Caldereta Marinera Asturiana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy cazuela or Dutch oven, 30cm
• •Medium pot for fish stock
• •Fine sieve
• •Mortar and pestle

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the stock

   Peel the prawns, keeping the shells and heads for the stock, and chill the peeled prawns with the fish. Put the shells, heads, fish bones, bay leaf, and 1.4 litres water in a pot. Bring just to a simmer, skim the foam, and cook gently for 25 minutes. Strain and press lightly on the shells. You want about 1 litre of clean stock.

   Do not boil fish stock hard or cook it for an hour. It turns coarse and bitter. Gentle and short is enough.
2. 2

   Build the sofrito

   Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy cazuela or pot. Add the onions and peppers with a good pinch of salt and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft, dark gold at the edges, and sweet. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in the grated tomato and cook 15 minutes, until the mixture is thick and jammy. This slow sofrito is the floor of the stew.

3. 3

   Season the base

   Add the pimentón and saffron and stir for only 10 seconds, just until fragrant. Pour in the cider and let it bubble for 2 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot. Pimentón scorches fast, and scorched pimentón tastes bitter. Keep your eye on it.

4. 4

   Cook the potatoes

   Add the potatoes and turn them through the sofrito until stained red-gold. Pour in 900ml of the hot fish stock, enough to cover the potatoes generously, and simmer uncovered for 18 to 22 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender at the point of a knife. Keep the pot soupy; add more stock if the liquid drops too low.

5. 5

   Make the picada

   Crush the toasted bread, toasted almonds, parsley, and a pinch of salt in a mortar with 2 tablespoons of the hot broth until you have a rough paste. This picada, the pounded thickener, gives the broth a little body without turning it heavy.

6. 6

   Add fish and shellfish

   Stir the picada into the pot. Season the fish pieces with salt and pepper, lay them over the potatoes, and tuck in the clams, mussels, and peeled prawns. Cover and simmer gently for 6 to 8 minutes, shaking the pot once or twice by the handles, until the fish flakes, the prawns turn pink, and the shells open. Do not stir with a spoon now, or the fish will break.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Discard any clams or mussels that stay closed. Taste the broth for salt, scatter with a little parsley, and rest the stew off the heat for 5 minutes. Serve it in deep bowls with potato, fish, shellfish, and plenty of broth in each one. Bread on the table is not decoration here. It has work to do.

Chef Tips

• •Use firm fish. Monkfish is excellent because it stays meaty in the pot. Hake is fine if cut thick and handled gently. Cod works, but it flakes sooner, so add it in the last 5 minutes.
• •If you cannot get rockfish bones, use hake bones and prawn shells. The broth will be cleaner and less wild than an Asturian rockfish stock, but still worth making. Stock cubes give you salt, not the sea.
• •Asturian cider is right here, dry and sharp. If you cannot find it, use a dry white wine. What changes is the brightness: cider gives the stew that northern edge.
• •Serve this soupy. If it stands up like a casserole, you have gone too far. Caldereta marinera Asturiana wants a spoon, a bowl, and bread.
• •Buy shellfish the day you cook. Clams should close when tapped, mussels should smell clean, and any shell that stays open before cooking should go. Sourcing beats technique, always.

Advance Preparation

• •The fish stock can be made up to 24 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
• •The sofrito can be cooked 1 day ahead. Rewarm it gently, then continue with the potatoes and stock.
• •Do not cook the fish and shellfish ahead. Add them just before serving so they stay tender.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)