New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen Notebook by Juan Altamiras by Vicky Hayward

Author:Vicky Hayward [Hayward, Vicky]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2017-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

TO PRESERVE OR PICKLE FISH

How rarely we pickle fish yet how delicious it can be.24 Altamiras did his like Cordoba’s anchovies in wine vinegar today, a dish designed to wake up tired taste buds; he added thyme, fennel, oregano, orange, and lemon for a subtle citric and herby marinade. Fried fish, though, he would have preserved in olive oil: it turns out this is why he had been so strict about frying fish unfloured. These both make delicious modern summer meals.

To Preserve Fried Fish in Olive Oil /

Para Conservar Pescado

As you read in the Chapter where I gave you a recipe for fried salt cod this handbook does not allow fish to be floured before frying. Do not get annoyed with me that I dwell on what may seem trivial to you: I simply wish to spread common sense unlike other Cooks, one of whom, when I told him not to flour fish, left it unfloured, so leaving this message engraved on his face: “I say one thing, but I do another.” I do not take pleasure from telling you this story, but do so to warn you against Cooks or others you may come across who hide behind Carnival masks. So, then, preserve fish this way: fry it without flour, cool it, lay it in virgin olive oil and this way it shall keep for as long as you like. And take good note: fish that has been floured for frying spoils when it is preserved in olive oil.

Good fish for preserving in olive oil are firm-fleshed bream, grouper, trout, and albacore tuna. Salt them, fry them, lay them in a very clean dish, cover them with olive oil, and keep them chilled or cool. Bring the fish to room temperature before serving. This is fine hot-weather fast-food served with roasted red peppers, cheese in oil, and a basket of bread.

Fish Pickled in Adobo / Adobo para Pescado

Fry your fish without flouring it and make this adobo: take bay leaves, crush garlic with thyme, fennel and oregano, infuse these in strong vinegar with some little bits of orange, cook them as a marinade, add the cooled fish and if it needs more salt, add it.

Whitebait, anchovies, sardines, dogfish, and swordfish are all good pickled in an adobo with the cooking time adjusted to the fish’s volume. Plan on two days for boned anchovies and three days for larger fish, but always try nipping a piece of flesh from the center every twelve hours so you end the marinading when the fish is just pickled, but not soft. Remove, dry well, and serve with a good fruity or grassy olive oil.

SHAD, LAMPREY, BARBEL, FROGS, SNAILS

Altamiras’s final fish recipes were for local river lamprey and shad, frogs, and snails. The first of them, a pie with a tender olive-oil pastry, can be adapted to all kinds of fish and is one of my favorites.

A Fish Pie / La Saboga

Shad is good roasted like eel, or with a sauce, or baked in a pie.

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