Jalea

A platter of floured fried seafood with the salsa criolla piled on top at the table and never before.

Fish, Shellfish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish, shellfish.

Ingredients

For the seafood

• 500 g firm white fish fillet, in large pieces
• 300 g squid, in rings
• 250 g raw prawns, peeled
• 200 g mussels or clams, shelled
• juice of 3 limes
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 150 g plain flour
• 100 g cornflour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• oil for deep frying

To serve

• 600 g cassava, peeled and in batons
• salsa criolla, as on its own page
• 2 limes, in wedges
• tartare or ají amarillo mayonnaise

Method

1. THE SALSA CRIOLLA GOES ON TOP AT THE TABLE, NEVER BEFORE. A high pile of it, straight onto the hot fried seafood, as the plate is set down. It is wet with lime and the whole point of the dish is crisp against sharp: assembled in the kitchen, even two minutes early, the batter underneath goes soft and the plate arrives limp. Make the salsa last, fry, pile, carry.
2. THE FLOUR IS HALF CORNFLOUR AND IT GOES ON DRY. A dry dredge, not a batter -- the seafood is marinated briefly in lime and garlic, shaken nearly dry, and then tossed through the flour mixture just before frying. Cornflour is what makes the coating thin and glassy rather than bready.
3. AND IT IS TOSSED IN THE FLOUR AT THE LAST SECOND. Floured early, the lime left on the surface turns the coating to paste and it slides off in the oil.
4. THE LIME MARINADE IS MINUTES, NOT LONGER, for the same reason as the ceviche on this site: ten minutes seasons it, half an hour starts cooking it and the fish goes firm and opaque before it ever sees the oil.
5. EVERY KIND IS FRIED SEPARATELY. Squid needs ninety seconds and fish needs four minutes; mussels need almost nothing. In together, something is always rubber.
6. THE CASSAVA IS BOILED BEFORE IT IS FRIED, and boiled until it is falling apart at the edges. It has to be properly soft inside or it is woody, and the fibrous core is cut out before boiling.
7. Cassava peeled, the woody core cut out, and boiled in salted water 25 MINUTES until soft and splitting. Drained and dried.
8. Seafood tossed with the lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper and left 10 MINUTES only.
9. The flour, cornflour, salt and pepper mixed in a wide dish.
10. Oil heated to 180C. The cassava fried 4 minutes until golden, drained and salted. Kept warm.
11. The seafood lifted from the marinade and SHAKEN NEARLY DRY.
12. The fish tossed in the flour and fried 4 MINUTES. Drained on a rack.
13. The prawns floured and fried 2 minutes; the squid 90 SECONDS; the mussels 1 minute. Each floured immediately before it goes in.
14. Everything piled on a warm platter with the cassava.
15. THE SALSA CRIOLLA made as on its own page and piled ON TOP as the plate goes to the table, with lime wedges and the mayonnaise alongside.

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 Peru · All recipes