We watched Bobby Flay on Iron Chef Challenge butter poach a piece of fish. It looked so easy, and yummy. We thought we would try it out ourselves. Not so easy. But pretty yummy. We found some white fish at Costco (Cod to be exact) that looked very fresh. I also bought 3 bushels of spinach and followed a recipe from Food Network for Creamed Spinach.

Creamed Spinach:
Ingredients
2 pounds fresh spinach, washed and tough stems removed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Drain in a fine mesh strainer, pressing with a large spoon to release as much water as possible. Finely chop and set aside.

Melt the butter in medium saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, just until the liquid is released. Add the cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook until the cream is reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.

Butter Poached Cod:
1 lb. white fish (we used Cod, obviously)
1 lb. unsalted butter (we used salted and when you read my verdict you will see why I say unsalted)
lemon juice

Melt butter in saucepan, watching not to burn it. Place fish in the butter. Cook on side #1 for a few minutes (let’s say 4) and turn, cook other side. Check to see if fish is white, not clear on the inside and flakes easily with fork. Drizzle with a bit of lemon juice.

Verdict: I used a yellow onion in my spinach. Bad idea. It tasted like onion and that was it. Had I used shallots it probably would have been amazing. Boo. The fish was cooked perfectly, but super salty. We later found out when telling our friend David that we made Cod, that Cod happens to be one salty little fish. Who knew? David did. We did not. It made Eric feel better because he thought he messed up and declared himself a bad chef. I told him to go easy on himself because it was honestly cooked so amazingly well. Next time, unsalted butter, and maybe not Cod. Otherwise a B for this dish! It might be an A next time, it knows what it did wrong.