Filetes de Robalo a la Veracruzana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide clay cazuela or heavy 12-inch skillet with lid
• •Sharp fillet knife or tweezers for pin bones
• •Wooden spoon
• •Comal for warming corn tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the fish

   Pat the robalo fillets dry. Season both sides with 3/4 teaspoon salt and the black pepper. Let them sit while you build the sauce, no longer than 20 minutes. Fish needs seasoning, not a long cure. If the fillets are wet, they will leak water into the cazuela and thin the sauce.

2. 2

   Start the sofrito

   Warm the olive oil in a wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it softens and turns glossy, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Do not brown the garlic. Veracruzana is bright, not bitter.

   Use olive oil here. Not manteca. The port of Veracruz has a Spanish hand in this dish, and the oil belongs to the sauce.
3. 3

   Cook the tomatoes

   Add the chopped jitomate and the remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes collapse and the oil begins to show at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. This is where the sauce gets body. If you rush it, the tomato tastes raw and watery. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Build Veracruzana sauce

   Stir in the olives, capers, chile guero, chile brine, bay leaves, Mexican oregano, thyme, and white wine or fish broth. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce looks glossy and smells like tomato, olive oil, and bay leaf together. Taste before adding more salt. The olives and capers already brought their own.

5. 5

   Poach the robalo

   Nestle the fillets into the sauce in one layer. Spoon some sauce over the top, cover, and cook gently for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on thickness. The fish is ready when it turns opaque and flakes under light pressure but still looks moist at the center. Robalo is delicate. Boil it hard and you have punished good fish for no reason.

6. 6

   Finish and serve

   Remove the bay leaves. Scatter the parsley over the cazuela and bring it to the table family-style. Serve with black beans, white rice, warm corn tortillas, and lime halves. The sauce should be generous enough to drag a tortilla through it. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy robalo from a fishmonger who can tell you when it came in. The fillets should smell clean, not strong, and the flesh should spring back when pressed. If the robalo is tired, use huachinango, mero, or corvina. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Chile guero en vinagre is the right chile here. Jalapeno changes the character of the sauce. Serrano makes it sharper than it should be. This dish is not about heat. It is about the bright bite of pickled chile against sweet tomato and salty olive.
• •If tomatoes are out of season and pale, use good canned whole peeled tomatoes from a Mexican or Italian brand and crush them by hand. Fresh bad tomato is not more traditional than good preserved tomato. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •Serve this in the cazuela, not as a lonely fillet on a white plate. Veracruz cooks this for the table. The sauce, beans, rice, and tortillas are part of how the dish eats.

Advance Preparation

• •The Veracruzana sauce can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat it gently, then add the fish only when you are ready to serve.
• •Do not cook the fish ahead. Robalo tightens when reheated and loses the clean Gulf texture that makes it worth buying.
• •The olives, capers, chiles, onion, and garlic can be prepped in the morning and held covered in the refrigerator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 390g)