Basque Tuna & Potatoes
Feigning Interest
I'm still not over the culinary burnout I mentioned in my last post. But I ran across a Basque recipe for tuna a few days ago and I've wanted to try some Basque cooking for awhile, so this evening I pretended I felt like cooking and fixed Marmitako.
I liked it well enough, but I wasn't really impressed with it because the other ingredients completely overwhelmed the tuna. And I'm not sure what you could do to enhance the tuna flavor and still maintain the spirit of the recipe. If anything occurs to you, please let me know.
Tomorrow I'm going to cook ribs. To hell with all this damned foreign cooking.
I'm still not over the culinary burnout I mentioned in my last post. But I ran across a Basque recipe for tuna a few days ago and I've wanted to try some Basque cooking for awhile, so this evening I pretended I felt like cooking and fixed Marmitako.
I liked it well enough, but I wasn't really impressed with it because the other ingredients completely overwhelmed the tuna. And I'm not sure what you could do to enhance the tuna flavor and still maintain the spirit of the recipe. If anything occurs to you, please let me know.
Basque Tuna And Potato Casserole (Marmitako)
1 lb fresh tuna or bonito -- cut into 3/4" cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 ea onion -- diced
2 ea garlic cloves -- coarsley chopped
1 ea green pepper -- diced
1 ea large tomatoes -- diced
1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
salt and pepper
1 lb potatoes -- cut into 1/4" slices
1 c white wine
water
Heat the olive oil in a large earthenware casserole dish over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, pepper, and tomato and cook 5 minutes. Add the paprika, and salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes before adding the potatoes.
Add wine and enough water to cover vegetables and cook until the potatoes are nearly done.
Add the fish and cook for 15 minutes more.
Note: be generous with the salt.
Tomorrow I'm going to cook ribs. To hell with all this damned foreign cooking.
4 Comments:
Hmm it occurs to me that if I were using fresh tuna I'd have a few bones to make mild fish stock with, and use that in place of much of the water... I think the fish stock wouldn't be able to overpower the vegetables but would add a supporting chord to the fish meat flavour.
I've never seen a tuna bone in my life. Tuna arrives here as huge chunks of meat the size of a large pork loin.
I'm just about to make this, and I have to agree that the amount of potatoes has to be regulated to avoid overwhelming the tuna.
I live in the basque country, and for what it is worth the fume (or stock) is made using the head (or pieces of the head) rather than 'bones' .
Also, when you do feel like adventuring in the that dang foreign cooking, try Bacalao al pil pil... I've put a recipe on line with video, shows you just how to make it like the basques do.
recipe here
Peta,
I should buy a good book on Basque cookery.
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