The other day, I was bored with cooking (yes, it happens, even to the most dedicated of us), but starvation wasn’t an option. It was too hot to walk to the market, and I didn’t feel like driving to a restaurant. So I poked around in the refrigerator to see what could be assembled into something reasonably edible.
Ah, fish Veracruz--that was it. An easy, forgiving dish. In Veracruz each restaurant adds its own touch, which gives license to vary the sauce as you please. Mine included tomatoes, green onions, garlic, jalapeno chile, green olives from Baja and capers.
The Asian markets where I shop carry sticks of flash frozen fish, and I had a couple of these in the freezer. I didn’t even bother to thaw the fish, just sprinkled it with lemon juice and salt and placed it in the sauce to simmer until done.
To go with this, I made rice. Plain white rice would have been fine, but I like to get a little fancy as long as it doesn’t take work, so I put in a dash of a powdered condiment for rice that I had bought in Buenos Aires. This colored the rice yellow. And I speckled it with black Indian kalonji seeds. Meanwhile, I steamed some broccoli.
And there it was, a fine dinner produced by a bored cook in less than half an hour.
FAST FISH VERACRUZ
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 roma tomatoes (about ¾ pound), peeled and chopped
3 slices jalapeno chile
Salt
Dash freshly ground black pepper
5 or 6 small green olives
½ teaspoon capers
1 (6- to 7-ounce) frozen fish fillet
Lemon juice
Italian parsley sprigs
Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until tender. Add the tomatoes and chile slices and cook 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt, and grind in the pepper. Add the olives and capers and set aside.
Remove the fish from the freezer. Allow to thaw or cook frozen. Wash, pat dry and sprinkle with lemon juice and salt. Reheat the sauce. Lay the fish in the sauce and cook until tender, 5 to 12 minutes, depending upon whether the fish is frozen, thawed or fresh. Garnish with parsley.
Makes 1 serving.
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