Fried Cod on Creamy Orzo PD2025-09-02
The continuing adventures of an inexperienced cook:
I tried my new air fryer to cook up some cod (coated w/ a little olive oil, salt, pepper & Old Bay seasoning), and used my instant pot to make a creamy bed of garlicy & parmesan cheesy Orzo pasta for it (found an easy recipe online). Combined with a side salad w/ some balsamic vinaigrette they all turned out really yummy and worked great w/ each other. Didn’t need any dipping sauce for the fish, as the creamy Orzo was sauce enough for the somewhat crispy & flaky fish, while the crisp salad and acidic dressing cut through the rich flavors of the fish & orzo nicely.
I’m slowly learning to experiment and what works well together. For example the creamy Orzo called for a couple tablespoons of milk, which I did not have, so I used the same amount of sour cream and it was great. For something I put together on the fly, I found it really simple, pretty quick and very yummy. I might try some tricks to make the fish even crispier, like coating w/ some Panko, or just using a feature of my air frier which bumps the heat for the last minute or two. I may have to make this for the family some night now that I have tested it on myself. It will certainly be added to my go to list.
Here’s some webpages I referred to when putting this together to make sure I didn’t utterly screw it up: