Fish a la Veracruzana: Fish Braised with Tomatoes, Capers, Olives and Herbs

Saturday was my husband's birthday, so I wanted to cook something special and a little different to celebrate. Normally, Pete doesn't have an opinion when I ask him what he wants for dinner. It has become a little inside joke with us - I ask for some guidance (because even I get tired of planning every meal), and he either doesn't care, or rattles off a generic list of three meals we eat practically every week. I usually get bored of eating the same thing all of the time and I like to mix it up. He wouldn't care if he got cereal for dinner (we love cereal; we seriously go through at least six boxes a week). So I was pleasantly surprised when he actually had an answer. Fish. Pete wanted fish for his birthday. He did not care what kind of fish, or how it was prepared, but he wanted fish.

After a little brainstorming, I decided I wanted to find a good Mexican fish recipe. Pete grew up in Southern California where good Mexican food is easy to find. In high school, he would wake up before dawn, go surfing at first light, and grab breakfast at Taco Loco, a taco stand in Laguna Beach that sells the best damn fish tacos you'll ever eat. Whenever we go back, we make a point of sitting on the beach with a couple of tacos and some cold beers - heaven!

My husband Pete and I, many moons ago (circa 2001), fishing off the Baja Coast in Mexico. He caught a red snapper; I caught a sea bass. It was a beautiful day on the open water!

Since I knew I would not be able to compete with Taco Loco, I turned to what I consider the authoritative text on Mexican food in America - Rick Bayless' book, Mexico: One Plate at a Time. Bayless, who you may know as the Season 1 winner of Top Chef Master, is the owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago and the author of six mouth watering cookbooks. As you may have guessed, I stole this cookbook from my father a year or so ago and have been cooking my way through it. One recipe I had not yet tried was one for Fish a la Veracruzana. Traditionally, this dish is a whole fish baked in a briny, chunky, tomato sauce - usually with capers, olives and a host of fresh herbs. Sounds more Mediterranean than Mexican, right? Well, something I learned in reading this book is that tomatoes are one of the prize indigenous ingredients of the New World, and that the Spaniards carried them back to Europe and bread them to be larger and sweeter. Bayless, who was a doctoral candidate in Anthropological Linguistics before he became an award winning chef, explains how the numerous waves of immigration from Spain to Veracruz, resulted in a robust trans-Atlantic culinary dialogue. This book (and this recipe in particular) highlights how Mexican food is so much more than just tacos and burritos...and well worth exploring!

Bayless offers two variations for Fish a la Veracruzana. The first is a traditional version starring a whole fish - such as a snapper or a grouper - baked in a tomato based sauce and seasoned with oregano and bay leaves. He also includes a contemporary version using grilled salmon in a lemon and thyme scented salsa veracruzana. I chose to make the more contemporary salsa, but selected Corvina filets instead of Salmon. The result was a light, flavor packed fish that was virtuously healthy and surprisingly easy to prepare. We served it with a traditional white Mexican Rice, guacamole and a side salad for a complete meal. It paired beautifully with a 2009 Urban Uco Torrontes from Argentina. Of course, we had to have birthday cake too! So hours after we had digested our dinner we had a healthy slab of Pete's favorite - carrot cake - and called it a night. A very very full night. Enjoy!


Fish with Lemon-and-Thyme-Scented Salsa Veracruzana



Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexico: One Plate at a Time.  Scribner (October 2000). 

This meal is easy to make ahead, so it really can come together in a matter of minutes. The original recipe calls for grilling salmon (fillets or steaks) and then "cooling" the salmon in the hot, completed sauce at room temperature for about an hour to let the flavors mix together. Instead, I substituted Corvina - a white firm-fleshed fish similar to Sea Bass and often used for ceviche - and decided to bake it in the sauce. However you choose to prepare it, it is definitely a must try!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
3 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
2 tsps finely chopped lemon zest (the colored rind only - no white pith)
1 cup pitted, roughly sliced green olives
1/4 cup capers, drained and rinsed
3 pickled jalapeno chiles, store-bought or homemade (recipe below), stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
salt

4-6 fish fillets (roughly 6 ounces each) - you can use snapper, striped bass, corvina, or grouper.
Juice of 2 limes.





Marinate the fish in the lime juice and 1/2 a tsp of salt in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour, but no more. If you leave it longer than that, the acid in the lime juice will start to "cook" the fish and you'll have ceviche!






Heat the oil, in a large pot, over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the tomatoes, thyme, lemon zest, chiles, capers and olives. Simmer, stirring frequently, until some of the liquid evaporates and the sauce begins to thicken (about 5 minutes).  Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir in 1 cup of water and simmer for another 15 minutes. Season with salt, to taste.


Transfer the fish from the marinade to in an oiled 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Spoon the hot tomato sauce over the fish and bake at 350 degrees until the fish flakes.  Usually, fish that is 1 inch thick will cook in 10 minutes.  My corvina steaks were slightly thicker and took almost 20 minutes to cook.  So keep an eye on it and check the fish after 10 minutes.   To serve, transfer each fillet to a plate and spoon the sauce from the pan. 


Pickled Jalapenos

Stored in the refrigerator, these chiles will keep easily for more than a month. I halved the recipe and it was more than enough for my purposes.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup vegetable oil
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
3 cups fresh jalapeno chiles (about 20 chiles)
1 large white onion, sliced
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
4 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram.
Salt

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown.  Add the carrots, chiles and onion and stir fry until the onion is translucent.  Add the vinegar, bay leaves, herbs, a teaspoon of salt and 1 1/2 cups water, bring to a simmer, partially cover and cook until the carrots are just tender, about 10 minutes. Cool.

Pour the mixture into a tupperware (or other non-aluminum food container), cover and refrigerate a day before eating or using. The chiles should be completely covered by the pickling liquid.  If not, mix up what you need to add by using half vinegar, half water and a bit of salt.