Guest SeriesFrancesca AndreaniFish Stew, Peruvian, garlic rice, Karen, Peru, salmon, Guisado de PescadoComment

Guisado de Pescado

Guest SeriesFrancesca AndreaniFish Stew, Peruvian, garlic rice, Karen, Peru, salmon, Guisado de PescadoComment
Guisado de Pescado

Mom’s recipes are a treasure trove from the past, but so are everyone else’s mothers, fathers, grandparents, uncles & aunts, friends etc etc, and if we had the time, and a bajillion dollars, we would cook and document them all. I don’t have the dollars (YET but don’t worry, I hear the lottery is a sure thing) so we’ll do what we can, we’ll start small. Here it is- the guest series.

Kicking off the FIRST EVER guest spot, meet my good friend Karen. Karen is half-Peruvian and half-Chinese, which means her recipes are an incredible mix of some of the best cooking traditions on the planet. She is, to understate, an outstanding cook. I’m not just saying this because I like Karen, or I want her to feed me (I do, and I would love that, does Saturday work?) but because she’s famous for it. If you don’t already follow J/K Food on Instagram, do. I am, and forever will be, trying to get Karen to teach me the recipes she learned growing up in Peru. Because she’s a wonderful friend, she has sent me a few recipes to share on here. When I made this one, I was giddy. It’s bright, totally different from anything I make, surprisingly simple and fast.

Karen’s mom had typed this recipe and glued it to the back of her recipe book. Next to the recipe is a hand-written note, that simply reads “Mama” because, as Karen explained, this was her mother’s mother's recipe. Her grandmother would use any kind of fish she found in the market, and so can you, but I loved it with Karen’s favorite, salmon, since it’s rich and fatty.  She serves it with her family’s recipe of garlic rice, surprisingly the garlic for which is made into a paste using a mortar & pestle. I say mortar & pestle, but Karen tells me that at her house in Peru, that just meant a cutting board and a rock her grandmother found at the beach. Shout out here to her Tio Ramos, who, according to Karen, made the most perfect garlic rice, possibly with bit extra oil at the end and the most perfect long-grain rice. Both the rice purveyor and his magic oil additions are still a secret.

I’m honored and psyched and all the other things you could feel to make this recipe and to feature it here. Thank  you Karen for sharing, and thank you Karen’s Abuella for such a lovely supper. 

SERVING DETAILS

6  Servings

INGREDIENTS

Garlic Rice:

  • 6 large garlic cloves
  • 2 cups of Jasmine rice
  • Oil & Salt

Guisado De Pescado:

  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 2 red onions
  • 5 plum tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 1 Aji Amarillo Chili Pepper (a yellow peruvian pepper, if you can’t find, you can substitute an eighth of a Habanero or quarter of a Serrano)
  • 2 tsp of dried Oregano
  • 6-8 boneless, skinless salmon fillets (roughly 1.5 - 2 pounds)
  • 1/4th cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • Olive oil, salt & pepper

METHOD

Garlic Rice:

  1. Using a mortar & pestle, mash  6 garlic cloves. If you don’t have a mortar & pestle you can mince and using the back of a fork, crush a little.
  2. Heat 6 tbsp of oil in a medium pot with a lid and cook the garlic until golden.
  3. To the same pot, add 3 cups of warm water, 2 tsp salt and 2 cups of jasmine rice. Stir and cover with the lid to cook.
  4. Cook for about 13 minutes at medium heat, or until done and water has been absorbed. Shut off heat and let sit, covered, for several minutes, and then fluff with a fork.

Guisado de Pescado:

  1. Prep the vegetables; roughly chop the garlic cloves and chili pepper and cut the tomatoes lengthwise into about 8 pieces. Peel the onions and halve them lengthwise, then cut into 8ths (so you half a rose petal size onion pieces)
  2. Wash, dry and season the fish with salt and pepper on all sides.
  3. Using deep pan with a lid, such as a dutch-oven style pot, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and heat.
  4. At high heat, add the tomatoes, onions, garlic, chili, ½ teaspoon of pepper, oregano, 2 tsp of salt, and tomato paste. Stir often for 5 minutes. The onion should be cooked but crunchy, not soft.
  5. Turn off heat and remove half of the mixture and set aside, keeping the other half in the pot.
  6. Place the fish on top of vegetable mixture inside the pot, which should act as a cushion. Gently spread the the vegetable mixture that was put aside over the fish.
  7. Without disturbing the vegetables and fish, add ½ cup of hot water to the pot, and sprinkle the cilantro on top.
  8. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until just cooked through, over low to low medium heat.
  9. Serve with a big pile of garlic rice.