Breaded Cod with Tartar Sauce and Spring Vegetables.

It may seem like fish fingers for adults, but this classic way of preparing fish never fails to please.   Sealed in a crunchy coating the fish cooks perfectly and retains all its moisture.    Any fish can be prepared this way but cod is ideal.

Buy your cod in the morning and as soon as you get home unwrap it, sprinkle it with salt and leave in the fridge for the afternoon.   This is not compulsory but gives the fish a firmer texture.

Take the fish out of the fridge and cut it into slices about half and inch thick.    Roll these in flour (because you need something for the egg and breadcrumbs to stick to).     Take an egg or two and separate the yolks from the whites.    The yolks go to the tartar sauce.    Beat the whites lightly.   Then take your breadcrumbs which you have made from an open textured white bread like Ciabata, allowed to go completely stale and crushed with a rolling pin to make a coarse textured crumb, and put some in bowl.    With your right hand, dip the fish in the egg white and drop it onto the breadcrumbs.    With your left hand roll it around until covered and remove it to the frying pan, not yet on the heat.    This way you don't end up with a sticky mess on every fingertip and you have a clean dry hand you can use for other tasks, answering the phone, or whatever.    When all the fish has been coated pour a generous quantity of oil into the pan and put it over a medium heat to cook.    When one side is coloured to a light gold turn them over and repeat on the other side.

Now make the tartar sauce.    The vinegary condiment that goes by that name these days has only tenuous connections with the original.    Tartar in cookery means raw, and all the ingredients of tartar sauce are indeed raw.    They are egg yolk, mustard, olive oil, onion, salted capers, and a generous quantity of fresh herbs which should include chives and parsley as a minimum, and preferably tarragon, chervil, and fennel as well.    Add a teaspoon of mustard to the egg yolk, then beat in oil to make a fairly firm emulsion which is the base of your sauce.    No further seasoning is needed.   As tablespoon or so of chopped onion, a small handful of washed salted capers, and a large handful of chopped fresh herbs.   That's it, no further seasoning needed, and no vinegar.

It's a simple classic and the sauce, of which there should be plenty, is a fine accompaniment not only to the fish but also to boiled potatoes (the last of last season's pink fir apples in the photo, their skins lifted off after cooking) and plain boiled early spring vegetables like purple sprouting broccoli and asparagus.