Cuban Food Recipes - Fish

Escabeche (Pickled Fish)

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:13:19 +0200

Cooking instructions:

Make sauce, by combining olive oil, vinegar, peppercorns, salt, bay leaves, onions, oregano, and green peppers in a large stainless steel kettle and cook slowly for 1 hour. Cool sauce and set aside.

Rinse fish in running water and dry. Sprinkle lime juice over the fish slices and season with the 3-1/2 teaspoons salt. Flour both sides of the slices lightly.

In a frying pan heat olive oil with minced garlic cloves. Remove garlic as soon as it is brown.

Add as many fish slices as will fit in the pan and brown over moderate heat on both sides. Lower the heat and cook the slices for 15 minutes. Fry remaining slices in the same way.

Remove fish and arrange in a deep glass dish as follows Pour a little cool sauce over a few fish slices in bottom of dish. Fill dish with alternate layers of fish slices, green stuffed olives and sauce.

Cover and put in the refrigerrator for at least 24 hours before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Crab stew (cangrejo enchilado)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Scrub and wash the crabs under running water. Remove the pincers, shell the crabs and crush the pincers slightly with a pestle.

Cube the crabmeat and, if the pincers are very large, you can split them in half.

Stir fry the crabmeat cubes and proceed as in the shrimp stew recipe.

Mornay Crabs (Cangrejos Mornay)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Combine the crabmeat with the sauce. Pour into individual molds. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and the ground crackers. Bake at 375 ºF until the surface is golden.

Prepare the béchamel sauce as follows: use ¾ cups of the milk or stock to mix with 6 tablespoons of flour, blend and season with the pepper and nutmeg, if desired, add lemon juice or wine after it thickens.

To this white sauce add ¼ cup of cheese and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and as a result you get the Mornay sauce.

Stuffed potatoes (papas rellenas)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Make a potato puree and season only with salt to taste.
Shape into small balls stuffed with canned meat, ham, seafood, cheese or fish.

Coat the balls in beaten egg and ground crackers or breadcrumbs. Fry just before serving.

Bigger ones are made in the same way.

Lobster stew (langosta enchilada)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Disjoint the lobster tails, wash them and remove the hindgut; chop the tails in chunks of about 4 cm.

If you leave the shell on, the stew will be tastier.

To chop the shell without getting the flesh out, hit it sharply with a cleaver or a big knife.

Stuffed red snapper (pargo relleno)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Gut the red snapper. Cut it open to remove the spine. Season it with crushed garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Cover with onion rings and peppers. Marinate for 2 hours. Boil the shrimps and the lobsters. Ground the seafood with the ham. Sauté the chopped onion in hot butter. Add the seafood and ground ham. Stir fry for a few minutes. Add the remaining stuffing ingredients and stir to prevent from sticking. Set it aside.

Stuff the red snapper and secure it with toothpicks. Place it on a well greased baking pan over a potato bed. Cover with the onion rings and the pepper left over from the marinade. Bake at 375ºF for about 1 ½ hour. While you are roasting it, baste frequently with butter or oil.

Codfish rice (Arroz con bacalao)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Soak the codfish for a couple of hours in water enough to cover it.

Shred into large pieces and sauté in hot oil.

Grind the onion, the pepper, the parsley and the peeled garlic. Toss in the codfish and add the tomato sauce (if you are using fresh tomatoes, chop them well and take out the seeds); add the wine and let it boil for 2 or 3 minutes.

Then add the 2 cups of water used to soak the codfish; when it comes to a boil, stir the rice in (washed if necessary).

Keep it cover over medium heat until the grain opens and the rice begins to look dry, lower the heat and simmer, always covered, for 5 or 10 minutes.

Squid rice (Arroz con calamares)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Sauté the onion, the garlic and the parsley in hot oil.

Add the squids, the water or stock, the wine, the salt and the ground pepper. When it comes to a boil, add the rice (washed if necessary).

Cook covered over medium heat, until the grains are soft and the rice looks dry.

Lower the heat and simmer until the time of serving.

If you prefer lighter colored rice, add to the sauce 1 small can of sweet red peppers, ground them and add the liquid from the pepper can to the rice to replace some of the stock. The stock used in this recipe must be from lean white fish, not an oily one.

If you are using fresh squids, prepare them just like squids in ink.

After adding the tomato sauce, the salt and the spices, add the ink with 2 cups of water. When the broth comes to a boil, stir in 1 ½ cup of rice and cook over medium heat for about ½ an hour or until the rice is soft.

Clam rice (Arroz con Almejas)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the clams in hot water. Then, rinse them several times, under strong running water if possible, to wash all the sand out.

Heat the oil and sauté the finely chopped onion, the crushed garlic, the pepper and the parsley.

Add the tomato sauce, the salt and the clams (don’t stir excessively to avoid breaking the shells). It is better to shake the pot instead.

Add the stock and the wine. Bring to a boil and then stir in the rice and the spices lightly browned and crushed.

Let it boil, covered, over high heat until the rice grains begin to open, then lower the heat and allow it to simmer until the rice is tender.

Stuffed avocadoes (Aguacates rellenos)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Slice the avocadoes in half, remove the seed and the skin, cut a small slice from de bottom to stand them on the dish, prick them with a fork several times and dress them with salt, ground pepper, oil and vinegar.

Chop the lobster.

Mix the mayonnaise with the ketchup and the soy sauce. Pour the mixture over the lobster and stir until blended.

Add the green peas and stuff the avocado halves.

Garnish each half with the olives and the sweet red peppers cut in strips; serve over the lettuce leaves.

Shrimp stew (Camarones enchilados)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Clean the shrimps and stir fry them in hot oil; when lightly browned, add the ground onion, the crushed garlic and the ground large pepper and sauté for a while.

Add the finely chopped parsley, the tinned sweet red peppers ground, with the water from the can, the tomato sauce, the ketchup, the bay leaf, the dry wine, the salt, the ground pepper and the soy and hot sauces.

Let it simmer for 25 to 30 minutes.

Squids in ink (calamares en su tinta)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Cooking instructions:

Clean the squids and set aside the little bags of ink. Slice the squids including the tentacles.

Sauté in hot oil. Add the ingredients of the sauce one at a time: garlic, onion, pepper and parsley. Then add the tomato, the wine, the salt and the ground pepper. Crush the bags of ink in a mortar and mix with some of the sauce; add this mixture to the rest of the sauce. Cook over low heat for about ½ an hour.

If you want to thicken the sauce, you can use some breadcrumbs. At the time of serving, add 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of finely chopped parsley and more crushed garlic or chopped onion, if desired.