Best Hake With Clams In Salsa Verde Recipes

SPANISH HAKE AND CLAMS IN SALSA VERDE

Spanish Hake and Clams in Salsa Verde image

From Spainrecipes.com; this is a classic dish called Merluza y Almejas En Salsa Verde that my abuela used to prepare; a recipe that is one of the front-runners of traditional Basque cooking. Salsa verde appears in many dishes: with clams alone, with monkfish or fresh cod, or with a combination of clams and hake, as in this recipe. Hake, a noble and expensive fish when caught in Cantabria's local waters and in the Bay of Biscay, is also available in the United States at good fish markets, where it is sometimes imported from Chile. Basque hake is better if you can find it: the flesh is tighter and tastier, and the skin is darker and very shiny. Prep time includes the time to purge the clams of their sand.

Provided by Raquel Grinnell

Categories Spanish

Time 2h20m

Yield 4 main dishes, 4 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 15

Ingredients

24 small littleneck clams or 24 small manila clams
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
4 cups water
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 lbs hake fillets, cut into 16 pieces
salt
4 white asparagus, canned and halved crosswise (the best are from Navarra)
2 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and quartered lengthwise, for garnish
chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (to garnish)

Steps:

Scrub the clams under cold running water, discarding any that fail to close to the touch. In a large bowl, combine the clams, coarse salt, and water to cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours so that the clams release any sand trapped in their shells. Drain.
In a large saucepan, combine the clams with the 4 cups water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, or until they open. As the clams cook, uncover the pan occasionally and stir with a wooden spoon to encourage them all to open at about the same time. Drain the clams, reserving the cooking liquid. Discard any clams that have not opened.
In a large cazuela, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, if using, and fry, stirring often, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the garlic begins to turn golden. Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended. Add 3 cups of the reserving cooking liquid and the salt, parsley and wine. Decrease the heat to medium and boil, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens slightly. Add more cooking liquid if you prefer a thinner sauce. Rotate the cazuela in circular motions over the burner to mix all the ingredients, and boil gently for 2 minutes, or until the sauce is blended and looks whitish green.
Sprinkle the hake pieces with the salt and place in a single layer in the sauce. Cook, turning once, for 2 minutes on each side, or until opaque at the center when tested with a knife tip. Add the clams and asparagus, shake the pan gently to prevent sticking, and simmer for 2 more minutes so heat all the ingredients through.
Garnish with the egg wedges and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 459.1, Fat 22.6, SaturatedFat 3.6, Cholesterol 221.7, Sodium 2812.2, Carbohydrate 5, Fiber 0.5, Sugar 0.8, Protein 51.2

HAKE WITH CLAMS IN SALSA VERDE

Hake With Clams in Salsa Verde image

This Basque classic from Marti Buckley's cookbook "Basque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food Lover's Paradise," requires a bit of quick stove work once the clams start to open. You must be sure there is a nice amount of liquid in the bottom of the pan, enough to swirl around so the flour coating on the fish and the olive oil can thicken and emulsify the sauce. And though it's called salsa verde, it's not a dense herbal purée as in Italian cooking but a fresh, rather sheer parsley-based mixture.

Provided by Florence Fabricant

Categories dinner, seafood, main course

Time 1h

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 9

Ingredients

20 littleneck or manila clams, the smaller the better
Bones, head and tail from a 1 1/2 to 2-pound fish, preferably hake, or 1 1/2 cups fish stock
4 skin-on hake or halibut fillets, 6 to 7 ounces each
Kosher or fine sea salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry, acidic white wine like txacoli or Sancerre
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Steps:

Place clams in a bowl, cover with cold water and set aside. If using fish trimmings, rinse them with cold water, place in a 3-quart saucepan, add water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and discard the solids. You should have at least 1 cup fish stock, preferably more. Set aside.
Drain clams and scrub them. Rinse fish fillets and pat dry. Season with salt on the skinless side.
Heat oil in a large sauté pan or stovetop casserole. Add garlic and cook on medium-high until garlic barely starts to color. Add flour and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add wine, cook 30 seconds and add fish stock. Lower heat and simmer about a minute.
Add fish to the pan, skin side up. Simmer gently about 3 minutes. Turn fillets over, add clams, placing them around the fillets. Cook about 5 minutes, or until clams open. If the liquid appears to be drying up, add some additional fish stock or water. When the clams open, scatter parsley around the pan.
Remove pan from heat and move it in a circular motion a minute or two to swirl the sauce so it begins to emulsify and look smooth. Add more salt if needed. Serve directly from the pan or divide among individual shallow soup bowls.