Fish escabeche (Hot marinated fish)

Submitted on 6/13/2016 by Natascha for Latin week (week starting 6/19/2016)

Author bio: I am a Canadian English teacher living in Spain. Cooking is my hobby!

Natascha also has her own blog that we follow, Natascha’s Palace, where she posts many delicious recipes. Its a site well worth visiting.

Thank you, Natascha

Recipe country of origin: Peru

Description: This is a simple and quick recipe that uses hake or cod and vegetables. The method of preparation is very popular in Spain as well. The vegetables still maintain their fresh crunchiness and taste so good! I used some small sweet peppers that I found in the supermarket but as these are not always available, I recommend using half of a large sweet red, yellow and green pepper. The colours look just gorgeous on the plate! As for the fish, you can use almost any white fish of your choice. My fish was cod and I was very careful to remove the bones first. It is a good idea to have some crusty bread to dip into the gorgeous sauce.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 large fish fillets
Plain flour for dusting
Olive oil or vegetable oil for frying
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 purple onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
7-8 small sweet peppers of various colours or half of a large red, yellow and green
pepper. These should be sliced into strips.
2 tomatoes, desseded and chopped
50 ml red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of a chili paste of your choice
50 ml fish stock (fresh or store bought)
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

1. Season the fish with salt and pepper and dust it with flour. Coat the base of the frying pan with vegetable oil or olive oil and heat over medium heat. Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown.

2. Remove the fish from the frying pan. Add the olive oil, turn the heat up and add the purple onion, garlic and peppers. Fry until they have softened a bit then add the tomatoes. Fry for another minute then add the vinegar and chili paste. Add the fish stock and bay leaf and then bring to a boil. Season with sugar, oregano, cumin, salt and black pepper if necessary.

3. Return the fish to the frying pan and warm through the sauce. Transfer to serving plates and spoon the sauce and veggies over the fillets.

*As I removed the bones from the fish, I had some small chunks of fish instead of the fillets. It made no difference. This dish was excellent and my husband has asked me to make it again!

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