Cod with Bok Choy Soba Noodles
Cod with bok choy soba noodles will make you feel like you are enjoying a wonderful dining out experience but, in the comfort of your own home. This is definitely a meal that stands outside of your normal routine menu. And to be honest, we stumbled upon making this recipe. As much as I love seafood, I have a bad habit of not buying it enough. Lucky for us, we made a new friend on our journey who runs a seafood market in South Philadelphia. We walked out of there with some cod that was so fresh and so meaty that it deserved some special treatment!
Fate Brought us to a Wine Festival
After we left Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (where we made the balsamic marinated flank steak) we drove into New Jersey and pulled into Riverview Beach Park to have a late lunch. To our surprise, there was a wine festival going on. Aaron and I both love wine and were happy to catch the final two hours of the event (twist our arm). One of the last wine vendors that we walked up to was DiMatteo Vineyards, which was where we met our new friend Anthony.
Anthony is an outgoing, passionate individual who brightens up a room with his infectious energy. We hit it off with some small talk and found out Anthony’s main business is in seafood, at B & A Seafood in South Philadelphia. We were on our way to Philadelphia, PA next, so that’s when our relationship with Anthony got serious. He immediately disproved the “Philly Attitude” stereotype and gave us eating recommendations for our visit to Philly and invited us out to see his seafood market. Anthony had only met us for 5 minutes and gave us the warmest Philly welcome we could ever ask for, setting the tone for our new found love of this passionate and hard working blue collar city.
This seafood market was so impressive, with rows of exotic (to us) fresh seafood packed in ice. Being from Minnesota, Aaron and I haven’t been exposed to this type of experience before. It is a high quality warehouse offering fresh and frozen seafood, and is open to the public Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Some of their offerings include fillets, head fish, red snappers, pelagics, shellfish, salmon, crabs, we even saw shark. We ended up getting salmon and cod fillets.
We Fell in Love with Love Park
Philadelphia was a highlight city for us. The city has a nice blend of old historic charm mixed with big city bustle. Walking around in big cities is what we do best. We walked and saw the sites: Love Park, the Liberty Bell, City Hall, Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and of course the Philadelphia Museum of Art where I did my best Rocky impersonation. We loved it there. But part of the magic was meeting Anthony. One of the best parts of our new RV lifestyle is the amazing people that you get to meet. When a stranger becomes a friend and treats you like family, it is remarkable.
After Philadelphia we were heading toward Atlantic City. And it just so happens that the DiMatteo Vineyards was directly on our route to our next RV park. We had discovered this at the wine fest and had planned to spend one night at the vineyards. DiMatteo is a Harvest Hosts participant, which we have been members of since purchasing our Airstream Interstate in December, 2018. Harvest Hosts is a membership program that provides access to a network of wineries, farms, breweries, golf courses, and museums that offers RVers a place to visit and spend the night. If you are interested in joining, use my link to save 15% off your membership fee.
The Host with the Most
We met the owner, Frank DiMatteo, at the Wine festival and he encouraged us to come visit. When we pulled into this remote vineyard there was one other car there with guests enjoying wine on the outdoor patio. Frank was inside, and warmly welcomed us as we came inside. We enjoyed a thorough tasting and picked out our favorite bottles for purchase. After a quick tour Frank made sure we had everything we needed to be comfortable for the night. We had such a great stay here, and it was the perfect backdrop to cook up this fantastic cod dinner.
Cod with Bok Choy Soba Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 pound cod
- 1 tbls liquid aminos
- 1 tbls rice wine vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp hoisin sauce
- 1 head bock choy leaves and stems separated and chopped
- 6 oz soba/buckwheat noodles
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil divided
- ½ cup green onions diced and separated
- 2 cloves grated garlic
- 1 ” fresh ginger root grated
- ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- ¼ - ½ cup water
- 2 lemons sliced into wedges
- 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds white and/or black
Instructions
- Remove cod from the refrigerator and set on counter top to remove chill.
- Combine liquid amino, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and hoisin sauce into small airtight container and shake until well combined. Set aside.
- Wash, and separate bok choy leaves from stems. Chop and set aside in respective piles.
- Cook soba noodles according to package instructions, careful not to overcook. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Drain in colander and set aside.
- Prepare cod by blotting dry with paper towel, then season with salt and pepper.
- Heat large dutch oven or pot to medium/high heat, add 1 tbls olive oil, add garlic, ginger, ¼ cup green onion, and red pepper flake and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add bok choy stems, salt, pepper, and fish sauce and cook for 5 minutes. Add the bok choy greens and water and cover with lid, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, heat medium sized skillet over high heat and add 1 tbls olive oil. Cook cod 3-6 minutes per side, depending on thickness, flipping halfway and cooking all the way through.
- Add the noodles back into the pot with the bok choy. Mix in desired amount of dressing, taste, and add additional salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Garnish with remaining green onions, lemon wedges, and sesame seeds upon serving.
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