Hake on a bed of Iberian Stew - Fishbox
Ingredients
Hake
1 medium onion
1 red pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 bulb fennel
150g chorizo sliced
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Method
Slice the red pepper, onion and garlic. Add to a heavy based frying pan or casserole dish and sweat these down slowly with a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat.
Once the pepper and onion have softened nicely (but not coloured) add the chorizo.
Once the chorizo has cooked out for about 5 minutes add the chopped fennel. Sweat this down for a further 5 minutes and add the chopped tomatoes.
Season with salt and a pinch of sugar and leave to cook out for 10 minutes or until the fennel has softened. Add the chickpeas and heat through.
To cook the hake, heat some oil in a frying pan to a medium hot heat.
Dry the skin side of the fish well and season with salt just before it goes into the pan. Place the fish skin side first into the pan and cook until you can see the edges of the fish have coloured golden brown, about 3 minutes.From here you can either flip the fish and cook the other side in the pan, or my preferred method is to leave the fish skin side down in the pan and place under a hot grill for another 3 minutes. The aim here is to heat the centre just enough so that it is warmed through. This makes a massive difference to both the texture and flavour of the fish.
To finish, place the chickpea stew on plates and place the cooked fish on top.
