• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 327 0

5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes, Anaheim chile, bay leaf, and oregano and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer the sauce for 6 minutes, or until the chiles soften. Uncover the pan, add the olives and capers, and cook for 4 minutes, or until the flavors combine. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the fish in the baking dish. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 5 minutes, or until heated through. Remove the bay leaf. Serve the fillets topped with the sauce.

SHRIMP-STUFFED NOPALES

SERVES 4

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped seeded tomato

1 pound raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 cleaned prickly pear cactus paddles (1¼ pounds)

Lime wedges, for serving

Bottled hot sauce (such as Huichol), for serving

Nopales are cactus paddles. They may be hard to come by if you don’t live in a border state or have access to a Mexican market. If you’re lucky, you’ll find prickly pear cactus paddles, which are packed with soluble fiber, vitamins, and minerals and reduce the glycemic effect of a meal. The stuffing is the star of this recipe, so if nopales are nowhere in sight, you can use corn tortillas for equally delicious (although not as pretty) results. At my house, we grill plain nopales until they are tender and a little charred and serve them with some lime wedges.

Heat the olive oil in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper, onion, and tomato and sauté for 8 minutes, or until the pepper is nearly tender. Add the shrimp and sauté for 2 minutes, or until just cooked through. Season the stuffing to taste with salt and pepper, and set it aside.

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Using a small sharp knife, carefully cut a slit along one long side of each nopal without cutting all the way through, to make something resembling a pita pocket. Grill the nopales for 4 minutes per side, or until they are tender and grill marks appear.

Stuff the nopales with the shrimp mixture, dividing it equally, and serve with lime wedges and hot sauce.

SARANDEADO-STYLE BUTTERFLIED WHOLE FISH

* SERVES 2

4 tablespoons (½ stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 whole porgy, gutted with head and tail intact

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon bottled hot sauce (such as Huichol)

2 limes, halved, plus lime wedges for serving

½ orange

Six 6-inch corn tortillas, warmed

Sarandeado, as a technique, refers to grilling a cleaned fish in a basket, constantly flipping it from one side to the other in order to preserve all the juices and flavors before they seep out of the fish. In this recipe we use the oven, so there’s no need for a fish basket or even a grill. It is essential, however, that you use a properly butterflied fish (the skin prevents the juices from seeping out and yields a moist and succulent fish). I strongly suggest asking your fishmonger to do it for you.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line a large baking sheet with foil and dot it with half of the butter.

Butterfly the fish by cutting it almost in half horizontally and opening it like a book. Carefully cut out and remove the spine.

Place the fish, skin side down, on the foil-lined baking sheet. Roll up the edges of the foil to come close to the edge of the fish, to create a rim that will prevent the juices from spilling onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper, then with the garlic powder. Drizzle the hot sauce over the fish, and then squeeze the limes over it. Squeeze the orange half all over the fish. Then, using the flesh side of the orange, brush the fish all over to form a wet paste on top of the fish. Dot the fish with the remaining butter.

Bake the fish for 15 minutes, or until just cooked through. Turn on the broiler and broil the fish for 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned. Serve with warm tortillas to make tacos, and lime wedges for squeezing over the fish.

BAKED