Pilaki

Pilaki is a way of cooking rather than a dish — the fish is laid on vegetables already cooked and goes in for the last ten minutes.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 6 thick white fish steaks or cutlets
• 3 carrots, sliced into rounds
• 3 potatoes, sliced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, whole
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 150 ml olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 300 ml hot water
• juice of 1 lemon
• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• 1 lemon, sliced

Method

1. PİLAKİ IS A WAY OF COOKING RATHER THAN A DISH, and what defines it is vegetables stewed slowly in a great deal of olive oil with a little sugar, then cooled and eaten cold. It can be done with beans, and is -- there is a borlotti version on its own page here. Done with fish, which is the other common form, the method has to change in one important way: the fish cannot spend forty minutes in the pot. So the vegetables are cooked to tenderness first, on their own, and the fish is laid on top of them for the last ten minutes only.
2. THE FISH SITS ON THE VEGETABLES AND NOT IN THE LIQUID. Laid on the surface once the vegetables are done, so it steams in the pan's own vapour rather than poaching. Ten minutes with the lid on. Submerged, it overcooks and breaks up, and the pieces disappear into the vegetables when it is lifted out.
3. THE WHOLE THING IS COOLED COMPLETELY BEFORE EATING, FISH AND ALL. Three or four hours. This is the part that feels wrong with fish and is nonetheless right: the oil sets to a soft cling, the vegetables firm up, and the fish becomes dense and flaky rather than soft. It is a cold dish and warming it ruins the texture of everything in it.
4. A HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLILITRES OF OLIVE OIL IS NOT A MISPRINT. The oil is a principal ingredient, not a cooking medium -- it emulsifies with the vegetable liquid and the sugar into the sauce the dish is eaten for. Reduced to a couple of tablespoons, there is no sauce at all, just damp vegetables.
5. THE GARLIC GOES IN WHOLE AND UNCRUSHED. Six cloves, peeled but intact. Over forty minutes they turn sweet and soft and are eaten as pieces; crushed, they disperse and the dish tastes sharply garlicky, which is not what is wanted in something eaten cold.
6. THE LEMON JUICE GOES IN AT THE END, OFF THE HEAT. Cooked, it turns dull and faintly bitter. Added once the pan is off the flame, it stays bright, and brightness is what a cold oily dish most needs.
7. The olive oil heated gently in a wide shallow pan and the onions softened 10 MINUTES without colouring.
8. The carrots, potatoes, WHOLE garlic cloves, sugar, salt and pepper added.
9. The hot water poured in, brought to a bare simmer, lid on, and cooked 30 MINUTES until the vegetables are tender.
10. The tomato slices laid over the top.
11. The fish laid ON TOP OF THE VEGETABLES, not pushed into the liquid.
12. Lid on and cooked 10 MINUTES ONLY, until the fish is just opaque.
13. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and the lemon juice poured over.
14. LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY, 3 to 4 HOURS.
15. The parsley and lemon slices added at the table.
16. TESTED cold: the fish should be in firm flakes and the oil should cling to the vegetables rather than pooling. Broken-up fish means it was submerged.

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 Turkey · All recipes