Tag Archives: fish

Fish and Seafood

Chupe de Camarones

Chilean shrimp stew

1-1/2 lbs jumbo shrimp in shells
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 lb. whitefish heads and trimmings
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large tomato, chopped
1 tsp. chopped chiles
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 quarts water
2 large potatoes, cubed
2 potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 lb. green peas
1/2 cup long grain rice
2 ears of corn, cut in thirds
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Clean the shrimp, saving shells. In a casserole, heat the oil. Add onion, shrimp shells, fish trimmings, and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 6 minutes.

Stir in tomato, chile, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook 3 minutes. Add water and diced potatoes. Cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Pour into a sieve over a bowl and force through with a spoon. Discard the pulp. Return puree to casserole, bring to a boil and add potato halves and rice. Simmer for 25 minutes.

Add peas and corn. Simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Drop in shrimp and cook 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat eggs. Pour eggs slowly into the stew. Add milk and simmer to heat through. Season and sprinkle with parsley.

Fish and Seafood

Fish ‘n’ Chips Beer Batter

Ah, those crispy hunks of batter-laden fish with a pile of homemade french fries! At home, Mom usually used cod fish fillets or sometimes halibut. The beer in this batter makes it light and extra crisp.

  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 pint beer
  • 1/4 cup cooking oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 egg whites
  • fish fillets

Combine the flour, beer, and cooking oil, and let stand in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes.

Add salt. Beat the egg whites stiff. Fold into the flour mixture. Dip fish in flour and then in batter. Deep fry until crisp and golden in a good quality, very hot oil.

Fish and Chips

Appetizers

Gefilte Fish

Gefilte fish is poached minced fish appetizer popular on Jewish holidays but also eaten year-round.

Gert Cohen’s Gefilte Fish

  • 4 lbs. fish fillets
  • head and skin of fish
  • 5 onions
  • 4 t salt
  • 1-1/2 t pepper
  • 1 t sugar
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 5-1/2 cups water
  • 3 T cracker meal
  • 2 sliced carrots

Grind fish and onion together. Place in wooden bowl. Add 2 t salt, 3/4 t pepper, sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup water and cracker meal. Chop well. Place head and skin of fish in pot. Add rest of onion, carrots, water, salt and pepper. Boil.

Shape chopped fish into 2″ balls. Drop into boiling broth. Cover and cook 1-1/2 hours. Remove fish balls. Strain and chill stock until jellied. Serve gefilte fish balls and jelly with horseradish.

Vegetarian Gefilte Fish

3 medium potatoes, peeled
2 medium onions, finely chopped
vegetable oil for frying
1 large eggplant
2 cloves garlic, minced/crushed
2 T chopped fresh parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
paprika
matzo meal as required

Get the preparation instructions for vegetarian version of Gefilte Fish from http://www.jewishfood-list.com/recipes/fish/gfish/gfishveg01.html

 

Appetizers

Ceviche Acapulco Style

Ceviche is a delicious white fish marinated in lime juice, Acapulco style.

Ceviche is made throughout Latin America, and there are many styles, although all involve marinating (or “cooking”) raw fish in lime or lemon juice. Historians claim that ceviche originated in the coastal regions of Peru and was spread during colonial times to other parts of the Americas.

Acapulco-style ceviche is typically made with chopped tomatoes, onion, chile peppers, and fresh coriander leaves. This particular version also includes optional olives, garlic, and parsley.

Ceviche Acapulco Style recipe (artwork by Stella)
Fish by Stella, 2010

Ingredients for Acapulco-style Ceviche

  • 1 lb. white fish such as dorado (mahi-mahi)
  • Lemon or lime juice
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 T parsley, chopped
  • 4 T coriander leaves, chopped
  • 2 T green olives, chopped
  • 1 small clove garlic, crushed
  • salt

Cut fish into small cubes or strips. Cover with lemon or lime juice. Refrigerate for 6 hours or more, turning occasionally to make sure all the fish is immersed well in the juice. Drain and rinse slightly under cold water to remove excess lemon juice.

Combine tomato, onion, chile peppers, olive oil, parsley, coriander, olives, garlic and salt. Pour over fish. Allow to sit in fridge, covered, for at least 1 hour before serving.

Serve with crackers or tostadas (tortilla chips).

Fish and Seafood

Huachinango a la Veracruzana

Huachinango is the name for red snapper in Spanish. Veracruz-style fillets of red snapper are a Mexican favorite.

It is a savory fish dish seasoned with a medley of spices and the tang of green olives and chile peppers. Veracruz style red snapper is often made with whole red snappers instead of the fillets. This is only one of many variations.

Ingredients for Huachinango a la Veracruzana (Red Snapper Fish Veracruz Style)

  • 6 fillets of red snapper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 cups tomato puree
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp cloves
  • 3 jalapeños, chopped
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 12 small new potatoes, pared and boiled
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 5 slices bread, cubed
  • 15 green olives
  • Salt and pepper

Fry bread cubes in butter until crisp and golden. Set aside. Dust fillets with flour. Heat oil and sauté the fish fillets. Set aside.

To same pan, add onion and garlic, adding more oil if necessary. Sauté until soft. Add tomato puree, cinnamon and cloves. Cook 5 minutes. Add chiles, lemon juice, and sugar, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.

Add potatoes and fish and heat thoroughly. Serve fish on a platter with the sauce, garnished with croutons and olives. Servings: 6

Fish by Carol

Fish and Seafood

Dad’s Pescado Veracruzana

This recipe for Veracruz-style fish was developed by Dad over the years. He always used cazon,  or baby shark, which is a very firm fish. The recipe instructions as presented are just as he wrote them out. I have added the ingredients list separately above to make it easier to prepare at a glance.

  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2-3 chiles largos, canned
  • 1-1/2 cups pitted olives
  • 1/4 cup capers
  • 1 T Knorr chicken bouillon granules
  • juice of 2 limes
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
  • 1-2 small tomatoes, chopped
  • Cazon fillets for four (baby shark)
  • water as necessary

Fish by Carol

Veracruzana.

(portion for four)

In three quarter cup of olive oil fry one medium chopped onion, add two or three chiles largos ( strong long yellow pepper preserves preferred)  To tame hotness seeds can be removed. Add one to one and half cups  pitted olives and half cup of capers.  A table spoonful of Knorr’s chicken powder, juice of two limes, one finely chopped carrot. One stalk of finely chopped celery, one or two small tomatoes.

Bring mixture to a boil and then let simmer for an hour or two before adding fish. The longer it simmers the better the taste.

Quantity of fish depends on appetite and size of fillets.  Baby shark (cazon) is my favorite but any white fish fillet can be used I believe. Fish should be filleted bone free and sliced thinly.  I believe that tuna can be substituted but I am not sure.  Not being too familiar with the fish available in Canada this may take some experimentation.

The fish can be placed into boiling sauce for stove top cooking in covered pot for ten minutes (Time is for cazon other varieties may require more time.)   Best is to place fish into baking dish and bake for about fifteen minutes at high heat.

You may wish to alter the consistency of the sauce by adding water.

Good luck and enjoy it.

 

Soups and Stews

Fish Soup

7 April, 2010

FOR ERIC CANTONA

Time: Don’t hurry. Don’t rush to heat ingredients quickly. This soup welcomes the concept of gentle simmering.

JayFishSoupEquipment:  A tureen. Not a big saucepan. A tureen. Capiche? Plus a good frying pan. And gas. Gas electric if possible.

Accompany with: Crusty heated rustic bread for dipping and mopping up. Not not garlic bread – this will overpower the soup’s flavours.

Serve with: A cold crisp white or at a push a rose; not beer but cider or perry. Alternatively elderflower or light compresses but not fruit juice.

INSTRUCTIONS

Any fool can make soup. The most important thing with this soup is to get the atmosphere right. This is not a quick and simple soup. This is a rich and sincere soup that needs  contemplation and consideration. It can’t take more than 90 minutes to make, eat some  and clear up.

Right : first take 4-6 large potatoes and cut them into half inch cubes and put to one side. Now cut up four white onions into small pieces and fry until soft – butter is best for this – and put to one side.

Next fry half a pound of good quality fatty lardons until crisp – if you can’t get hold of these just use a good quality rindless bacon cut up small. Once the lardons are cooked add the onions and stir for a minute. Put to one side where your potatoes also wait.

Make up 2-3 pints of fish stock : you can do this for real but most of our lives are too short and so fish stock cubes will do just fine. Don’t fuss about exactly how much you need – make enough to have plenty – you can always throw it away if you have too much stock – it costs almost nothing and this is cooking not chemistry anyway.

Put a couple of pints of your stock into the tureen. Add the potatoes and bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add the bacon and onions and simmer until all is well.

Next add a pound of smoked haddock or similar smoked fish – doesn’t really matter what kind but the smoked nature adds depth to the flavour; at the same time add an equivalent amount of any white fish you like or can get hold of – cod is my choice. The white and smoked fish need only to be roughly cubed into bit-sized pieces.

Keep the pot simmering until the fish is cooked – soft but not flaking. Add fish stock as necessary to keep it a soup not a stew and season now with salt and pepper to taste. Finally add large peeled fresh prawns and fresh scallops. They’ll only need a very few minutes in the mixture to cook – don’t overcook or they’ll go like leather.

Now the only vaguely tricky bit – add half to a pint of fresh cream as your taste dictates but keep the heat low and do not boil or do any more than simmer at a very low level or you’ll curdle the shit out of it. Once you have stirred and balanced it all out, add some paprika to taste and stir in.

Keep warm – do not let it cool before serving – and add fresh chopped parsley as a garnish if you’ve got guests you want to impress. Eat with big spoons in big bowls with hot bread.

 

Jay Green used to make this fish soup a lot between 1993 and 2004 when he lived in West London. He first made it in at 81 The Grove, Ealing and then afterwards refined it at 7 Sutton Court, Chiswick. The seafood was sourced locally at fishmongers on Turnham Green Road and the lardons at an Italian deli on the Chiswick High Road. He used to make it for eating while crucial football games were being televised that involved Manchester United. This is why the soup is dedicated to Eric Cantona.

 

Fish and Seafood

Caldero Murciano

  • 1 lb. mullet, whole
  • 2 lbs. other mixed whole hearty fish
  • 2 cups rice
  • 2 dried pimientos, if available (otherwise, regular pimientos)
  • 3 heads of garlic
  • 2 ripe tomatoes
  • 1-1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 8 cups water
  • Saffron, salt and pepper
  • 1 small, cooked potato

Cut heads off fish and reserve. Cut fish bodies into thick rounds and sprinkle with salt. Set aside. Heat half of the oil in a heavy pot( traditionally iron). Fry the dried pimientos. Remove and put aside.

Add the fish heads to the same pot. Fry and remove. Throw the tomatoes, peeled and chopped, into the same pot. Fry 5 minutes. Add 8 cups water. In a mortar, crush the pimientos, one head of garlic, and 3 or 4 saffron filaments.

Add to pot and cook 5 minutes. Add the fish bodies and cook until done. Remove fish and set aside, keeping warm. Set aside 1 cup of the fish stock. Season the rest of the stock with salt and pepper and add the rice, letting cook over low flame for 20 minutes.

In the mortar, crush another head of garlic and mix with the cup of reserved fish stock. This will be used as a sauce for the fish upon serving. Crush the third head of garlic with the cooked potato; combine with the egg yolk and rest of oil. This sauce is for the rice. Serve the fish and rice separately with their respective sauces.