On escabeche.......
Escabeche is a cooking and preserving technique which is thought to have originated in Spain during the middle ages. In Spain, escabeche usually consists of cooking different kinds of food (often seafood) in a mixture of vinegar, oil, white wine, aromatics, and most of the time carrots and onions. Usually the item is consumed(at room temperature)at least a couple of days after it is cooked, this allows the flavors to fully develop and intertwine. Food items cooked this way can be canned and kept for many months after sterilization. It can also hold in the fridge for a couple of weeks if the escabeche is not going to be canned.
I love making escabeche especially when it involves any kind of fish product. I don't always like to eat it at room temperature though. Whenever i feel like preparing escabeche for the restaurant I'll make a "escabeche base" ahead of time and use it as a sauce or extra acid component upon plating. Doing it this way as opposed to the original method results in a more complex and overall better finished product in my opinion.
For the "escabeche base" I use peppers, cippollini onions, chillies, carrots (all small diced)
evoo, vinegar, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves. You want to get a good amount of evoo in the pan, once your oil is warm add your garlic and thyme. I like my garlic with some color on it (I love the flavor profile it imparts from browning it), once your garlic has some nice color to it add the rest of your vegetables and aromatics. It is important that you have enough oil in your pan to slightly cover your veggies. Turn the heat down to low, add salt, and cook for one minute. Add your vinegar (I like to use white balsamic or sherry but any light colored vinegar will do) bring to a boil and shut the heat off. Transfer to a hotel pan, the residual heat of the mix will finish cooking the vegetables. Reserve in quart containers; it will last you a good month.
The escabeche base works well when applied to raw or cooked seafood dishes. Here are two of my examples. The first dish I applied the base to some raw blocks of tuna and sockeye salmon. The acidity of the escabeche cut perfectly through the fattiness of the salmon while at the same time enhancing its flavor profile.The second dish is sockeye salmon that I simply seared to medium-rare and topped it off with the "escabeche base" and some chive oil. Simple application with a complex finished product. Fish and acid is like butter to bread; it never fails.
I love making escabeche especially when it involves any kind of fish product. I don't always like to eat it at room temperature though. Whenever i feel like preparing escabeche for the restaurant I'll make a "escabeche base" ahead of time and use it as a sauce or extra acid component upon plating. Doing it this way as opposed to the original method results in a more complex and overall better finished product in my opinion.
For the "escabeche base" I use peppers, cippollini onions, chillies, carrots (all small diced)
evoo, vinegar, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves. You want to get a good amount of evoo in the pan, once your oil is warm add your garlic and thyme. I like my garlic with some color on it (I love the flavor profile it imparts from browning it), once your garlic has some nice color to it add the rest of your vegetables and aromatics. It is important that you have enough oil in your pan to slightly cover your veggies. Turn the heat down to low, add salt, and cook for one minute. Add your vinegar (I like to use white balsamic or sherry but any light colored vinegar will do) bring to a boil and shut the heat off. Transfer to a hotel pan, the residual heat of the mix will finish cooking the vegetables. Reserve in quart containers; it will last you a good month.
The escabeche base works well when applied to raw or cooked seafood dishes. Here are two of my examples. The first dish I applied the base to some raw blocks of tuna and sockeye salmon. The acidity of the escabeche cut perfectly through the fattiness of the salmon while at the same time enhancing its flavor profile.The second dish is sockeye salmon that I simply seared to medium-rare and topped it off with the "escabeche base" and some chive oil. Simple application with a complex finished product. Fish and acid is like butter to bread; it never fails.
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