Tag: fried

Pan Fried Sea Bass Portuguese Style (Garoupa Frita com Molho)

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Summers in a Portuguese household can be just about guaranteed to involve fried fish.  My mother and Vavó didn’t like the house smelling like fish, so we had this plug in electric skillet that they would take out into the back yard and do all the fish frying. Then they would dip the fish into a corn flour and the fish would sizzle away into deliciousness.  And always there would be a rich salty mohlo (sauce) to put over it.  It’s one of those culinary memories that just becomes engrained into who you are. (Come to think of it, I think I need to get one of those electric skillets so my kids can have the same type of memory!)

It wasn’t often that they would fry up Striped Sea Bass, the fish they would fry up usually included something with a head still attached.  But, Striped Sea Bass is my favorite fish and living in New England, we are lucky enough to have a vast variety of locally caught fish at our disposal.  If you aren’t quite as lucky, what you want to look for is a medium bodied fish (not as delicate as a Tilapia, but not as heavy as a Tuna or Swordfish… you want a Sea Bass or a fresh Codfish) that is descaled, but still has skin.

A couple of notes before we begin.  In this recipe, I have added a bit more crunch by using corn meal instead of flour, but if flour is what you have, use it, it will be delicious.  Also, I am using a homemade crushed red pepper that we make ourselves.  Our red pepper is not so much for spice, as in the grinding process we remove most of the seeds, but more for taste.  If you the crushed red pepper you have available to you has seeds, taste it to be sure of it’s heat level before you add quite as much I do here (unless you enjoy a bit of spice).  If you absolutely do not have Portuguese or even Spanish crushed red pepper at your disposal, you will want to get a red Pablano peppers (if you can find them, if not green will do).  Then grind or chop the pepper, place in a bowl preserving as much of the juice from the process as you can, salt it and let it sit

Let’s start with the Mohlo (sauce) as this can be made several days in advance if need be.

Dice up a medium onion.

Chop up a couple cloves of garlic.

pepper

This is the homemade ground red pepper.

Saute the onions for 3-4 minutes over medium/high heat in olive oil (this does not have to be extra virgin olive oil, any press will work fine). Then add in the garlic and saute another minute. Add in pepper.

Turn burner to medium/low heat and continue to saute another 3-4 minutes.

Add in flat leaf parsley.

Continue to saute another 1-2 minutes until it all comes together.

Now onto the fish:

This is Striped Sea Bass.  It’s big enough for about 3 portions.

Cut from skin side down.

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Although, as I stated, there is enough for three portions. My husband and I are eating with our two toddlers, so they each get a half portion.

Season the flesh side of the fish with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

This is yellow corn meal. As you can see, it is grainy in consistency.

meal in bowl

Add into a bowl.

season meal

Season the corn meal with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

Be sure to nicely coat each side of the fish.

In a skillet heated to med/high heat and about a half a cup of veggie oil, place fish skin side down. Be sure pan is good and hot before you place fish in.  Then don’t touch it!  Wherever you place it, it stays! You don’t want to break the skin by fussing with it.

This will take some patience. Do not fuss with the fish. You are going to want to be sure each side has contact with the pan for at least 3-4 minutes until golden.

Once your fish looks like this, drain on a clean paper towel or brown paper bag.

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Plate and pour warm molho over the top. Serve with white rice or boiled white potatoes. Enjoy!

Recipe for Pan Fried Sea Bass (Garoupa Frita com Molho):

(serves 2-3)

For fish:

3/4 lb. Stiped Sea Bass

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 pinch kosher salt

1 pinch fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

For Molho (sauce):

1 medium onion, diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/4 cup ground red pepper

1/4 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

For Molho: Heat Olive oil in a skillet over medium/high heat.  Saute onions 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic, saute 1-2 minutes.  Add in pepper.  Turn down heat to medium/low.  Continue to saute for 3-4 minutes.  Add in parsley.  Saute 3-4 minutes until all comes together.  Set aside.  (Can be refrigerated up to a week)

For Fish:

Portion out fish into 2-3 portions (or 4 if eating with toddlers).  Season with salt and pepper on flesh side of fish. Season corn meal with salt and pepper.  Coat fish in corn meal.  Heat skillet with vegetable oil over medium/high heat.  Start by placing fish, skin side down.  Do not touch for 3-4 minutes.  Repeat on all sides until golden.  Drain on paper.

Serve by pouring 2-3 Tbls. of Molho over fish. Enjoy!

Codfish Cakes (Bolinhos de Bacalhau)

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AdoneFriday’s in my house growing up were always grocery shopping day.  That being said, having a full-time working mother, also meant that it was “take-out” day.  We would usually toggle between three things, pizza from Atlas Pizza, Chinese from China Royal or fish and chips from Flint Fish Market.  Sometimes if we were lucky we could tack a little on to that fish and chips order, like shrimp cakes or codfish cakes.

Codfish is a staple in the Portuguese diet.  And although fresh caught Cod is delicious, what most portuguese people think of when they think of codfish is dry salt cod, bacalhau.  This is not fish that has been left to sit with salt on it for a day or two.  We are talking about a drying and salting process that changes the entire consistency of the fish to something amazing and if you know how to work with it, you can create some incredible dishes.

Codfish cakes can be served warm or room temperature.  For breakfast, lunch, dinner or brunch.  They are great for parties and picnics.  They can be a main course or a side dish.

Here I will take you through the process of rehydrating and cooking with this particular Portuguese mainstay.

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This is bacalhau (dry salt cod). For this recipe we are using deboned codfish bits… Normally the best thing to use is a nice thick piece and if I were making almost anything else, that’s what I would get. But, this is actually less expensive and less work, so for something I will mush up anyway, bits are the way to go.

rinse

The first step is to rinse out the fish, get all that initial salt off. Rinse until the water runs relatively clear.

washed cod

Once you have some clear water, you will want to boil this. Then drain. Then boil again. Then drain again. You are not only rehyrating with this process, but removing the majority of the salt. After the second boiling, taste for salt. You still want it salty, but not crazy. Sometimes I go as far as to boil a third time.

cooked fish

This is what your boiled fish will look like.

cod in cloth

Place on a flour sack towel. (or any clean kitchen towel)

wrap

Wrap and twist the end. Wring out all the water. For Cod Fish Cakes we want only moister we add coming to the party.

mush

Once all the water has been removed and the fish is still in the cloth, mush with your hands.

mushed cod

The fish will look very mashed now, which is what you want… you should now go through with your fingers and check for any random bones. Set this aside.

potatoes

Boil potatoes whole with skins on to preserve the starch.

cooked potatoes

Peel boiled potatoes.

mash potatoes

Start mashing potatoes with a masher then finish with a fork in order to get potatoes really fine. You don’t want big chucks. If you have a ricer, this would be the perfect use. (Do not add anything to the potatoes) Set aside to cool.

dice onions

Finely dice onions. The easiest way I find to do this is to cut onion in half and in half again. Then slice several small slices throughout and turn and slice the other way, like so.

onions in pan

Place onions in a small skillet with a drop of olive oil and gently saute. When onions start to develop color, remove and set aside to cool.

parsley

Mince parsley finely.

add to potatoes

Add onions and parsley to potato. Mash together.

mix in cod

Add fish to mash. Mash together. At this point taste for salt. If it does not have a light salty taste, add a pinch of kosher salt.

add egg

Add in one egg and combine.

scoop mixture

Your mixture should hold together at this point.

oil spoons

Put a dab of olive oil on two soup spoons.

spoons

Mold with two spoons. It should for a tri-sided croquette.

raw

Line up on parchment until ready to fry. (At this point they can be covered and refrigerated for 24 hours or flash frozen and stored for a couple of months until ready to fry)

fry1

Heat canola oil in a large skillet on med/high heat. Place croquettes in oil with lots of room around them. Do not crowd pan. Turn the burner down to medium heat.

flip

Because the croquettes are three-sided, it is easy to turn them as they cook. You want to take your time with this.

flip2

The whole process of frying should take 10-15 mins. Be sure each side is golden brown without burning. If they cook too quickly, the inside will not properly cook through.

drain2

Drain on paper towels. Normally with fried food, I would tell you to salt at this point, but these are naturally salty, so no need.

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Transfer to a serving dish. They can be served warm or room temperature.

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Enjoy!

Recipe for Cod Fish Cakes:

(serves 4-6)

3/4 lb. dry salt cod, prepared (hydrated and mashed)

3 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed

2 tsp. minced parsley

1/2 medium onion, finely minced, sautéed

1 egg

kosher salt to taste

1 c. canola oil

Directions:

Combine mashed potato (cooled), minced and sautéed onion (cooled), parsley.  Add in mashed fish. Mash together.  Add in egg, combine.

Spoon out one soup spoon of mixture.  With another soup spoon, form into tri-sided croquettes.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.  Place croquettes in heated oil to fry.  Turn down heat to medium.  Fry over 10-15 minutes turning periodically until golden brown.  Drain on paper towel.

Enjoy!

*note – this recipe is gluten-free