
Chef Isabel
Atún de Almadraba Encebollado
Atún encebollado is Cádiz at the stove: almadraba red tuna kept rosy beneath onions cooked slowly with bay, oregano, and dry white wine until dark gold and sweet.

Updated September 11, 2026
The Spanish fish table past the fry: hake in Basque green sauce, red tuna smothered in Cádiz onions, whole bream in a salt crust, Asturian hake in cider, and the Canarian sancocho of salt fish with mojo. Named by region, cooked in a sauce or the oven, and written so a cook far from the coast can put the genuine thing on the table.
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Chef Isabel
Atún encebollado is Cádiz at the stove: almadraba red tuna kept rosy beneath onions cooked slowly with bay, oregano, and dry white wine until dark gold and sweet.

Chef Isabel
Basque chipirones en su tinta turn small whole squid and their ink into a glossy black stew, built on onion cooked slowly until sweet and served with plain white rice for every last spoonful.

Chef Isabel
The Basque coast puts hake and clams in a pale parsley sauce whose silk comes from gentle heat and a circling cazuela. Shake the pan, never the fish, and supper is ready in minutes.

Chef Isabel
Greixonera de peix is Mallorca's earthenware fish bake: firm pieces of mixed rock fish, potatoes, a patient tomato sofrito, garlic, and parsley, cooked just until the flesh parts cleanly from the bone.

Chef Isabel
Murcian dorada a la sal turns two coastal staples, whole gilthead bream and coarse sea salt, into a celebration dish: seal the fish completely, bake, then crack the pale shell at the table.

Chef Isabel
Basque and Cantabrian bonito con tomate brings the summer catch to a deep, slow tomato sauce. Finish the sauce first, then let thick pieces of albacore cook gently in its heat.

Chef Isabel
Lubina a la sal belongs to the Levante coast: whole sea bass sealed under coarse salt, where intact scales protect sweet flesh and the crust cooks it gently without making the fish salty.

Chef Isabel
Urta a la roteña belongs to Cádiz: firm bream baked over onion, green pepper, ripe tomato, and dry Jerez wine, with a patient sofrito joining coast and market garden.

Chef Isabel
Cantabria puts whole besugo at the Christmas Eve table over soft potatoes and onion, with lemon, garlic, and pimentón. Roast only until the flesh parts cleanly from the bone.

Chef Isabel
Cádiz cooks hake in a golden saffron-and-turmeric broth with potatoes and peas. Build the onion slowly, then poach the fish only at the end, and supper comes out tender every time.

Chef Isabel
Catalonia cooks hake gently in fish stock and finishes the sauce with toasted almonds, garlic, and parsley pounded in a mortar, a picada that turns a plain pan into supper.

Chef Isabel
Catalonia's rape a la marinera sets firm monkfish and clams in a glossy sauce of slow sofregit, dry white wine, and almond picada. Build the sauce first, then cook the fish only until it yields.

Chef Isabel
Asturias gives firm monkfish and briny clams a sauce of natural cider, slow onion, and tomato. Reduce the cider before the fish returns, and the sauce turns rounded while the flesh stays succulent.

Chef Isabel
Sancocho Canario is the Canary Islands' Easter plate: salt-cured cherne poached gently with potatoes and sweet potato, then served with red mojo and gofio pella. Desalt the fish properly and the rest is plain work.

Chef Isabel
Canarian tollos en salsa turns dried dogfish into tender, meaty strips in a dark garlic, pimentón, cumin and tomato sauce. The full day's soak decides it, drawing out harsh salt before the pot.

Chef Isabel
Asturias brings its coast and orchards together here: thick hake steaks and clams in a tart natural-cider sauce, cooked just long enough for the fish to flake and stay juicy.

Chef Isabel
Vieja sancochada is Canarian coastal cooking at its plainest: whole parrotfish held just below the boil so its sweet, delicate flesh stays intact, served with papas arrugadas and sharp mojo verde.
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