Puchero de Pescado
Fish and Potato Pie is a delicious dish which is not difficult to prepare. One of the ingredients is fish stock which you can make yourself using our Fish Stock Recipe or you can just buy some ready made stock. If you do buy ready made stock be careful about how much salt you then add as the stock may be salty. Another ingredient is tomato sauce. You could use a tin of crushed tomatoes and a little tomato puree or our Tomato Sauce Recipe.
Ingredients
Serves 4 people
- 150ml olive oil
- 900g (2lb) potatoes thinly sliced
- 2 medium onions thinly sliced
- 4 x 175g (6oz) white fish fillets – use the white fish you prefer or is most available
- 300ml (10fl oz) fresh Tomato Sauce
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon of paprika
- 150ml (1/4 pint) Fish Stock
- salt
- pepper
- 4-5 handfuls of breadcrumbs
- dry white wine
- plain flour
Cooking Method
If you are going to make your own tomato sauce and fish stock then that is what you should do first.
Perhaps the most important thing in this recipe is that the potatoes and the onions must be thinly sliced or they won’t cook through in the time that the fish takes to cook.
In a large frying pan heat the oil and add the potatoes for about a minute turning them over once so that they will absorb some of the olive oil flavour. Remove them and do the same with the onions.
Coat the fish with the flour and fry for about half a minute on each side.
Now get a large casserole dish and put the potatoes in the bottom of it, then put the onions on the next layer, next the tomato sauce, garlic and paprika with the fish fillets on top. Pour the fish stock over it, season with salt and pepper and scatter the breadcrumbs on top. If possible use fresh breadcrumbs but if necessary you can use shop bought ones.
Bake in a preheated oven 190ºC/375ºF (gas mark 5) for about 40 minutes. Half way through the cooking time take the casserole out of the oven and pour some white wine over it to moisten it. You can also pour a dash of Pernod over it if you have some available.
You can serve this dish with a salad or some vegetables and some crusty bread.