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Spanish Food - How To Prepare Boquerones |
by:
Linda Plummer |
Whilst on your travels in Spain and pausing to takebreath from
site-seeing, you have surely experimented with "tapas" at
welcoming bar.
If this iscase, it is more than likely that you have come
acrosssmall, tasty filleted fish, preserved in olive oil,
sliced garlic and chopped parsley, and highly popular throughout
Spain. This delectable dish is usually known as "boquerones" but,
depending onarea, can also be called "anchoas".
Boquerones are small, fresh anchovies. Accompanied by crisp,
fresh Spanish bread,glass of ruby-red wine or refreshing
Asturian cider, they aredelight to eat. Moreover - as with
many traditional Spanish dishes which compriserenowned
Mediterranean Diet - they are extremely healthy.
Like its friendsardine,anchovy isoily fish, packed
full of proteins and minerals, protecting against heart disease,
and "good" for cholesterol. Whatīs more, in many areas of Spain -
in particularMediterranean coast - fresh anchovies are
extremely cheap.
On first coming to Spain, I happily enjoyed many tapas of
boquerones, completely unaware of one fact ... all those little
anchovies I had eaten were not cooked! Formoment, I deeply
regretted asking my Spanish neighbor, Carmen, how to make them!
Fortunately, Carmen went into immediate action and savedday!
She frog-marched me tolocal fishmongers, boughtkilo of
little fish, took me home and showed me "her way" of preparing
them. They were so delicious that I quickly recovered my passion
for boquerones and have been enjoying them ever since!
Methods for preparing boquerones tend to vary slightly from family
to family. However,basic principles are alwayssame.
You first have to clean and filletfish, which is simple
enough, but rather tedious until you gethang of it.
Next, you soakfillets, either in white wine vinegar or
mixture of half vinegar and half water. The vinegar will clean
and bleachfish and also soften any remaining little bones.
Some people sprinklefish with salt; others (myself included)
feel thatfish is salty enough already.
The fish has to be left forgood few hours soaking in
vinegar. Again, this tends to vary, with some Spaniards leaving
them overnight infridge and others just waitingcouple of
hours. Also, some families changevinegar/water-and-vinegar
mixture once during this process, whilst others donīt bother.
Once you have thrown awayvinegar,bleached fillets are
covered withgood quality virgin olive oil, which will preserve
them. You can add as much, or as little, sliced garlic as you
wish, plus freshly chopped parsley.
So ... here isactual recipe.
BOQUERONES
Ingrediants:
- one kilo fresh anchovies.
- White wine vinegar.
- Virgin olive oil.
- Garlic.
- Parsley.
- Salt (optional).
Method:
one. Top and tail anchovies.
two. Slit along underside and discard innards.
three. Open out fish.
four. Remove central bone by lifting from tail end upwards.
five. Rinse well.
six. Placelayer of anchovy fillets inshallow dish.
seven. Sprinkle with salt (optional) and pour on plenty of vinegar.
eight. Repeat with another layer, changing direction.
nine. Leave to soak in vinegar forfew hours or overnight.
onezero. Pour off vinegar.
oneone. Very gently rinse fillets.
onetwo. Cover fillets in virgin olive oil.
onethree. Add slices of garlic and chopped parsley.
It is so pleasant to find something in life that isdelight to
the senses, affordable, healthy and does nobody any harm
(apologies to any vegetarians out there and, also,little
anchovies ...). So ... do makemost of fresh anchovies
whilst you are in Spain and enjoy!
Aboutauthor:
After living in Spain for twozero years, Linda Plummer decided
to compileinformation-rich website:
http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com
with its FREE monthly newsletter, "The Magic of Spain".
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