Poached Fish

Gestoofde vis

800 grams fish filets
(haddock, cod, halibut or turbot)
125 grams butter
3 lemons
1 large onion or 2 shallots
4 rusks (beschuiten) or bread crumbs
salt, pepper, nutmeg and fresh thyme

Rinse the filets and sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Peel and slice the onion or shallots into rings. Thoroughly clean the lemons but do not peel them. Slowly melt 100 grams of the butter over low heat in a large pan and sprinkle in half of the crumbed rusks or bread crumbs. Put the fish on top of this and the onion or shallot rings on top of the fish. Slice 1 1/2 lemons into rings and place those on top of the onions. Use the juice of the remaining 1 1/2 lemons and mix with 500 ml of water. Gently pour this mix into the pan and sprinkle some fresh thyme on top and spread the remaining crumbs, with the remaining butter in small dabs. Slowly bring to a boil, cover the pan and poach over minimum heat for 20 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes and red cabbage.

Haddock in Dutch is schelvis, literally meaning fish in layers where schel means shell or scale or sliver. Cod in Dutch is kabeljauw or in medieval times bakeljouw taken from Spanish and Italian words ‘bacallao’. Halibut in Dutch is heilbot and both words could originate from the fact that the bot or but (a fish so named because of its blunt shape) was a dish for Holy days. Turbot in Dutch is tarbot, where bot again is a fish and the syllable tar originates in medieval Scandinavia, pointing to a word for thorn.