Cooking it Whole on Christmas Eve:

Grouper

It’s 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside, Christmas Eve morning and you have no idea what to cook for the evening.  I suggest you take a trip to a local market and grab yourself a whole fish, a couple aromatic herbs, saffron and start cooking.  I found myself a Grouper—typically found in the South Atlantic and the Gulf.

Cooking a fish whole does not always extend itself literally.  You can cook it whole in a pot and extract the meat for a fish curry, fry it or steam it whole.  Fish can also be broken apart and cooked in a method appropriate to each part.  I kept the fish fillets and the collarbone to be cooked at the last few minutes of the soup.  I used the bones, which have a lot of meat stuck to them, and the head to develop the base… the oh so deliciously comforting broth.

Taking the Fish Apart

Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:

1 whole grouper (3-4 lbs), cleaned and taken apart

2 fennel bulbs, using only the bulb, julienned

1 leek, chopped only the white part

1 onion chopped

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon of whole peppercorn

1 can of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of sweet paprika, dried ginger, dried Ancho chili

1/2 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons of honey

2 pinches of saffron

Sauté fresh herbs until caramelized. Then add the fish bones and head with 2 teaspoon of salt.  Add all dried ingredients then deglaze the pan with ¼ cup of anise flavor liquor.  In this case, I have Becherovka (herbal flavor bitter) from Czech Republic in my cupboard, so I used that.  Add 1 gallon of water and bring it to boil.  Add honey, tomato paste, cayenne and saffron and simmer until reduced by half.

Cut the fish fillets to 1-inch strips.  Add them to the reduced broth (which has been strained) for 5 minutes.  Serve with French bread.

Keep warm and wholesome.

Cheers!

Teera

Leaning Toward Mateo…My Southern Tapas

Chicharones-Crispy Chicken Skin

 

 

I miss going to Jose Andres' restaurants in the DC area, especially Jaleo, a tapas/pintxo restaurant that showcases food from the Basque and Catalan regions of Northern Spain. Having traveled and tasted food through San Sebastian, Bilbao and Barcelona, Jaleo was the closest to satisfying my craving of Northern Spanish food.

Here, in Durham, I stumbled upon Mateo. The restaurant opened its doors in August 2012. The chef, Matthew Kelly, originally from upstate New York, transplanted to NC over 20 years ago, working at a local French restaurant. Through his traveling of Spain, he fell for the food and decided to recreate the flavor here, in the Triangle area, with a southern influence.
 

Carpaccio de Pulpo

I started off with Carpaccio de Pulpo-thinly sliced octopus. This dish reminds me of the traditional boiled octopus, served with potato, olive oil and pimento on a wooden board, except it is better at Mateo’s. Chef Kelly topped his octopus with diced pepper, olive oil and pickled onion. It was so simple, yet subtly sweet and crunchy.

Mollejas--Sweetbreads

The second dish was the sweet bread. I suppose with his French cooking background, this is where the sweet bread shines. Served with a bed of Migas (bread crumb mixture) and caper. The bread was sweet!

Special of the day-Rabbit Rillettes

The Rabbit rillettes was another French twist of Chef Kelly. Served similar to a crab cake (instead of in a terrine and covered in pork fat), the flavor is much more tantalizing than the rabbit rillettes at Poole's Diner, I can tell you.

The first time I ate stewed tripe in Spain was in a local bar in San Sebastian. One has to walk to the deep end of the counter to find this dish. At Mateo’s, the special was stewed beef heart and tripe with beans, a different take from the traditional, but nice and tender.

Beef Tripe and Heart Stew

The highlight of the night was the chicken skin-deep fried in a batter (maybe tempura) and served with pickled piquillo pepper. It was an original southern tapas at its best. My mouth is watering, thinking about the crunchy texture of the chicken skin and the contrast of spicy, sweet and sour of the pepper. All I needed was a cold beer to top it off.
 

Morcilla

One disappointment I had was the Morcilla or blood sausage. Served with applesauce and slaw, which helps to compensate for the dryness of the sausage, but it was still dried to my taste. A couple of other items that I was looking for but did not find on the menu were Bacalao (salted cod) and squid ink, so I was unable to satisfy my craving for saltiness.

I did hear that the chef cooks pigtails on special occasions. Maybe pigskin will be next. I can't wait for that. But for now, I am pushing Jose Andres aside and learning to like Mateo’s...my southern tapas destination.

Cheers,
Teera