Caldeirada de Pescado a la Antonio

Serves 6 (or 2 with lots of left overs!)

Ingredients:

1 cup olive oil

I garlic head (10 cloves)

2 lbs fish of choice (traditionally, my family uses salted bacalao. If you choose bacalao,  make sure to let it soak in fresh water for 24 hours in a large pot and change the water 3 times during this period). In its absence (and the easiest thing to do) is to use fresh cod or other rich flavored white fish. In these pics, I’ve went out on a limb and experimented with tuna steaks…and it was good)

1 medium size cabbage

4 medium large rosette potatoes

1/6 of a cup red wine vinegar  

paprika

1 small onion

Salt  

Kitchen-ware: deep boiling pan and a large frying pan, soup dishes, forks.

Peel off the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut in half. Cut off the hard core. Take the leaves apart. Quarter the potatoes and cut the fish in nice medium size chunks. Note: thick fish is best so you can cut cube-like chunks. I would say that 2 lbs of fish should give you 10or 12 nice sized cubes. Peel onion but keep whole.

 

Fill the boiling pan with water and salt real good. Add onion (to flavor the water) Start boiling the potatoes. When you see them begin to soften just a little, add the cabbage leaves.  The idea is to
get the potatoes and the cabbage to come out right together. Best err on the side of overcooking the cabbage and not the spuds...so act accordingly.

While the potato and cabbage are boiling, get the garlic cooking in the oil on medium heat. DO NOT let the garlic burn. You want it to cook enough to flavor the oil.  Once the garlic is nice and golden, add the vinegar. 

After adding the vinegar, let it cook at medium to medium high heat for 10 minutes or so. You want to boil out the punch of the vinegar. After this, reduce the heat to low, wait a minute or so for the mix to cool some and then taste…(if you want it tartier add more vinegar, if it’s too tarty add some more oil. If you make adjustments, cook a few minutes more afterwards),  then add the sweet paprika (pimentón) powder, about 1 tablespoon's worth. Make sure you use good paprika that looks bright orange. Dark or low quality paprika can ruin your meal. Let this cook at low heat for a minute or two. Turn off heat and let sit.In the meantime, the cabbage and potatoes should be very close to ready, reduce heat to low and add the cubed fish so it will all finish cooking together for around ten minutes depending on the fish. You don't want the fish to overcook and come apart.  So check regularly. Do not stir! You don’t want to make this into potato mush.

  

Once it’s done, turn off the heat. The pot should have lots of potato/cabbage/fish broth left. Drain most of it out (keep it for soups stock if you want) but leave a little in there so it won’t dry, and cover. Take about 1/4 a cup of the broth you drained and pour it into the frying pan with the garlic sauce. Cook at medium heat for about five minutes or so, turn off heat and then let rest a couple of minutes. In the meantime start to serve the potatoes cabbage and fish onto individual soup plates. (Select nice firm potatoes, fish pieces and cabbage leaves for the first serving as people will be content with less pretty looking and mushier seconds after a few glasses of wine and the whole peasant feel of the thing…) Pour a generous amount of the garlic sauce over the contents in each plate (mind saving some for the second helpings!) Use forks (it looks like a spoon in the pic, but it isn't!). Serve with good rustic white bread to dip into sauce and drink earthy red wine.