Pescado a la Veracruzana
Source of Recipe
Rick Bayless "Authentic Mexican"
Recipe Introduction
We use to have a restaurant that had as their specialty Huatchinango Veracruzana, and it was our favorite seafood dish. This recipe uses fillets of either snapper or halibut which makes it more versatile, but frankly I always think about the whole ones we use to get and how beautiful they looked with the deep slashes cut in them making that delectable meat stick up in rolls waiting to be plucked off with a little tug and mingled with all the flavors of the dish before putting it in your mouth for a burst of flavors of all kinds.
List of Ingredients
.1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless meaty fish fillets (snapper,
or halibut, 4 pieces)
.freshly sqeezed lime juice and a little salt
SAUCE
.3tbs olive oil
.1 med onion thinly sliced
.2lbs (4 med-lg) ripe tomatoes, roasted or boiled, peeled
and cored, or three 15 cans.
.2 cloves garlic (6 would be better)
.20 meaty green olives (preferably manzanillo), pitted and
roughly chopped (I prefer plain old green olives with
pimento and leave em whole)
.2 tbs capers
.2 med pickled chiles jalapenos, (I would add a couple
fresh cut into strips)
.1 tbs pickling juices from the chiles
.1 1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs (marjoram and thyme)
.2 tbs chopped parsley
.3 bay leaves
.1 inch cinnamon stick
.2 clvoes
.1/4 tsp black peppercorns, corsely grd
.1 cup light flavored fish broth or bottled clam juice
.salt if needed
Recipe
1- rinse the fish, lay in noncorrosive dish and sprinle with lime and salt. cover and refrigerate about 1 hr.
2- In lg skillet, heat oil over med add onion and cook until golden, 7 or 8 min. While onion is cooking, cut the peeled fresh tomatoes in half crosswise and sqeeze the seed into a strainer set over a small bowl. Cut the tomatoes into 1 inch pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Collect all the juices on the cutting board and add to the tomatoes, along with those straied from the seeds. Canned tomatoes need only be lightly drained, then cut into 1 in pieces, collecting the juices as you go. Add the garlic to the lightly browned onion and stir for a minute or so, then add the tomatoes and thier juice. Simmer for 5 min to reduce some of the liquid. Divide the olives and capers between two small bowls, and set one aside to use as garnish. To the other bowl, add the jalapeno strips, picling juice, mixed herbs and chopped parsley. If you don't wish to have the whole bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves or cracked pepper in the finished sauce, wrap in cheese closth and tie with string; otherwise, add them to the bowl with the herbs. When the tomatoes are ready, add the mixture of pickled things, herbs and spcies, along with the fish broth or clam juice or water. Cover and simmer 10 min, then taste for salt (and remove cheesecloth wrapped spices).
3- Fifteen min before serving, remove the fillets from the refrigerator and rinse them again. Either poach them in the sauuce on top of the stove or bake in the sauce as follws:
Stove Top - Nestle the fish fillets in the sauce so they are well covered. Set the lid on the pan and place over a medium heat. After 4 min, turn the fillets over, recover a d cook 2 or 3 min longer, until a fillet will flake under firm pressure.
Baking Method - Preheat oven to 350. Place fillets in a single layer in a lightly greased baking dish. Spoon the sauce over them, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 8 - 10 min, until the fish just flakes when pressed firmly with a fork at the thickest part.
Serve the poached or baked fillets on warm dinner plates with lots of the sauce, garnished with a sprinkling of the reserved capers and olives and a spring of parsley.
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