Friday, August 20, 2010

FISH SOUP WITH RICE


We will cook soup today. Something rewarding and delicious. I remember the fish soup my mom used to make. I loved that soup. I will make it today. A good Fish Soup with Rice.

Ingredients:

Some fish bones
Some little pieces of fish
½ onion
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons rice
Some drops of Tabasco sauce
Some saffron
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ teaspoon dill herb
Some freshly ground pepper to taste
Salt to taste

First we will have to make the fish broth. To do that, we will put some water in a pan and we will add the fish bones, the pieces of fish, the onion and the bay leaf. If we want, we can also add some carrots, celery or leek. We will cook for about half an hour in a low heat. When the broth is ready, we will strain the broth through a colander to get rid of the fish bones. We can add the pieces of fish too to the broth. Once we have our broth in the pan again, we will add the rice to the pan. Then we will add the Tabasco sauce, the saffron, the turmeric, the garlic, the dill herb and the ground pepper. We will salt to taste too. It is not a bad idea to add some onion and celery very finely chopped. We will let our soup cook till the rice is ready. Then we will have a delicious soup: fish and rice. Enjoy!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

CABALLA EN ESCABECHE


We will make an escabeche today. A delicious recipe from Spain. And I will use one of my favourite fish, mackerel, in Spanish caballa. Escabeches are popular in Spain. I love Spanish canned preserves. You can find wonderful fish and seafood (tuna, mackerel, mussels…) canned and preserved in escabeche. They are really good. Some people would say that a very good preserve improves the quality of the original. To this I have to say that some times this is true. Anyway, we will not make a preserve today. Let’s start cooking our Caballa en Escabeche.

Ingredients:

3 mackerel
1 carrot, peeled and cut in sticks
1 sliced onion
1 chopped green onion or 1 chopped leek
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
Some extra virgin olive oil
½ cup wine vinegar
½ cup water
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon sweet pimentón
10 black peppercorns
Salt to taste

First of all we will prepare the fish. If the fish is not cleaned already, we have to clean the mackerel properly. We will remove the head, the bones and the guts from the mackerel. We want our mackerel in fillets.
Then we will prepare the vegetables. We will cut the carrot, slice the onion and chop the green onion and the garlic.
Now we will put some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and we will heat it. Then we will start sautéing the carrot, the onion and the green onion. Two minutes later we will add the garlic. We will add the bay leaves, the thyme, the parsley, the sweet pimentón and the black peppercorns too.
Two minutes later we will add the vinegar and the water. We will keep on cooking for about 15 minutes. Then we will add the mackerel. We will bring to a boil. Then we will cover the pan, turning off the fire. We will let it rest for some minutes.
Then we will have our Caballas en Escabeche ready to eat. In fact, you can eat them hot or cold. Enjoy!