TRAWLING THE FISH MARKETS

Sad to say, my village market no longer has a fish vendor. One stall, in the same family for the 50 years that I have lived here, closed more than a year ago when the owner retired. Now, following a death in the family, the second one has shuttered. I´ve been forced to experiment with frozen fish and, finally, to trawl in deeper waters.

Tuesdays are the best for buying fresh fish. Traditionally, on Mondays fish markets are closed, because the fishermen don’t go out on Sundays. Even now, when much fish comes in from more distant seas, the best of the catch comes in on Tuesdays.

Astonishingly, even during these weeks of quarantine, my favorite hipermercado has had a fantastic selection of fresh fish. I dithered over the variety—wild-caught sea bass as well as farmed bass; line-caught hake, several kinds of sea breams, including the farmed dorada, gilthead. I finally settled on a 3-pound urta (sometimes indexed as hurta), red-banded sea bream. Expensive.

First thing on Tuesday morning at the fish market--a line-up of red-banded sea bream.

Urta is fished off the coast of Cádiz, on the Atlantic side of the Straits of Gibraltar. It’s especially well known in the town of Rota. Rota is a port near Cádiz (Andalusia), within the Sherry triangle. Incidentally, there is a U.S. naval base there. Quite a few Americans received their introduction to Spanish food and to flamenco while stationed at Naval Station Rota.

In Rota, the traditional preparation for urta a la roteña is cooked in a cazuela with onions, peppers, tomatoes and Sherry. The sauce is somewhere between a sofrito and a pisto, or vegetable melange. While once it would be simmered on top of a fire, fishermen’s style, now it is usually cooked in an oven. Rota celebrates Fiestas de la Urta de Rota in early August.

Fillets of bream bake on top of a vegetable-based sauce with Sherry.

Serve the fish from the oven dish or plate it in the kitchen.

Serve the baked fish on top of the juicy vegetables. Potatoes are traditional as a side.

Bream is a firm and flaky white fish.

Good substitutes for the red-banded bream are gilthead, grouper or snapper. Use either a whole fish or fillets.

I started with a whole fish, weighing about 3 pounds. The fish monger removed the scales and guts and separated the head. She removed the lomos, “loins,” the two fillets, and trimmed off the bony fins at the top. I saved the head and all the trimmings to make stock. After cooking, it was easy to pick all the dollops of flesh from them for another meal (chowder!).

This red-banded bream (urta) has been gutted and scaled. The head has been separated and the two fillets removed from the spine. I cut each fillet in half to make four servings. Head, bones and trimmings for making stock.

Sea Bream with Sherry Sauce, Rota Style
Urta a la Roteña

Serves 4.

4 (6-ounce) sea bream fillets
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 plum tomatoes (about 1 ¾ pounds)
1 ½ onions
3 Italian frying peppers
3 tablespoons olive oil plus more for drizzling on fish
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
½ cup fino Sherry or manzanilla
1 tablespoon brandy de Jerez (optional)
Chopped parsley to garnish

Season fish with salt and pepper and let it come to room temperature.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a bowl of ice water. Cut an X in each of the tomatoes and drop them into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to lift them out and into the ice water. Discard hot water.

Slip skins off tomatoes.

When tomatoes are cooled, slip off the skins. Cut them in half and scoop out seeds. Chop the tomatoes. You should have about 3 cups.

Slice the onions thinly in julienne, from stem to root end. Remove stem and seeds from the peppers. Cut them in half lengthwise and slice them crosswise into strips.

Cut peppers into strips.

 Heat the oil in a cazuela or deep skillet. Add the onions, peppers and garlic. Sauté them on medium heat until softened, 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bay leaves. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground black pepper. Continue cooking until tomatoes give up their juice, 5 minutes. Add the Sherry and brandy, if using. Cook the vegetables until most of the liquid is cooked away, 5 minutes. Vegetables should be quite soft.

Sauce is a melange of onions, peppers and tomatoes cooked with Sherry. 

Place fish fillets on a bed of the cooked vegetables and drizzle with olive oil before baking.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Spread the vegetables in a cazuela or baking dish just large enough to hold the fish fillets in one layer. Place the fillets on top, skin side up, and drizzle a little oil over them. Bake the fish until it just flakes, 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of the fillets. If desired, place them under the broiler for another minute to crisp the skin.

Discard the bay leaves.Serve the fish and vegetables, in the baking dish or plated, sprinkled with parsley.

Serve manzanilla or fino Sherry with the fish. 

More recipes for cooking fresh sea breams:
Fish Baked in Salt.
Baked Fish with Potatoes.
Grilled Fish with Caper Dressing.