Plenty more Fish in the Sea

It’s quite a few years now since I moved to Spain and although one tends to take most things for granted after all that time, but there are still a few things I still  really appreciate and never get tired of, and one of those is the excellent fish available everywhere you go.

My first recollections of Spain are of the north of the country, such places as Llanes, Santander, Gijón where I found some of the best seafood dishes I’ve ever tasted. Lovely small cafés and restaurants in tiny places that had never seen a tourist before. One of the most delicious things, I think, for supper is crisp fried squid or cuttlefish like you get in the little shops in the back streets of  Sevilla as part of a ‘Fritura de Pescado’, which is just the Spanish name for mixed fried fish.

Fried Squid

Squid is  relatively cheap and nowadays is available everywhere in most countries around the world, but especially around the mediterranean where vast quantities are caught.

Chop off the tentacles, pull out the little bone like a bit of transparent plastic and clean out the remaining bag looking part. Now cut the bag part across into rings or strips whichever you prefer. You don’t have to make a batter, all you need is one small bowl with some flour in it, (I use about half a teacup of Self-raising flour) and a couple beaten eggs in another bowl together with a pinch or two of salt (your taste). Dip the pieces in the egg then in the flour and fry in very hot oil until golden brown.

NOTE: Do Not cook for more than 5 minutes or they will become very tough indeed. If they are not ready within the 5 minutes then your oil is not hot enough.

Fritura de Pescado

To make the fritura de pescado cut any white fish, such as hake, etc. into fingers and fry the same way as the squid, you can also include prawns, scampi, boquerones (like whitebait) too, not forgetting the squid. The restaurants I use often include small whole red mullet and fresh mussels, in fact it’s a dish that lends itself to whatever is available in the market on that particular day. A restaurant I use frequently also adds thinly sliced zucchini dipped in the egg and flour just the same and it’s delicious addition to an already perfect meal.

Fried Boquerones or Whitebait

These are baby herrings, sardines, etc. sometimes not much bigger than french fried potatoes – around the mediterranean they are much prized delicacy, so much so, because of the overfishing of them the government passed a law making it illegal to take fish under a certain size but there is such a demand for them the are still traded on the black market around Spain.

These are cooked a little differently, no egging. They are washed in iced salt water, patted dry in a clean cloth then placed either in a paper bag together with some seasoned flour and given a good shake, or in most restaurants they have a box with the flour in and a small sieve in which they place the fish throw some of the seasoned flour over it and shake off the excess before frying at once in the hot oil,  only a few at a time otherwise they will not crisp up.

Your eat them at once before they go soggy, eat the whole thing,  heads, tails, bones, everythings and the smaller they are the better.

PAUL’S TIPS: When deep frying always dry off moist food, especially things like chips, this will prevent foaming in the oil. Lower the food in gently and if you’re using a frying basket always be ready to lift it up if the foam rises too far.

Do NOT leave oil on the stove unattended.

I hope you find this both interesting and useful, so until next time

Happy Eating

Mister Paul

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Category: Blog