Escabeche is cooked fish marinated in a vinaigrette, with varying degrees of spice, and served as a main course or (my favorite) as a tapa.
Escabeche a great way to use leftover fish. In fact escabeche is so good we often buy a little more fish than we need so that we will be sure to have enough to make an escabeche. We eat fresh fish the day we buy it, when it's at its best, and we eat the escabeche two days later, when it's reached its peak of flavor from the marinade. In this way we have two good dinners, each quite different from the other, with only one trip to the fish market.
You can use almost any type of fish to make escabeche. Oily fish--mackerel, bluefish, fresh sardines, etc.--are especially practical. Oily fish doesn't freeze well. It does, however, make outstanding escabeche. It would be a shame to put extra blue fish in the freezer and ruin its flavor and texture when you could make an escabeche instead and turn it into something special.
Salmon is popular. For this post, I used trout. But non-oily fish can work well too.
I'll give two recipes for marinades. The first is from Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain
First, cook the fish. For this recipe I steamed a trout, but you could use leftover fried or grilled fish too.
If you've cooked the fish whole, remove skin and bones.
Recipe # 1, for Mild Escabeche
Ingredients:
1 small onion
1/2 pound of cooked fish of your choice
1 carrot, julienned
6 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
Kosher salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Bake the onion in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes and cut it into slivers. (Or, you could slice the onion and saute it in a little oil).
Place the fish in a casserole dish or cazuela. Sprinkle the onions and carrots over it. Whisk together the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and pour this mixture over the fish. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours. Turn the fish or spoon some of the marinade over it now and then. Serve at room temperature. (See serving suggestions for escabeche below).
Recipe #2, for a spicy escabeche:
1/2 pound of cooked fish
6 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon (or more) pimentón picante de La Vera (please see my post on pimentón de La Vera).
1 bay leaf
3-6 tablespoons of vinegar
Kosher salt to taste
Saute the garlic and bay leaf in one tablespoon of the oil. Remove the pan from the heat before the garlic takes on color. Wait for the oil to cool slightly. Add the pimentón. Stir. Add the rest of the oil and vinegar. Andrés, my father-in-law, always liked his escabeche quite vinegary, so Esperanza would use equal amounts of oil and vinegar, but you can use less if you like. Add salt to taste.
Place the fish in a cazuela. Pour the dressing over it. Cover with plastic wrap. Let the fish marinade in the fridge for 1-2 days, spooning the marinade over the fish now and then. Serve at room temperature.
Escabeche is great served simply with bread and a salad. Because of the vinegar, this is not the time for an elegant wine. A young, inexpensive red or white rioja, or a vinho verde would go well with escabeche. A cold lager would work too.
But my all-time favorite way to eat escabeche is on garlic toast, alone or with roasted peppers, or--and this is fantastic--Cantabrian anchovy fillets. (Please see my post on Cantabrian anchovy fillets packed in olive oil)
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