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Spanish Food - How To Prepare Boquerones
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| Tuesday, December 23, 2008 |
If during your trip to Spain and pausing to take a puff of site visit, you certainly have the experience of "tapas" at a bar.
If so, it is more likely that you have found the small, tasty fish fillets, preserved in olive oil, minced garlic and parsley, and very popular throughout Spain. This tasty dish is generally known as "boquerones," but, depending on the area, can also be called "anchoas.
Boquerones are small, fresh anchovies. Accompanied by crisp, fresh Spanish bread, a glass of ruby-red wine or refreshing Asturian cider, they are a pleasure to eat. In addition - as with many traditional Spanish dishes, which are the famous Mediterranean diet - they are extremely healthy.
Like his friend, sardines, anchovies is a fatty fish, full of protein and minerals, protection against heart disease, and "good" for cholesterol. Moreover, in many areas of Spain - especially the Mediterranean coast - fresh anchovies are extremely cheap.
The first to come to Spain, I happily enjoyed many tapas boquerones completely ignore the fact ... all those little anchovies I had eaten were not cooked! For a moment, I deeply regret to ask my neighbor Spain, Carmen, how to do it!
Fortunately, Carmen went into immediate action and saved the day! She walks me frog fish, bought a kilo of small fish, took me and showed me the house "his way of preparing them. They were so delicious that I quickly recovered my passion for and boquerones were benefiting from them!
Boquerones preparation methods tend to vary slightly from family to family. However, the basic principles remain the same. You must first clean the fish and tenderloin, which is fairly simple, but hard enough, until you blow it.
Then you soak the fillets, or white wine vinegar or a mixture of vinegar and half water half. Vinegar to clean the fish and bleach and soften the remaining small bones. Some people sprinkle the fish with salt, others (including me) think that the fish is already quite salty.
The fish should be left for many hours of soaking in vinegar. Again, this tends to vary with Spaniards leaving them overnight in the fridge and others just wait a few hours. Also, some families change the vinegar and water and vinegar mixture once during this process, while others do not bother.
Once you've thrown the vinegar, laundering nets are coated with a good quality virgin olive oil, which will keep. You can add as much or as little, sliced garlic as you wish, plus freshly chopped parsley.
So ... here is the recipe.
Boquerones
Ingrediants:
- 1 kilogram of fresh anchovies.
- White wine vinegar.
- Virgin olive oil.
- Garlic.
- Parsley.
- Salt (optional).
Method:
1. Top and tail anchovies.
2. Along the lower slot and discard viscera.
3. Open to the fish.
4. Remove the central bone by lifting the tail up.
5. Rinse well.
6. Place a layer of anchovy fillets in a bowl.
7. Sprinkle with salt (optional) and full of vinegar.
8. Repeat with another layer, changing direction.
9. Soak in vinegar for a few hours or overnight.
10. Drain the vinegar.
11. Very gently rinse fillets.
12. Cover fillets in virgin olive oil.
13. Add the sliced garlic and parsley.
It is so nice to find something in life is a delight for the senses, affordable, healthy and no one hurt (my apologies to all vegetarians out there and also the little anchovy ...). So ... do most of fresh anchovies while you are in Spain and enjoy!
Linda Plummer is English and has lived on the Costa Blanca in Spain for 20 years. She is webmistress of the site rich in information: http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com with its monthly newsletter for free, "The magic of Spain." |
posted by neptunus @ 1:10 AM
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