish (optional)

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a small baking pan or casserole pan with butter or a little oil. Rinse off the fish fillets with cold water, pat dry. Use long nose pliers to remove any pin bones from the fillets. If you want, cut the fillets into large serving pieces. Place the fillets at the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with salt.

2 Melt the butter. Crush the Ritz crackers over a bowl; they should look like coarse breadcrumbs. Mix the melted butter with the breadcrumbs. Pack the crumb mixture over the top and sides of the fish fillets.

3 Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily. (Thin fillets may take less time, very thick fillets may take longer.)
Serve the fish with lemon and parsley.

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Cod Fish Cakes

Preparation time: 40 minutes. Here is a delicious way to use up leftover fish or mashed potatoes. I made my first cod fish cakes after catching my first lingcod (which isn’t actually cod by the way, but it still worked fine).

Cod Fish Cakes Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb of cod fillets
• 2 medium-sized russett potatoes
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• Grapeseed oil, or other high smoke point oil such as canola oil, for frying

Method

1 Boil and mash the potatoes, set them aside.
2 Boil the codfish until it flakes easkly. Drain and flake the fish with a fork. Be sure to remove all bones.
3 Mix the flaked fish, the potatoes and the rest of the ingredients together well by hand. If the mixture is too crumbly, add another egg. If too sticky, add some more bread crumbs.
4 Form the mixture into cakes and fry them on medium high heat in a skillet coated with oil, until nice browned on one side, then flip them over and continue to cook until well browned on the other side.

Yield: Makes 12 fish cakes. Serves 4-6.