This was a complete winner. I've shied away from lemony dishes recently, but this French classic dish delivered an incredibly balanced, tart, and exciting flavor profile.

I am not sure how this video ended up in my "to watch", but it did and I pretty much followed Adam Byatt's approach. The dish comes together quite quickly after the mise en place is set.

Before starting, pull out the cod and pat it dry. Coat it liberally with a 60/40 blend of table salt and sugar (25 g table salt, 15 g sugar) and allow to cure for 12 minutes. Rinse, pat dry, and rest (for best results uncovered overnight).

Active time: 25 minutes Serves: 2

• 250 g – Fresh Cod fillet

• 100 g salted butter (good quality)

• 1 lemon – segmented with the juice reserved

• 20 g capers

• 20 g cornichons, diced

• 2 slices of sourdough, small dice

• 20 g flat-leaf parsley, finely minced

• 20 ml white wine

• 100 ml fish stock (or suitable replacement)

Melt half of the butter in a sauté pan and toast/sauté the diced sourdough over medium heat until golden and crisp. Drain well.

Once removed, heat up some good quality olive oil on medium-high. Pat the cod dry and place flesh-side down and do not move for 6-8 minutes. Allow the flesh to take on a good color and crust and it will release when ready. Remove and flip so skin-side is down in an ovenproof dish (I used a small sheet pan with a layer of parchment). Add fish stock and put additional chunks of butter on the fish. Braise at 320-350F for 6-8 minutes, remove and rest.

In the same pan, cook the remaining butter to a beautiful brown. The way to tell this is that the butter will foam, and as you swirl it around to keep it from burning, the foam will part. As soon as the foam parts, immediately squeeze/add the lemon juice — there will be spattering — and then the white wine. Shake vigorously to emulsify. Rapidly stir in the diced cornichons, capers, lemon segments, croutons, and parsley. Warm up slightly if needed!

Serve fish (skin removed) over warmed up cauliflower purée on the plate, then spoon the sauce over the fish. Finish with a tad bit of good quality olive oil. It's tremendous. The piquant character of the sauce elevates the fish from "okay" to transportive. We had leftover sauce and as the night went on we ate spoonfuls of it alone.