Best Spanish Recipes

Ingredients for 2 persons

• 2 bell peppers – pointy red peppers
  are best
• 2 cod fillets
• 8 pieces of shellfish (raw king prawns, scallops, squid rings…)
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• rock salt
• white pepper

Preparation: Heat 1 tbsp oil on a large pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced onion and the garlic and turn slowly until golden and soft.

Add the fillets of fish to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Turn and cook for a further 1 1/2 minute. Remove and reserve.

Now add the shellfish with some more salt and peper and cook, turning frequently, for about 4 minutes.

Place the fish and shellfish -together with the onion and garlic- onto a chopping board and chop coarsely. Transfer to a bowl and mix the rest of the olive oil in using a spoon.

Using a large knife, remove and discard the top of the peppers. Remove the white strips and seeds from inside and rinse. Use a spoon to fill the peppers with the fish and shellfish mix. Make sure to pack the filling firmly but not too tightly.

Preheat the oven (180°, Gas mark 4). Place the peppers on the base of a deep, oval glass heatproof dish. Cook in the oven for 1/2 hour until done – leave a bit longer if the peppers don’t feel soft when pressed with a skewer.

Presentation: Serve the full pepper on its side, still filled with the fish, steaming hot. Can also be thick sliced and served as an appetizer.

Cooking tip: Make sure not to cook the fish too much. Fish normally requires very little cooking time and the added time in the oven could dry it if overcooked. We cook it to help its flesh become loose and easy to chop, and suck in the olive oil flavour.

About this dish: Most Spanish regions sport their own variation of this simple, quick recipe. It is easy, cheap and delicious so it features on every Spanish mum’s trick bag when feeding the family. This is as close as it gets to Spanish fast food.

Curiosity: The term bell pepper is one of the many names for some fruits of the Capsicum annuum species of plants. The misleading name pepper (pimiento in Spanish) was given by Christopher Columbus upon bringing the plant back to Europe. At that time peppercorns were a highly prized condiment.