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| Escanciado--first try. |
I learned a new word this week: escanciado. It refers to the manner of decanting natural cider. Having never visited Asturias, I’ve never set foot in a sidrería, a cider bar, where the custom of pouring cider from on high into wide-mouthed glasses is an art.
I encountered the word escanciado (and escanciador, the person who practices the art of pouring cider) because I needed to know how to open a bottle of cider in order to use it in a recipe for merluza con sidra, hake with cider, a dish from Asturias.
Asturias, tucked away at the very top of the Iberian peninsula, is a land of green meadows and mists, thick forests of oak and chestnut, fat cattle and fast-running trout streams. It’s famous for its cheeses—nutty Afuegu, stinky Pitu, mild blue Gamoneu, sharp blue Cabrales; for its fabulous seafood, and for fabada, a potage of beans with smoked sausages. Little wine is produced, but Asturias grows some 250 varieties of apples, so cider is the preferred drink.
We had an experimental go at escanciando. The professionals hold the bottle above the head with the glass extended below at arm's length. The stream of cider is supposed to hit the side of the glass. The method supposedly "wakes up" the cider's natural carbon bubbles and releases volatile aromas.
Cider can be used in cooking exactly as white wine. It’s tangy and dry, perfect with fish. Besides hake, try it with salmon. Use cider also in beef stew or braised chicken. Try a pan of chorizo baked with cider.
Incidentally, in Spanish, “sidra” is cider, but “cidra” is a kind of squash used to make candied angel’s hair.
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| Fillets of hake are layered with sliced potatoes, shrimp and clams, then covered with cider sauce. |
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| Hake and potatoes in cider sauce with a salad of kale, apples and walnuts. A culín of cider to wash it down. |
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| Cider sauce is perfect with small fillets of frozen fish. |
Hake in Cider Sauce
Merluza con Sidra
Use hard, dry cider for cooking. The degree of alcohol doesn’t matter, as it cooks off. It needn’t be espumoso, carbonated, as the fizz is lost in cooking as well.
I have used frozen small fillets of hake. Fresh fish, cut either in steaks or fillets, would be even better. The fish in the cider sauce can be cooked right in a cazuela on top of the stove or in the oven. Adjust cooking times depending on thickness of the fish.
Serves 2-3.
2 medium potatoes
¼ cup olive oil + additional for baking dish
1 pound hake fillets
Salt
Flour for the fish
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ teaspoon hot (picante) pimentón (paprika)
½ cup grated tomato pulp
1 cup cider
Chopped parsley
12 clams
12 medium peeled shrimp
Peel the potatoes and slice them ¼-inch thick. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet and fry the potatoes on medium heat, turning them once, until they are tender, about 10 minutes. They do not need to brown. Remove the potatoes and reserve them.
Sprinkle fish with salt. Dredge the fillets in flour and pat off the excess. Fry the fish in the same oil that the potatoes cooked in. Don’t brown the fish, just turn the pieces to seal the flour coating. Remove them.
Add the onion and garlic to the remaining oil. Sauté on moderate heat until onions are softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the pimentón, then the tomato pulp. Season with ½ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring, until the tomato is thickened, 10 minutes. Add the cider and remove the sauce from the heat.
Pour the contents of the skillet into a blender and blend until smooth.
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Lightly oil an oven-safe dish (earthenware cazuela is perfect).
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| Place fish on top of sliced potatoes. |
Bake until sauce is bubbling, fish flakes easily and clam shells have opened, 12-15 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.
More recipes from Asturias:
