FLAMENCO AND POTATO SALAD

 The sound and rhythm of flamenco music have been the soundtrack of my life in Spain. But, in truth, it’s an art I never got to know very well. I can’t even do palmas, the rhythmic hand clapping that accompanies flamenco. Anything I ever knew about flamenco I learned from a book, The Art of Flamenco, by Donn Pohren. 

Thanks to a posting by a Facebook friend, I learned that that book, published in 1962, is marking its 60th anniversary. Though written by an American, the book remains a respected study of this art form. (More about The Art of Flamenco here.) Donn Pohren also had a flamenco center in Morón de la Frontera (Sevilla), where serious aficionados were forged. 

The one time I met Donn, we talked, not about flamenco, but about potaje. As someone who delved deeply into folk culture, he also explored culinary lore and, in 1972—50 years ago!—published Adventures in Taste: The Wines and Folk Food of Spain. 

As I said, flamenco has been a constant background to life in Spain. In the bars, I remember, singing would spontaneously burst forth. In the narrow village streets where radios tuned to the same station created a sort of quadraphonic sound, flamenco music played all day. At fiestas guitarist and singer kept the rhythms going for hours. 

The most exciting juerga (flamenco performance) I ever experienced was at a venta in San Fernando (Cádiz). Wine flowed (Sherry, of course), spirits rose and tapas appeared. It was nearly midnight before the music and dancing began. There was no stage. Guitarists, singers and dancers simply sat on chairs at one end of the room. A few strums, the sound of staccato clapping, a voice rising over the guitar, then a dancer stood and began moving to the complicated flamenco rhythms. The juerga went on until the early hours of the morning, building in intensity, until the whole place seemed to crackle with electricity. 

Papas aliñás, potato salad, was one of the tapas served at that night of flamenco. It’s a dish famous in all of Cádiz, from Jerez to El Puerto, from San Fernando to Tarifa. It’s also a favorite in tapa bars of Sevilla. 

It was in Sevilla tapa bars that I learned the secret to great papas aliñás (the name is Andaluz-speak for patatas aliñadas, or “potatoes with dressing”): make a fresh batch every day and never, ever, put the potatoes in the fridge.

The other secret is that you need a lot more olive oil than you think. Use your best extra virgin oil because the flavor really matters.

The basic: cooked potatoes  dressed with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and parsley. Marinate the potatoes at room temperature. Add even more oil before serving so that the potatoes glisten. 

Additions to the basic dressed potatoes: clockwise from the top, extra virgin olive oil, hard-boiled eggs, canned tuna or melva, tomatoes, herbs (chives and parsley shown), chopped green onions, chopped green pepper, olives, green or black.

Is this the perfect side dish for your Memorial Day picnic or backyard grill?

Serve the potato salad as tapa, starter or side. It's perfect with burgers or brats. 

Basic dressed potatoes (room temperature) are a great side with salmon fillet. Add a few capers. (The salmon pictured  was cooked on a ridged grill pan.) 

Flamenco Potato Salad (Potatoes with Olive Oil Dressing)

Papas Aliñás (Patatas Aliñadas)

Use new potatoes for this recipe. “New” doesn’t mean tiny ones, but potatoes that have been recently harvested. Mature potatoes, the kind you want for baking, would disintegrate too easily and waxy potato varieties don’t absorb the dressing very well. The potatoes, large or small, should be of uniform size, so they all cook in the same time. Cook them, unpeeled, in boiling salted water. 

Peel and cut up the potatoes while they are still warm. Add the salt and vinegar first, then the oil. Allow the potatoes to marinate at room temperature at least an hour before serving. 

Use “new” onions, too, cebolletas—spring onions, green onions or scallions. Any onion that makes you cry is too strong. 

Following is the basic, traditional recipe for papas aliñadas. You can get creative, if you like—mint instead of parsley, caviar instead of hard-boiled egg, capers in place of olives, grilled tuna instead of canned.

2 pounds new potatoes

Salt

2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling on top

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Additions to the potatoes:

Spring onions or scallions, chopped or slivered

Olives

Canned tuna, bonito or melva (frigate mackerel)

Hard-boiled egg, quartered or chopped

Chopped green pepper

Cherry tomatoes

Put the whole, unpeeled potatoes to cook in boiling, salted water until tender when pierced with a skewer, 20 to 30 minutes, depending on size. Drain the potatoes and rinse in cold water.

As soon as the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them. Cut into chunks or thick slices and place in a shallow bowl or spread on a platter. Sprinkle the potatoes with 1 teaspoon salt, the vinegar and ½ cup of the oil. Add the parsley and very gently turn the potatoes so the dressing is distributed throughout. 

Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until cooled, at least one hour and up to six hours.

Immediately before serving, sprinkle with some or all of the additions--onions, olives, chunks of tuna, quartered eggs, chopped green pepper and tomatoes. Drizzle more olive oil on the potatoes. Serve room temperature.

Refrigerate leftovers. Bring the potatoes to room temperature before serving.

More potato salads:

Málaga Salad with Potatoes and Oranges.

Russian Potato Salad (Ensaladilla Rusa).

Potato Salad with Lemony Dressing.

Potato Salad with Seaweed Mayonnaise.

Purple Potato Salad.

Moroccan Potato Salad.

Potato-Olive Salad.

Warm Potato Salad.

ESCABECHE—A VERSATILE HOT-WEATHER DISH

 With temperatures about to hit 40ºC (104ºF) in some parts of Andalusia, it’s time to plan meals that are lighter, quicker, fresher and cooler than the soups and roasts of recent days. Chicken cooked in tangy escabeche fills the bill.

Escabeche is a very ancient way of preserving foods in a spiced vinegar and olive oil marinade. Traditionally, wild partridge or rabbit, trout or sardines would be cooked, packed in crocks and pickled in escabeche to be kept without refrigeration. Nowadays, the cooking method isn’t about preserving food, it’s about adding flavor. It's a versatile dish that can be prepared in advance and served hot or cold.

Chicken thighs cooked and marinated in tangy escabeche. Great served hot, cold or room temperature.

Strip the chicken off the bone and serve it cold with salad greens, sliced potatoes and the carrots that cooked in the escabeche. Spoon the escabeche marinade over all and garnish with fresh herbs. Sure to beat the heat.

Serve it hot: Reheat the chicken in the cooking liquid and serve with patatas fritas--fries. They are delicious doused with the escabeche marinade.

Create a rice bowl with chunks of escabeche chicken on top of brown rice and raw and cooked vegetables. Make the dressing with the garlic that cooked with the chicken (recipe below).

Chicken in Escabeche

Pollo en Escabeche

You’ll need enough cooking liquid—vinegar and water plus olive oil—to almost cover the pieces of chicken. Turn them part way through the cooking time so that top and bottom get submerged. Allow the chicken to cool in the cooking liquid, then transfer the pieces to a non-reactive container—glass or earthenware—just large enough to hold them, so they are completely submerged. As the liquid cools, the oil will rise to the top and create an air-tight “seal”. 

This can be made with a whole, cut-up chicken, but I like using meaty thighs, so all the pieces are more or less the same size. (If using chicken breasts, cook the vinegar, oil, herbs and carrots for 20 minutes before adding the chicken. Breasts need to poach only 10 minutes, then cool in the escabeche.) Remove skin from the chicken pieces before cooking. Dust them with flour to brown lightly in oil before simmering in the escabeche.

Pimentón just means "paprika." I used ½ teaspoon ordinary sweet pimentón (dulce) and ½ teaspoon smoked sweet pimentón (dulce, ahumado). If you like, use a little pimentón picante, hot pimentón, as well. 

Ideally, the chicken is cooked one day (in the cool of the morning, for instance) and marinated, refrigerated, at least 24 hours before being served. It can be served chilled or reheated. Use the flavor-packed escabeche cooking liquid, hot or cold, to sauce the chicken or as a salad dressing. It can be used again to escabeche another food if it is first strained and brought to a full boil, cooled and chilled or frozen.

Aromatics to flavor the escabeche.

6-8 bone-in chicken thighs (2 ½ -2 ¾ pounds)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Flour for dredging

1 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

2 carrots

1 large onion

Sprigs of thyme

Sprigs of rosemary

Celery leaves

Parsley

2 slices lemon

1 head of garlic

3 bay leaves

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 cup white wine vinegar

2 ½ cups water

Greens, fresh herbs, lemon, etc., to garnish

Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on the chicken

Remove and discard skin and excess fat from the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dust the chicken pieces with flour, patting off excess.

Heat 1/3 cup of the oil in a heavy skillet. Fry the chicken thighs, turning them once, until lightly browned on both sides. Remove the chicken and reserve. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the pimentón.

Spread carrots, onions and herbs in pan.

Pour 1/3 cup of the remaining oil into a cazuela or pan large enough to hold the chicken pieces. Peel and slice the carrots crosswise and spread them in the pan. Cut the onion into lengthwise julienne slices and add to the pan. Lay sprigs of thyme, rosemary, celery and parsley on top with the lemon slices. Slice off the stem end of the head of garlic and remove any loose outer leaves. Tuck the garlic into the center of the pan. 

Place the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables and herbs. Tuck the bay leaves between them. Sprinkle with peppercorns and salt. Strain the oil with pimentón left in the skillet through a sieve onto the chicken. Pour on the remaining 1/3 cup of oil. Pour over the vinegar and water. Place on medium-high heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce heat so the liquid bubbles gently. Cover the pan and cook, turning the chicken pieces once, until they are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

Submerge chicken in marinade.

Discard the cooked herbs and lemon slices. Place the chicken pieces in a non-reactive container (glass or earthenware). Pour the escabeche liquid and vegetables over the chicken. Cover the container.

If the chicken is to be served within three hours, leave it at room temperature.  Otherwise, refrigerate up to three days. 

Serve the chicken cold or room temperature or reheat it in its cooking liquid. Garnish with greens, fresh herbs, sliced lemon, etc. Finish by drizzling a little extra virgin olive oil over the chicken. 

Garnish chicken with pickled carrots, greens, fresh herbs.

Rice Bowl with Escabeche Chicken

Bol de Arroz con Pollo en Escabeche

This is a little like a poké bowl, but with Mediterranean rather than Asian flavors. The dressing is made by blending the escabeche-cooked garlic cloves with some of the escabeche liquid. Use the pickled carrots that cooked with the chicken in the bowl with a variety of cooked and raw vegetables. 

For the dressing:

1 head escabeche-cooked garlic

1 cup escabeche liquid

Salt

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

For 1 serving of rice bowl:

1 escabeche chicken thigh 

1 cup cooked brown rice 

1 tablespoon escabeche liquid 

Escabeche-cooked carrots

Sliced cucumber

Cherry tomatoes

Cooked green beans or asparagus

Hard-boiled quail or hen’s egg

½ avocado, sliced

Thinly sliced onion

Black olives

Lemon slices

Chopped parsley 

For the dressing: Pinch the cooked garlic cloves from the whole head and place them in a blender with the escabeche liquid. Blend until emulsified and smooth. Add salt to taste. Stir in chopped parsley.

Top rice with chicken, beans, avocado, cuke, tomatoes.

For the rice bowl: Remove and discard the chicken bone. Dice the meat. Combine the rice with 1 tablespoon of the escabeche liquid and fluff with a fork. Spread the rice in a bowl. Heap the diced chicken in the center. Surround the chicken with the carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, beans, eggs cut in half and avocado. Top with onion and olives. Tuck lemon slices around the edge. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve the dressing alongside the bowl.  

Serve dressing with the rice-chicken bowl.

A little escabeche cooking liquid gives the rice a subtle tang.

More escabeche recipes:

Mackerel in Escabeche Marinade.

Lollipops of Escabeche Quail.

Partridge in Escabeche with Quinoa Salad.

Fresh Anchovies in Bitter Orange Escabeche.

Mushrooms in Escabeche.

COOKING THE WILD ASPARAGUS

Springtime in the Andalusian countryside. (Photo by Ben Searl.)

 

Stalker of the wild asparagus. (Photo by Ben Searl)

Ben returned from a hike with a bunch of wild asparagus, foraged from hillsides abloom with wildflowers. 

Wild asparagus—sometimes called esparragos trigueros, because it often grows on the verges of wheat fields—makes spindly stalks that pop up in the spring in sunny spaces, often beside irrigation ditches or near stream beds. Hidden amongst taller weeds, the stalks can sometimes be spotted by the yellowing, ferny foliage from the previous year. 

Wild asparagus can be tender or fibrous, sweet or bitter. It seems to depend on how mature the stalks are—as the tips begin to open, the stalks become more fibrous; how cool and damp the weather is, and the length of time from cutting to eating. Since any bunch of foraged asparagus is likely to range from one extreme to the other, I usually blanch all the spears before proceeding to cook them.

In Andalusia, the favorite way to prepare wild asparagus is in a tortilla or revuelto, scrambled with eggs, sometimes with the addition of a little chopped serrano ham. The asparagus also is cooked in a sauce made with a maja’o, or majado, a “mash” of bread, garlic and spices crushed in the mortar. The recipe, called “esparragado,” or “asparagussed,” is used for other vegetables, such as chard, wild thistle stems (tagarninas), cardoons, or wild silene leaves (collejas). It often is finished with eggs—fried or poached—on top of the vegetables. While usually vegetarian, the dish can be embellished with bits of ham or chorizo. 

My Esparragado includes wild and cultivated asparagus, small artichokes and sugar snaps from my garden, shelled peas and potatoes. With eggs cooked in the cazuela, it becomes a main dish. 

Asparagus and other vegetables are sautéed first, then cooked in a sauce. Eggs poached in the casserole finish the dish.

With an egg on top, the vegetables make a main dish. Croutons of fried bread add crunch.

I've used both skinny wild and thicker cultivated asparagus in this dish.

Asparagus Casserole with Spring Vegetables 

Cazuela de Esparragos Esparragados

For the cooking liquid, use chicken or vegetable stock or simply water. Use either smoked or regular pimentón (paprika). Chopped serrano ham, panceta or bacon is a nice addition. Omit it for a vegetarian version. 

You can finish the casserole with one egg per person or use fewer eggs and mix them into the vegetables before serving. Croutons of fried bread add crunch to the vegetable melange.

I’ve got a few small (tiny) artichokes from the garden, so I’m cooking them whole. If using medium or large artichokes, cut them into quarters or smaller segments. Snap off several layers of outer leaves, scoop out the fuzzy chokes and drop the artichokes right into the oil in the cazuela. No need to put them in lemon water.

20 ounces asparagus (3 cups cut up)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices bread, crusts removed

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 cup chopped onion 

2 ounces chopped pancetta, ham or bacon (optional)

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

½ teaspoon cumin

1-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 medium artichokes, quartered

2 medium potatoes

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cups stock or water

1 cup shelled peas, sugar snap peas or fava beans

4 eggs

Chopped parsley

Wild asparagus.

Snap off and discard the butt-ends of the asparagus. Cut the stalks into 1-inch pieces. If using wild asparagus, which sometimes is fairly bitter, blanch it in boiling salted water for 2 minutes and drain.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Fry the slices of bread and garlic until they are golden. Remove them and reserve. 

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan. Sauté the onions and pancetta, if using, until onion is softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the cut-up asparagus and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and cumin. Add the vinegar and cook 1 minute. Add the artichokes and potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 ½ cups of the stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook, covered, until asparagus is tender, 15 minutes.

Break up one slice of fried bread into a blender with the fried garlic. Add the remaining ½ cup of the stock or water and blend to make a smooth paste. Stir the paste into the pan with the vegetables. Add the peas. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook, covered, stirring frequently, until sauce is thickened and vegetables are cooked.

Break eggs into a small bowl, one by one, and slide them into the pan. Cover and simmer until whites are set but yolks still runny.

Croutons of fried bread.

Cut the remaining slice of fried bread into cubes. Scatter them on top of the vegetables or serve alongside. Garnish the cazuela with chopped parsley.

More about asparagus:

Wild, Tame and Civilized.

Rustic Asparagus Soup.

Eggs Scrambled with Asparagus and Shrimp.

Plancha-Grilled Asparagus.

Sheet Pan Broiled Asparagus (Calçotada)

Fried Asparagus ("Cigalas" de la Huerta).

FOUR WAYS WITH FISH FILLETS

 A local fish vendor, in a good marketing move, started offering fish en filetes, filleted and ready to cook. Up until then, I had to buy a whole fish, then ask him/her to fillet it for me. Sometimes, if I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cook the fish whole, I wound up doing the job myself. 

Now I could avail myself of fillets of mackerel, sea bass and gallineta, a particularly tasty rock fish. Here are some of the ways I found to cook fillets—pan fried, steamed, broiled and poached.

Pan Fried

Fillets cut from the tail of a whole hake are lightly breaded and pan fried. Served on a bed of pisto, a vegetable mélange that serves as side and sauce.

Steamed

Lomo is the center cut of the hake. It is steamed on a layer of three kinds of seaweed with some sugar snap peas from the garden. Warmed olive oil with a touch of chile, garlic, pimentón and sesame sauces the fish. 

Broiled

Fillets of sea bass broiled on a sheet pan with asparagus.

Poached

Delicate sole fillets are wrapped around thinly sliced ham and poached in simmering fish stock, served with a creamy sauce with mushrooms and shrimp. 

Pan-Fried Hake Fillets with Pisto

Merluza Rebozada con Pisto

Pisto—not to be confused with pesto—is a vegetable melange that serves as both side dish and sauce for the fish. 

I bought a whole hake and had the fish vendor fillet it. I used the tail fillets for this fried fish and saved the lomo, or center section, for the steamed fish recipe. This method of breading the fish—dipping it first in flour and then in beaten egg—is especially good for delicate fish such as hake. It works well with cod or sole too. It’s good, too, for firm-fleshed fish, such as pargo and urta, two kinds of bream, that are first fried, then finish cooking in a sauce. The egg coating protects the fish so that it doesn't fall apart. Season the flour with any dried herb—oregano, thyme, garlic powder. Flour the fish and dip it in egg immediately before frying.

For the pisto

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped red and yellow bell pepper

1 ½ cups diced zucchini

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 cup peeled and diced tomato

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Oregano

Red pepper flakes (optional)

Black olives to garnish

Heat oil in a skillet and add the onion and peppers. Sauté, stirring, until onions are softened, 5 minutes. Add the zucchini, garlic and tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes, if using. Cook until tomatoes release their juices and zucchini is just tender, 5 minutes. Serve the pisto garnished with black olives. 

To pan-fry the fish

Fish fillets, 5-6 ounces each

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper 

Flour 

Seasoning for flour, as desired

Beaten eggs(s)

Olive oil for frying

Pisto, to serve

Pat fillets dry with paper towels. Season them with salt and pepper. Place flour, seasoned, if desired, in a shallow bowl. Place beaten egg in another shallow bowl.

Dredge fish fillets first in flour, then dip in beaten egg before frying in olive oil.

Place oil in a skillet to a depth of ½ inch and place on moderately high heat. Dredge fillets first in flour, covering them thoroughly. Pat off excess flour. Dip the floured fillets in the egg, coating them completely. Fry them in hot oil until golden. Turn and fry the reverse side. 

Drain the fish on paper towels.

Serve the fillets on a bed of pisto.

Hake Steamed with Seaweed

Merluza al Vapor con Alga

Steaming is such a good way to cook delicate fish such as hake. This recipe, which uses several kinds of seaweed (alga) to flavor the fish, is adapted from Cocina con Algas, published by Portomuiños, producers of seaweed products in Galicia (northwest Spain). I´ve added garlic and pimentón to the finished dish.  The recipe called for four kinds of seaweed—kombu (sugar kelp), wakame, sea spaghetti and musgo de Irlanda, Irish moss, which I did not have. (More about cooking with algae here.)  

Use a bamboo steamer or a vegetable steamer basket, if you have one. If not, improvise. A Moroccan cous cous steamer. Heatproof metal colander. Metal cake rack. An inverted pie pan with a heatproof plate on top. The steamer needs to fit inside a deep skillet or wok with a lid. Add enough water to the skillet to reach just below the level of the steamer rack. 

Arrange the fish on top of the seaweed in a single layer. If you have more servings than will fit, do a second steaming. Vegetables such as asparagus tips or sugar snap peas can be steamed with the fish.  

Wakame, sea spaghetti and kombu.

Serves 2.

4 (3-ounce) pieces of hake fillet with skin

Salt

2 to 4 kinds of dried seaweed, such as kombu, wakame, sea spaghetti and Irish moss (about 1 ounce total)

3-inch piece of leek

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 dried chile

1 clove garlic, crushed

½ teaspoon sesame seeds

¼ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

Asparagus tips or sugar snap peas

Salt the pieces of fish and let them come to room temperature.

Rehydrate each of the kinds of seaweed by soaking them in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain well. Cut large pieces into strips. Separate strands of sea spaghetti. Place all of the seaweed in the steamer. Cut the piece of leek into lengthwise strands and mix them with the seaweed. 

Steam fish on a layer of seaweed.

Heat the oil in a small skillet with the chile and garlic until garlic begins to turn golden. Remove from heat and add the sesame seeds. (Cover the pan to prevent the sesame from popping out.) Remove cover and stir in the pimentón and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Remove chile and garlic. Keep sauce warm.

Arrange the pieces of fish, skin-side up, on top of the layer of seaweed. Tuck asparagus or peas around the fish. Bring the water in the steamer pan or skillet to a boil. Place the steamer over the water, reduce heat so the water boils gently and cover the pan tightly. Steam the fish until it just flakes when prodded with a skewer, about 5 minutes for the 3-ounce pieces.

Steamed fish is moist. 

Broiled Fillets of Sea Bass

Filetes de Lubina al Grill (Gratinador)

A topping of seasoned mayonnaise keeps the fillets moist under the broiler heat. The crumbs give a final crispness. You’ll only need about a teaspoon of the mayo for each fillet. Use the rest to serve alongside as a sauce. 

I used fillets of sea bass (lubina), but gilthead (dorada), scorpionfish (gallineta) or other firm-fleshed white fish would work well. Thicker salmon fillets can be broiled using the same method. The fish is done when browned on top. Timing depends on the thickness of the fillets. Thin sea bass fillets needed only about 4 minutes (6 inches from the heat source). For thick fillets, increase the distance between the pan and the heating element. (The British and Spanish call a broiler a “grill.”)

 

Fish fillets, 5-6 ounces each

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper 

Olive oil 

¼ cup mayonnaise

1 clove garlic, crushed

Chopped parsley

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

¼ cup fine dry bread crumbs

½ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. In a small bowl whisk the mayonnaise with the garlic, parsley and lemon juice.

Spread fish with mayonnaise and crumbs before broiling.

Preheat broiler to maximum. Arrange the fillets on a broiler pan or sheet pan that has been lightly brushed with olive oil. Spread about 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise on top of each fillet. Combine the bread crumbs and pimenton. Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of crumbs on top of each fillet.

Place the pan about 6 inches under the heating element. Broil until the top of the fish is browned. 

Broil asparagus and par-boiled potatoes on a sheet pan alongside the fish.

Fillets of Sole with Ham and Mushroom Sauce

Filetes de Lenguado con Jamón y Salsa de Champiñones

The sole fillets are folded around thinly sliced ham, then poached in fish stock. Make the sauce separately and reheat it once the fish is ready to serve. This recipe would be equally good made with other flat fish such as turbot (rodaballo), flounder (gallo) or John Dory (pez de san pedro). Depending on how the fish is filleted, you may have two or four fillets from one fish. 

Use store-bought fish stock for the poaching and sauce. Or make a quick stock by cooking head, bones and trimmings in water with leek, kombu (seaweed), lemon and salt. (You can also cook potatoes or rice in the stock to serve with the fish.)

Serves 2.

8 (1 ½-ounce) fillets of sole (from 2 fish)

Salt

1 ½ ounces thinly sliced ibérico or serrano ham

Fish stock for poaching the fish

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

½ cup finely chopped mushrooms

¼ cup dry white wine

½ cup fish stock

1/3 cup cream

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped cooked shrimp

Finely chopped parsley

Fold fillets around sliced ham.

Spread the fillets out flat. Sprinkle them with salt. Top each fillet with strips of ham. Fold the fillets over the ham into thirds. Cut strips of foil 2 inches wide. Wrap the bands like a belt around the center of the folded fillets. Pinch the ends of the foil together to prevent the fillets from unrolling. 

Choose a pan or skillet just large enough to hold the fish in one layer. Add stock to a depth to cover the rolled fillets. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat and carefully place the fish in the poaching liquid. Simmer, covered, until the fish just flakes, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon to a heated platter. 

For the mushroom sauce:

Heat the oil in a saucepan or small skillet and sauté the shallots and mushrooms until softened, but not browned, 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol, 2 minutes. Add the fish stock and cook 10 minutes. Add the cream and cook until the sauce is reduced and beginning to thicken, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chopped shrimp and heat. 

Serve the sauce with the fish. Sprinkle with parsley. 

More recipes for fish fillets:

Batter-Fried Cod.

Beer-Battered Fried Fish.

Sea Bream with Sherry Sauce (Urta).

Fish in Marinera Sauce.

Hake in Cider Sauce.

Salmon with Leeks and Potatoes.

Salmon with Cava Sauce.