Who better to help raise money for hungry children than people who spend their lives cooking such good food that we all eat too much? There is a pleasing symmetry about Restaurants Against Hunger Week (which started on October 9 and ends on October 17), as top chefs, from Rick Stein to Giorgio Locatelli, throw themselves behind the effort to promote that most basic of human rights: enough food for survival.

You can get behind it, too, simply by dining out at a participating restaurant this week, such as the airy and elegant 1 Lombard Street restaurant in EC3, then making a small donation to Restaurants Against Hunger Week when you pay the bill. If you find the idea of dining at a top restaurant at odds with the idea of raising money for the less well-fed, think again. Guilt is paralysing and helps nobody. All funds raised will go directly to Action Against Hunger, to respond immediately to emergencies such as that in Sudan, and to continue to help people grow their own food.

For more information, visit www.restaurantsagainsthunger.org and click on the participants directory for a list of restaurants in London and throughout the country.

Here is a simplified version of Herbert Berger’s milk-poached cod on the brasserie menu at 1 Lombard Street. Alternatively, you could hang up your frying pan and book a table instead to help a good cause (020-7929 6611).

Ingredients
Serves 4

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 30 min

Serve with buttery mashed potatoes

4x 180g thick cod steaks

Broth:

500ml milk
250ml water
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns
Maldon sea salt
200g peas, lightly cooked

Sauce:

200ml fish stock
100ml dry white wine
100g crème fraîche
1 tbsp salted capers, rinsed
1 tbsp butter
sea salt and pepper
3 tbsp finely chopped flat parsley

METHOD

Combine the broth ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil. Place the cod steaks in the pan, bring to a simmer and let the cod “set” in the stock, without boiling, for about 6 minutes, depending on thickness. Remove the cod gently, cover and keep warm.

To make the sauce, boil the fish stock and white wine until reduced to 200ml. Add the crème fraîche and simmer for a few minutes until it is nice and velvety. Keep stirring while you add the cooked peas, capers, butter, sea salt, pepper and most of the parsley.

Serve the cod on a bed of buttery mashed potatoes in four warm pasta plates. Then spoon the hot sauce over and around the cod. Scatter with the remaining parsley and serve.

www.timesonline.co.uk/foodandwine — for previous recipes from T2

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