It is rare that I love a dish quite this much. When time almost stops and it’s so good you even momentarily forget about the wine – in this case a dry Italian moscato – and when conversation becomes only an afterthought.
The dish in question arrived at Pidgin in east London, a small and now almost eight-year-old independent spot owned by restaurateur James Ramsden and musician Sam Herlihy. The pair recently appointed a new head chef, Naz Hassan, who was born in Bangladesh and later moved to Milan with his parents. The family now runs a carefree Tex Mex venue in the city. I’m told it’s doing well. It’s also where Hassan first learned to cook.
Stints at restaurants like BiBi, The Cut at 45 Park Lane, and Jason Atherton’s Social Eating House followed – affording the chef a medley of experience – and now Hassan has fluttered into Pidgin, where he made everyone coo when he was casually announced.
In these difficult times, Pidgin is one of those restaurants thoroughly deserving of custom and acclaim. It is a diminutive operation. It is also one
of the few London restaurants to change its entire menu, always in the tasting format at around eight courses, every week. In little under a decade, no dish has ever been served again.
It is remarkable that the head chef at Pidgin dreams up, creates, and cooks eight courses every seven days. And then there’s the kitchen team to manage and teach all the while. It makes the dish I’m about to introduce all the more impressive – and also why I became so keen to source the recipe almost immediately so I might replicate it at home. After all, it’s now consigned to history.
Hassan’s cooking isn’t straightforward. It’s a canny blend of techniques and flavours, leaning into Italy but plucking ideas from much farther afield. Last week, his menu meandered from tempura plaice to a saffron risotto (there’s the Milanese nod) before turning up calmly at a Paris-Brest.
By far the star of the show to me, though, was his cod dish, super modern and disarming as it was. In the recipe – exquisitely considered, and delicate, but doable in the home – the fish is first lightly cured before being placed in a confit of olive oil, and then it’s poached. After, there’s celeriac for earthiness, pickled chilli for a touch of fire, and peaches, fresh and buoyant and lovely with the cod. It’s a beautifully balanced and generous plate of food.
Hassan’s recipe also includes a lemon and verbena gel, which I’ve included, but can be missed off if a touch tricky – it’s that last bit of a restaurant fuss which might prove elevating when done by a professional but probably isn’t necessary all the same.
CELERIAC AND PICKLED CHILLI PUREE
SERVES 4 / ONE COD FILLET PER PERSON
1kg celeriac
250g butter
250g cream
250g milk
2.5g chilli pickle (we use chouk, but a classic jarred chilli pickle of your liking should do)
6g salt
6g honey
6g lemon juice
Dice the celeriac into 1cm cubes and place in bowl of cold water.
Cook 125g of the double cream until it splits and becomes a beurre noisette.
Add all the butter and roast the cream further until golden brown. Once happy with the colour of your burnt butter, add the rest of the cream and the milk.
While bringing it to the boil, strain your celeriac; once the milk is boiling, drop the celeriac in and cook very quickly at high heat until the celeriac is soft enough to be pureed. Blend with high-speed blender until smooth.
PEACH AND VERBENA GEL:
300ml peach flavoured vinegar
55g sugar
110g water
125g lemon verbena
9g xanthan gum
Combine all the ingredients and bring to 92 degrees for at least 3 minutes.
Set in a lined baking tray in the fridge.
Once set blend with high-speed blender.
POACHED COD:
65g/70g cod
50g sugar
50g salt
1 litre oil for confit
Lemon verbena 125g
Once you have your fillet of cod, cure with salt and sugar for 15 minutes to firm the meat of the fish. Wash under cold water after 15 minutes and dry gently with a cloth.
Infuse your confit oil with the lemon verbena for 45 mins at 80 degrees.
Once infused, poach your cod in the oil at 80 degrees for 6/7 minutes.
GARNISH:
Fresh peaches: sliced as thinly as possible.
Celeriac baton: Cut a piece of celeriac soldiers into 3cm length and 1cm depth. Cook the celeriac batons for 15 minutes in a steamer above boiling water, brush with a bit of honey and season with salt, then pan roast in a little oil on medium-high until golden – approx 2-3 minutes.
Celeriac crisps: Slice very thinly all the offcuts of your celeriac you used for the puree and the batons, and fry at 170C until golden. Season with salt.
Lemon verbena: Some tips of this herb.
