A Rockfish fillet on a plate with Romesco sauce next to it

Hake cooked in the Basque style with garlic & sauce Romesco

San Sebastian is the place to eat hake. In Bar Ganbara we enjoyed a simple preparation of hake split throught the head and roasted over a fire, it was dressed with olive oil, vinegar and sliced dried peppers, a garnish we would see all along the coast at various fish restaurants and one which we now use at the seahorse a lot and has encouraged us with the use of more and more vinegar in our cooking.

Ingredients

4 x 180-200g Hake fillets

4 cloves garlic finely sliced

½ dried Nora/Choricero Chilles (soaked and deseeded)

100ml olive oil

20ml good agrodolce vinegar

1tsp chopped parsley

salt

Sauce Romesco

(You can buy Romesco Sauce from our Online Seafood Market)

100g whole blanched almonds

4 dried Nora/Choricero chillies (soaked and deseeded)

6 cloves garlic, peeled

12 roasted pequillo peppers (or 6 roasted and peeled peppers)

1tsp sweet paprika

1tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp hot smoked paprika

100ml olive oil

25ml sherry vinegar

salt 

Method

Begin by making the sauce Romesco, put the almonds and soaked chillies in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the garlic, peppers and spices and pulse again to combine.

Add the vinegar, olive oil and pinch of salt, pulse again to produce a thick sauce that is neither too chunky of too smooth.

Fry the hake fillets skin side down until lightly golden turn and transfer the pan to a hot oven. Roast the fish for about 5 minutes until just cooked through.

Whilst the hake is roasting put the garlic, olive oil, finely sliced dried chilli and pinch of salt into a small pan and put on a medium heat.

Cook gently stirring occasionally to distribute the garlic and chilli, as soon as the edges of the garlic begin to turn golden remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, add a splash of sweet vinegar and the chopped parsley.

Remove the hake from the oven, put a fillet on each plate and peel away the skin, Immediately spoon a little sauce over each piece of fish and serve with a spoon of Romesco sauce.