Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [111]
I can imagine that this rich southern confection must have made a pleasant interruption in our ancient Friday diets of salt-and-vinegar-soused herring. The interesting thing is that the eighteenth-century English recipes are unchanged in modern books of Central and Latin American cooking: the fish is first fried, then submerged in oil, vinegar and aromatics such as onion, peppers, oranges, spices – whatever the region provides.
Modern recipes, too, vary only in the flavourings. Take this one from Diana Kennedy’s extraordinary and exciting Cuisines of Mexico, for Sierra en escabeche as prepared in Yucatan. Other kinds of mackerel can be used, p. 222, or striped bass. In Britain, you may have to substitute other chillis for the güeros, which are pale yellow and quite hot to hot with their own special flavour. Toast them by dry-frying in a heavy iron pan, until the skin is burnt and blistered, the flesh soft. Or grill them. Or bake them in a very hot oven. Mrs Kennedy knows ‘of a Yucatan cook who adds a few leaves of the guava, orange and allspice trees to the escabeche, and it is wonderfully fragrant. The best I could do was to add a few kumquat leaves that I had found in a greengrocer’s.’
Serves 6
6 × 2½ -cm (1-inch) slices of sierra, kingfish or striped bass
4 tablespoons lime juice
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon peppercorns
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
2 whole cloves
1¼-cm (½ -inch) piece cinnamon stick
2 whole allspice
2 cloves garlic, skinned, crushed
300 ml (10 fl oz) wine vinegar
½ teaspoon oregano
2 small bay leaves
10 small cloves garlic, toasted in their skins and peeled
½ teaspoon caster sugar
125 ml (4 fl oz) olive oil
125 ml (4 fl oz) groundnut or safflower oil
6 güeros chillis, toasted
2 large purple onions, thinly sliced
Put the fish in a shallow pot. Mix the lime juice and 1 teaspoon of salt with 250 ml (8 fl oz) water and pour it over. Leave for an hour, turning the fish once.
To make the souse, crush the spices down to and including the allspice to a powder with pestle and mortar. Add the crushed garlic and reduce to a paste. Put into a pan with the remaining salt, 125 ml (4 fl oz) wine vinegar, oregano, bay leaves, toasted garlic and sugar, stir and bring to the boil. Add the olive oil, the rest of the vinegar and 300 ml (10 fl oz) water. Bring to the boil again.
Drain and dry the slices of fish. Fry them in the groundnut or safflower oil on each side, until barely cooked, 3–5 minutes a side depending on the fish. Put them into a serving dish in a single layer and pour the hot souse over them. Set aside to pickle for at least 2 hours – Mrs Kennedy remarks that although an Escabèche keeps for a long time, as Hannah Glasse pointed out, it is best just a few hours after it has been made, ‘so that the fish has had time to absorb the spicy souse, but has not been left long enough to become vinegary and hard’.
Garnish finally with the chillis. Pour enough boiling water over the onion rings to cover them generously, leave them for a moment or two, then drain them and put them over the fish.
NOTE See p. 490 for another version of Escabèche which uses smelts.
MAQUEREAUX AUX GROSEILLES
The French may call gooseberries groseilles à maquereau, but this Normandy recipe is the only one I have been able to find in which the name is justified.
Serves 6
6 medium-sized mackerel, cleaned and slashed
500 g (1 lb) gooseberries, topped and tailed
60 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
6 level tablespoons stale breadcrumbs
175 ml (6 fl oz) crème fraîche or half soured, half double cream
salt, pepper, sugar
To make the stuffing and sauce, cook the gooseberries in half the butter in a covered enamel, stainless steel or non-stick pan. Mix about a third of the gooseberries with the breadcrumbs. Season