Huachinango a la Veracruzana

A tomato sauce whose salt comes entirely from olives and capers, so nothing else is salted until the end.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 1 whole red snapper, about 1.5 kg, gutted and scaled, or 4 thick fillets
• juice of 2 limes
• 800 g ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 120 g green olives, pitted and halved
• 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 4 pickled jalapeños, in strips, plus 2 tablespoons of their liquid
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• a handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• salt, only at the end

Method

1. THE SALT COMES ENTIRELY FROM THE OLIVES AND THE CAPERS, SO NOTHING ELSE IS SALTED UNTIL THE END. A hundred and twenty grams of green olives and three tablespoons of capers carry a great deal of salt, and how much varies enormously between jars and between brine and dry-cured. Seasoned at the start the way any other sauce would be, this one finishes inedible about one time in three. So the sauce is built, simmered, and tasted only once the olives and capers have been in it for ten minutes -- and quite often it needs nothing at all.
2. THE CAPERS ARE RINSED AND THE OLIVES ARE NOT. Capers come packed in salt or a heavy brine and a rinse takes the worst off without touching the flavour. The olives are wanted as they are; they are the backbone of the dish.
3. THE SAUCE IS COOKED DOWN BEFORE THE FISH GOES IN. Twenty-five minutes, until the tomato has lost its water and the sauce holds its shape on a spoon. Then the fish is laid IN it and poached. If the sauce is still loose the fish releases its own liquid into it and the whole thing ends up a thin tomato soup with a fish in it.
4. THE FISH IS POACHED IN THE SAUCE AND NOT FRIED FIRST. It goes in raw, is spooned over, and the pan is covered. This is a gentle dish and browning would fight it; the flesh stays white and soft and tastes of the sauce rather than of the pan.
5. THE CINNAMON IS THERE AND IS MEANT TO BE. One small stick, whole, lifted out at the end. It is unexpected in a savoury tomato sauce and it is a good part of why this one tastes different from every other tomato sauce on this site. Ground cinnamon would be far too assertive -- whole, it is barely identifiable and clearly present.
6. The fish rubbed with the lime juice and left 15 minutes, then patted dry.
7. The olive oil warmed in a wide pan and the onion and garlic cooked gently 8 MINUTES until soft and not coloured.
8. The tomatoes, bay, oregano and the whole CINNAMON stick added.
9. Cooked 25 MINUTES over a medium heat, stirred, until the water has gone and the sauce holds its shape on a spoon.
10. The olives, rinsed capers, jalapeño strips and their liquid stirred in and simmered 10 MINUTES.
11. ONLY NOW the sauce TASTED. Salt added if -- and only if -- it needs it. Often it does not.
12. The fish laid INTO the sauce and spooned over to cover.
13. The pan covered and cooked over a low heat 20 to 25 MINUTES for a whole fish, or 10 to 12 for fillets.
14. TESTED at the thickest part: the flesh should lift cleanly off the bone and be opaque throughout.
15. The bay and cinnamon removed, the parsley scattered over.
16. Served from the pan, with plenty of the sauce.

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 Mexico · All recipes