Bourdeto

Fish cooked in a fierce red onion sauce where the paprika goes in off the heat, and the fish is never turned.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 1 kg firm white fish, in thick steaks or whole small fish
• 4 onions, sliced thin
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 150 ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne, to taste
• 150 ml white wine
• 400 ml hot water
• 1 lemon, juiced
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE PAPRIKA GOES IN OFF THE HEAT. Two tablespoons of it into hot oil scorches in about fifteen seconds and turns the whole pan bitter, and bitterness is not something a sauce this simple can hide. The pan comes off, the paprika is stirred into the oil and softened onion, and only then does the liquid go in.
2. AND THE FISH IS NEVER TURNED. It goes in once, in a single layer, and is cooked through by the sauce around and over it. Turned, thick fish steaks break up and the sauce fills with shreds. Spoon the sauce over the top instead.
3. THERE IS NO TOMATO IN THIS. The red is paprika and onion, and the sauce is thickened by the onions collapsing rather than by anything added. A tomato version is a different dish and a much more ordinary one.
4. Onions sliced thin -- they are half the dish and they have to collapse entirely.
5. Oil in a wide shallow pan over a LOW heat. Onions in with a good pinch of salt and cooked 25 minutes, stirred often, until completely soft and just beginning to colour. This is the long part and it cannot be rushed on a high heat.
6. Garlic in, 1 minute.
7. PAN OFF THE HEAT. Paprika and cayenne stirred through the oil and onions until evenly red.
8. Back on a medium heat. Wine in, bubbled 2 minutes.
9. Hot water in, brought to a simmer, and cooked 10 minutes until it has thickened slightly and tastes of paprika rather than raw spice.
10. Seasoned now, fully, because nothing is stirred after this.
11. Fish laid in a single layer, pushed gently under the surface, and the sauce spooned over the top.
12. Lid on, lowest heat, 10 to 12 minutes depending on thickness. Done when it parts from the bone at a touch.
13. Lemon juice over, off the heat, and left 5 minutes. Served from the pan with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes