Galician fish with vegetable and chorizo stew

This Galician fish with vegetable and chorizo stew is my take on a delicious regional dish that is all the better for cooking two meals at the same time. Delicious white fish—cod, haddock or the like—is paired with a slow-cooked stew of potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans, chorizo and various other delights. Better still, the leftover stew is a meal in and of itself days later.

Lucky catch of the day

I came upon this dish by chance not that long before COVID-19 hit. I was in Vigo, on Spain's northwestern Atlantic coast for work. The whole thing happened very last-minute, so I was really grateful when local delegates recommended places near my hotel.

The one that grabbed my attention was a then fairly new place run by a mother and son. Iago, the chef, had trained in Paris, later working at one of my favourite (and much lamented) restaurants in Chueca in Madrid. But, whereas that was a very much a trendy gastronomic outing with a strong Spanish-Japanese axis in its fusion kitchen, the place he opened with his mother was staunchly based in Galician cooking done well.

Now, I'd worked in Spain often enough to not hesitate to drop the names of the important locals who had recommended the place when popping in to make a booking on my way back to the hotel. Rule one: in Spain, always drop in to make a booking in person if you can; more about them deciding whether you are their kind of people. Rule two: when wanting a table during a really busy annual event, drop names like there's no tomorrow.

Yes, it worked out well, thank you very much. Despite my booking being early in the evening by Spanish standards, the cosy place with a contemporary twist on "rustic" was buzzing. Yet, Iago and his mother Consuela made the time to come out of the kitchen and sit with me over a glass of wine at the end of my meal even though their work was hardly done for the night. Maybe it was my interest in their wine list, maybe it was because I remembered the Madrid restaurant. Or maybe it was just because they are lovely people.

I learned, unsurprisingly, that Consuela inspired Iago to become a chef. He'd grown up in the restaurant she and his father ran in a town about 10 miles outside of Vigo. After Iago decamped to Madrid, they sold up when his father became ill. Iago's father sadly passed away, but this time of grief also gave life to a new project that Iago and Consuela set up together: a local eatery in an up-and-coming neighbourhood of Vigo that celebrated the cuisine of the region without being too pretentious. Obviously, I congratulated them on what I think is one of the best Galician restaurants I have ever visited.

They were yet another example of generous people open to sharing their recipes with a visiting foreigner. I obviously ordered a fish dish, not only because Vigo is known for its fish and seafood but it felt right: I was in town for one of Europe's most important fish and seafood trade events working with a sustainable wild-catch fishery from Madagascar (don't ask!) so it would have been pretty grim if I didn't go for fish.

Matriarchal nous

Consuela explained to me that the tradition with this dish was that you always made a much bigger stew of vegetables with chorizo than you need to serve with the fish, the remainders being a meal in their own right, possibly adding additional ingredients such as browned chicken or even hardboiled eggs. Mostly an autumnal or winter dish, it was a way women traditionally made use of vegetables before they went off and in mongths when fresh vegetables were less readily available before the age of supermarkets.

The dichotomy was the very fresh herbs—such as the young sage or parsley used in the salsa verde—could be grown in pots indoors near windows. This freshness was little reminder of the spring to come in the cold, wet winter months.

I found it a very beautiful story and this contrast between heavier winter flavours and spring freshness is something I love about this dish.

The backbone of the salsa verde is lots of parsley, but also other green leaves that make use of what is seasonally available, which is what I'm doing here.

Consuela told me that raw garlic is often added to the salsa verde, but she preferred to not add it because she found it overpowering with the delicate flavours of the fish. I'm with Consuela on this one.

Similarly, the use of black garlic paste in the stew is on of Iago's culinary flourishes. And, again, I am with him, finding its subtle flavour and how it "melts" in the sauce ideal. But, you can always use the more traditional option of three finely grated cloves of garlic if you prefer.

The stew itself is something of a familiar form in many parts of Northern Spain (for example, this almost identical recipe ) I encountered many years before, also in northern Spain, but over 500km away in real distance terms. Local nuances aside, it really is a stew based on seasonal availability and the virtue of not wasting food. So, whether yours uses parsnips instead of potatoes, red wine instead or sherry, or haricot beans instead of chickpeas, it's all good.

What's in a fish?

This dish is very much bound up in the Atlantic fishing history of Vigo. Cod among all other fish would be the go-to choice. But it works well with any cold water sea fish that produces relatively fleshy fillets without an overly strong "fishy" flavour. On this occasion, I'm making it with hake, a fish more common in the Southern Atlantic and a bit of a nostalgic thing for me.

I have tried it with other fish of different genres or from warmer oceans, but I have not found them satisfactory. Salmon, for example, is almost too richly flavoured, offering no contrast with the richness of the stew. It feels almost unnecessary. So, I do strongly recommend sticking to white fish from cold oceans.

This version is for 2 diners, including two additional lunches. In other words, the portions of the stew would easily serve 4 people if you baked 4 white fish fillets.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• The sequence of cooking the vegetables in the oven-based stew may seem a little odd e.g. putting the carrots in before the potatoes, but just go with it. You will understand it once you taste it. According to Consuela, it's about ensuring the potatoes do not cook down and flake. Either way, it works.

• In the original recipe, the stew is spooned into smaller, open clay dishes and the fish is simply placed atop the vegetables, baked in the oven covered with a damp muslin cloth, then taken to table as individual servings. That is great if you are certain all of it will be consumed; if you have four dinners for these portions. Since I don't, I have evolved a different way of doing it. This is mainly because I would feel less confident about storing a stew on top of which fish had cooked and storing the remainder in the fridge (as I am doing here) for a couple of days.

• How I cook the fish largely depends on what white fish it actually is. With thicker fillets (such as cod) I am more likely to use the French style of cooking it en papillote, in paper. But with thinner fillets, such as the hake fillets I'm using here, I find foil better protects the fish from drying out.

Shopping list

for the Galician fish with vegetable and chorizo stew

• A fillet of skinless fresh white fish per diner(e.g. cod, haddock, hake, coley etc.)

• 4 small red onions (or brown); halved and sliced

• 1 large sweet red pepper; sliced vertically, deseeded and sliced

• 3 or 4 large carrots; peeled and cut into irregular, fairly large pieces

• Approx. 700g small young potatoes; skin-on, scrubbed

• Approx. 175g fresh green beans; topped and tailed

• 1 tin (400g) of chickpeas (or the dried equivalent, soaked and cooked)

• Approx. 120g spicy chorizo; split vertically and cut into pieces

• Approx. 6 tbspns virgin olive oil

• 500ml chicken stock

• 1 fresh lemon; one half sliced; the other half squeezed

• 1tspn pimentón

• 2tpns black garlic paste (or equivalent in finely grated garlic)

• Approx., 4 stems of fresh young sage

• A small clutch of fresh flat leaf parsley; chopped

• 250ml sherry (e.g Manzanilla)

• salt and pepper to taste

for the salsa verde

• A generous clutch of flat leaf parsley

• Two handfuls of flaked almonds

• Two generous handfuls of mixed green leaves (e.g. rocket, watercress, baby spinach)

• 2tspns of sherry vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

• 3tspns extra virgin olive oil

• The juice of half a fresh lemon

• salt and pepper to taste

  
  

Cooking Method

the Galician fish with vegetable and chorizo stew

1. Heat half of the oil in a deep pan with a lid on a low-medium heat. Add the onions and stir in. Cover and sweat on a low heat until they soften, stirring occasionally. Add the sweet red pepper and increase to a medium heat. Sauté until the peppers soften. Add a dash of the sherry and cook off, stirring until on the verge of caramelising. Remove from the heat

2. Add the remaining oil to a deep ovenproof dish with a lid. Pour in the onions, peppers and their juices. Add the carrots and chorizo. Pour in about three quarters of the chicken stock and half of the remaining sherry. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the pimentón. Finally add the stems of sage. Cover and cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30mins without disturbing

3. Remove from the oven. Add the potatoes and green beans. Add the remaining stock (if necessary) so that they are at least three quarters submerged. Add the black garlic paste. Stir, re-cover and return to the oven increasing the temperature to 200°C. Cook for a further 35 to 40mins without disturbing

4. Add the chickpeas and about 2tbspns of the water from the tin (this helps the sauce thicken). Add the remaining sherry, and return to the oven for another 15mins

5. Time preparing your fish while the stew is finishing up. You'll cook each fillet in a individual piece of foil/paper. Baste individual pieces of foil (or paper) with a smidgen of olive oil. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the surface of each. Gently lay the fillets into their individual baking "parchments". Lay the thin lemon slices on each fillet. Season with a salt and pepper. Then fold the foil/paper closed

6. While you are preparing the fish, increase the oven to 220°C. Once it reaches this temperature, place the parcels on a baking tray and put into the oven. These parcels will need to cook for anything from 12 to 18mins. Yes, it's a bit of guesswork, the yardstick being the bigger and thicker the fillets are, the longer they will take

7. Halfway through the estimated cooking time for your fish, remove the stew from the oven. Leave covered to rest while the fish finishes cooking

8. When the fish is optimally cooked, carefully open the parcels and allow to rest for a few minutes, then plate. Using a sieve spoon, plate the solid elements of the stew, finally finishing with a drizzle of the rich jus

9. Take to table with the salsa verde and rustic bread

the salsa verde

1. You can prepare the salsa verde up to 24 hours before and store sealed in the fridge, or time it as part of the cooking process. In a mini chopper, chop the parsley, mixed green leaves and almonds

2. Add the vinegar, oil and lemon juice and chop on a low speed (you're not making a vinaigrette!) until blended but still fairly "rough"

3. Decant to a serving bowl and take to table

Alternatives

This is a essentially a pescatarian and/or carnivore dish. However, the vegetable stew makes a delicious vegan or vegetarian dish (if you substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock) and, indeed, this would often be its default setting in tough times when meat or fish were scarce. When I have made the stew for vegans (yes, I have, actually!) I avoid using meat substitutes, instead increasing the quantity of vegetables, using a little more pimentón, and/or adding whole chestnut mushrooms (at the same stage as the potatoes), but otherwise cooking it in the same way. The one addition is I put in is 2tbspns of soy sauce that brings something of the character the chorizo.

I'm not a fan of the construct of "authenticity" given that all cuisines have been in flux and evolving through influences from other cultures for millennia. Sure, there's nothing wrong it you want to add browned Quorn pieces or tofu to the dish, but I think sticking more tightly to a more traditional plant-based approach is more in keeping with the make-do-'n-mend spirit of the original dish.

Pairings

I confess: the fact they had Albet i Noya Barrica 21 Penedès Brut Reserva (2014) as an aperitif before supper even arrived, probably had me under the influence in more than one way...

Between Iago and Consuela's suggestions, the wine list was impressive and largely a mystery to me with numerous wines of which I had never heard. I suspect that one of the reasons that they might have appeared from the kitchen was because I didn't go for the chef's main recommendations but for a wine on the list from a section roughly called "Mother suggests..." that could only be ordered by the bottle.

This Zárate El Palomar Albariño 2016 is one of the best whites I've ever enjoyed, neither killing the fish, but also cutting through the heavier flavours in the stew. Now that I think about it in hindsight, perhaps they accepted my invitation to join me because I'd ordered a bottle of this notable wine I could not possibly get through on my own having opted out of pudding...

Regardless of whether you have access to something as special as this wine, you're looking for something that won't overpower the fish and blend in with the citrus buzz of the salsa, but also be able to take on all those heavier flavours in the stew––including the cooked-down sherry as much as the chorizo. Albariño and other wines from the Spanish North remain my default setting with this particular dish, but I have also found it can work well with the right Riesling, Chenin Blanc or Viré-Clessé. And that's before we even get to those cheeky whites from Portugal...

Conversely, I would suggest a red if eating the stew without the fish, something not too heavy such as Viña Zorzal Garnacha or Bodegas Nekeas El Chaparral de Vega Sindoa Old Vines Garnacha if we're staying in Spain. But, there are certainly pinot noirs and red Bordeaux wines that have worked for me with the stew-as-meal.