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Pescado con salsa de almendras or fish with almond sauce

halibut-with-almond-sauce

A few years ago my good friend Mafi gave me a cookbook called 100 recetas para corvina or 100 recipes for corvina; corvina, which is a white sea bass, is the most popular fish in Ecuador, and is also known as merluza in other South American countries, but it is very hard to find in the US. I occasionally found corvina at Central Market in Austin, but have never seen it anywhere else. However living in Seattle I have access to a wide variety of good seafood, and so I just adapt all my corvina recipes and use different types of fish. One of my favorites is halibut, it is delicious, goes well to different seasonings and sauces, and is also available fresh most of the year. This recipe worked very well with halibut, but Iā€™ve also made it with cod, essentially it should work with any good fresh white fish.

I like cooking with almonds, but it really isnā€™t something that is typical or traditional in Ecuador. They are one of those ingredients that were probably introduced by the Spaniards but not used by the general population who could not afford them and therefore didnā€™t integrate into the everyday cooking. Which is the case for many other ingredients, including olive oil. I remember olive oil was very expensive when I was growing up, my mother would buy it only for use in salads, but we wouldnā€™t ever cook with it. I learned about cooking with olive oil when I moved to the US.

It fascinates me how some food items introduced by the Spaniards to South America were incorporated so quickly and others have taken a much longer time. It also varies from country to country, Iā€™m sure that countries with a stronger European influence have added ingredients originally from Europe into their cuisine. For example, Chile produces its own olive oil, very good quality. Ā At the same time though I recently received a request from a local newspaper in Ecuador to use one of my recipes in Spanish (from https://www.laylita.com/recetas/ ), they are trying to feature recipes that use local ingredients that are available and affordable to everyone, and since my recipe called for olive oil or sunflower oil they wanted to know if it could be changed to vegetable oil or lard, which are the most available. Many Ecuadorian recipes where I used sunflower, avocadoĀ or olive oil are usually prepared in Ecuador with lard or vegetable oil.

Back to this recipe for halibut with almond sauce, I used a small amount of rocoto pepper paste. Rocoto is a small orangish red hot pepper that looks a lot like a habanero, but isnā€™t as spicy and its skin is thicker. It grows mainly in Andean regions, and is used a lot in Peru and Bolivia. It is easy to find rocoto peppers either canned or frozen in Latin supermarkets. There is also a paste made from the peppers that is sold in a jar, if you like spicy foods it is something that you can add to different dishes to give them a little kick, the whole ones are also pretty good for stuffing.

I served the fish with rice; I think that is a must to soak up the sauce. I also added some curtido or pickled red onions as a garnish, and steamed broccoli. Unlike some other of my dishes this one is pretty flexible with side dishes – hough when I was eating it I kept thinking to myself that it would have gone very well with some fried ripe plantains.

Halibut in almond sauce

Ingredients:

3 lbs halibut, cut into 6 fillets

Juice of 1 orange, about 1/3 cup

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Ā½ cup whole raw almonds

1 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tbs finely chopped cilantro or parsley, plus more to garnish

1 tsp rocoto or other hot pepper paste

1 red chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped, plus a few strips to garnish

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbs butter, melted

Salt and pepper

Serve with: rice, pickled onions, vegetables and lime slices.

Preparation:

  1. Season the fish with salt, pepper and orange juice, cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for about an hour.
  2. Blend the whole almonds in a food processor until pulverized.
  3. Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.
  4. Combine the sliced almonds, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, garlic, rocoto paste, chopped chili pepper, and chopped herbs in a bowl, mix well.
  5. Mix the pulverized almonds and the heavy cream together.
  6. Pour the melted butter in a large oven proof baking pan and arrange the fish fillets in the pan
  7. Pour the almond cream mixture over the fish.
  8. Spoon the cheese almond mixture on top of the fish fillets
  9. Bake for approximately 25 minutes
  10. Garnish with chopped cilantro or parsley and with the chili pepper strips.
  11. Serve with pickled red onions, rice, lime slices and vegetables, or your choice of side dishes.

Fish with almond sauce preparation Fish with almonds preparation

Halibut in almond sauce Halibut with almond sauce

Fish with almond sauce Pescado con salsa de almendras

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3 Comments

  1. EstƔs de parabƩns (congratulations)!
    I’m a portuguese cooking student and I love to know more and more about fish dishes. This is fantastic! Good Job!

  2. this looks lovely. i have a nice hunk of halibut in my freezer and i know brian wants to get his grubby mitts on it and grill it, but i might have to veto that in favor of this.

  3. Oh, my, this looks heavenly! What a great recipe! I love oven baked fish. I should try your recipe. Your pictures are mouthwatering! What a lovely blog!

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