Hake in salsa verde with clams
Merluza en salsa verde is the dish Basque cooks judge each other on, hake and clams in a green sauce that is nothing more than garlic, parsley, wine and the gelatine the fish gives up. The trick is movement. You swirl the pan so the juices emulsify into a silky sauce without cream or a roux. Ask the counter for thick hake portions cut from the loin end, skin on, and we pin-bone them free.
Our version is inspired by José Pizarro, the London chef who has done more than anyone to bring Spanish cooking to the city, whose hake in green sauce is published at The New World. His restaurants run from Bermondsey to the Royal Academy.
Ingredients
- 4 hake portions, about 160g each, skin on and pin-boned (ask the counter to cut from the loin end, free)
- 300g live clams, purged in salted water for 1 hour
- 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- 1 tsp plain flour
- 125ml dry white wine
- 150ml fish stock or water
- 100g peas (optional)
- a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- sea salt
Method
- Warm the oil in a wide shallow pan and soften the onion and garlic for 4 to 5 minutes without colour. Colour makes the sauce bitter.
- Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then add the wine and let it bubble for 2 minutes.
- Add the stock and half the parsley and simmer for 2 minutes to a thin green broth.
- Season the hake and lower it in skin side up. Cook at a bare simmer for 4 minutes, swirling the pan in circles every minute. The swirling releases the gelatine and thickens the sauce.
- Turn the portions carefully, add the clams and the peas and cover. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the clams open and the hake turns pearly at its thickest point. Discard any clam that stays shut.
- Add the rest of the parsley, swirl once more and taste for salt. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon lightly.
- Serve from the pan while everything still trembles.
Watch José Pizarro at work:
To serve: Bring the pan to the table and serve into shallow bowls, clams over the fish and plenty of sauce. Bread is essential. To drink, a Txakoli or an Albariño.
Shop this recipe: hake and the hake hub. Cut to order at the counter, pin-boning free.
Photo: Zarateman, via Wikimedia Commons, released to the public domain (CC0).
