Labarak casserole with potatoes, olives and white wine (photo: Alon Mesika)
The word sofrito appears as the basis for a casserole or roast in quite a few cuisines, from Spain and Italy to the Caribbean and Latin America.
The ingredients change from place to place, but the raw idea is preserved, creating a flavor base (simple or complex) on which we can build countless types of stews and casseroles.
In Jewish-Spanish cuisine, the term sofrito has a place of honor and unlike the rest of the world, here it actually describes a whole dish, modest and simple, but with historical and sentimental weight.
In its basic version, the Jewish sofrito consists of potatoes golden in oil and chicken legs, which are steamed together in a deep pot.
The result that is obtained transcends immeasurably above its few and basic components.
This time I took the recipe in the direction of the sea, but faithfully kept the modest color and the minimalistic use of raw materials while being careful about technique, so that here too the whole exceeds the sum of its parts - a fillet casserole with potatoes, olives and white wine that will conquer you far beyond what you can imagine .
The role of salting the fish:
being from a conservative Jewish kitchen, the sofrito recipe instructs us to pre-salt the chicken and actually season it.
But beyond its halachic importance, salting also indicates wisdom and culinary sensitivity.
The salt is given the necessary time to penetrate the chicken, thereby both seasoning it from the inside and tenderizing it.
We will also salt the fish for
exactly the same purposes.
Once we choose to change something, we must first understand its essence and then we can add new branches and also express ourselves.
A winning dish.
fish sofrito
Ingredients
2 leek fish weighing 400 grams each (ask for gutted and boneless)
1 fish head (ask them to pack it for you)
5 medium red potatoes
10 pitted black or green olives (it is important to use whole olives and not pitted canned ones)
½ dry white bougainvillea
1 boiling buckwheat
1 finely chopped parsley
10 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt
Ground black pepper
Lemon zest (from half a lemon)
For the conversion table click here >
Preparation
How do you make a fish sofrito?
1 Place the whole potatoes in a small pot and add water to cover.
Salt well (a tablespoon of salt) and cook for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft when pierced with a sharp knife.
Drain them from the water and cool to room temperature.
2 In the meantime, using a sharp and long knife, make 3-4 thin cuts on the skin side of the fish.
Salt the fillets well on the skin side and the meat side and let them rest with the salt on them for about 20 minutes.
3Remove the skins of the potatoes that have cooled in the meantime and cut them into rough cubes about 3 cm in size.
4 Heat a wide non-stick frying pan over high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and carefully place the fillets with the skin side down (it is important not to overload the pan).
Using a tongs, gently but assertively fasten the fillets to the pan (the skin has a tendency to arch and it is important to keep it close to the pan).
Burn well for about 3 minutes.
5 Remove from the pan the fillets that we seared on the skin side only to a plate with the skin facing up (we want to keep it crispy).
6 Pour a little more olive oil into the pan and add the potato cubes, salt and pepper a little and brown well on all sides.
7 Add the white wine, steam for half a minute and pour a glass of hot water.
Add the fish head, cover and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, turning the head over once (the fish head produces a sort of rich fish stock).
8 Drain the fish head, add the olives, the chopped parsley and return the seared fish to the pan, with the skin side up.
Cook for about 3 more minutes (until the fish meat is completely white).
9 Grate over lemon peel from half a lemon and serve immediately.
It is recommended to serve with dry white wine.
You can squeeze lemon juice over if you like.
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To shine in a fennel and green bean stew
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