While you are traveling in Spain and stopping to take a breath from sightseeing, you have undoubtedly experimented with tapas in the cozy bar.
If so, it’s more likely that you’ve come across a small, tasty fish fillet, preserved in olive oil, chopped garlic and chopped parsley, and very popular through Spain. This delicious dish is usually referred to as "bokkeronami", but depending on the region can also be called "anchoas".
Bokerone are small fresh anchovies. Accompanied by crisp, fresh Spanish bread, a glass of ruby-red wine or a refreshing Asturian cider, they enjoy eating. In addition, like many traditional Spanish dishes that combine a renewed Mediterranean diet, they are very healthy.
Like his friend, a sardine, anchovy is a fat fish, filled with proteins and minerals, protecting against heart disease and “good” for cholesterol. What else, in many areas of Spain - in particular, the Mediterranean coast - fresh anchovies are extremely cheap.
When I first came to Spain, I enjoyed enjoying many tapas of the sideboxes, completely unaware of one fact ... all those little anchovies that I ate were not cooked! For a moment, I was very sorry to ask my Spanish neighbor, Carmen, how to make them!
Fortunately, Carmen immediately took action and saved the day! She frog me to the local fish merchants, bought a kilogram of small fish, took me home and showed me the “way” to prepare them. They were so adorable that I quickly restored my passion for bokerone and have enjoyed them ever since!
Methods for preparing boquerones tend to vary slowly from family to family. However, the basic principles are always the same. First you need to clean and tie a fish, which is simple enough, but tiring, until you hang it.
Then you soak the fillets, either in white vinegar or in the form of a mixture of vinegar and half water. The vinegar will cleanse and bleach the fish, as well as soften the remaining small bones. Some people sprinkle fish with salt; others (including me) believe that the fish is already quite salty.
Fish should be left for a few hours in vinegar. Again, this tends to change: some Spaniards leave them in the fridge overnight, while others just wait a couple of hours. In addition, some families change the vinegar / water and vinegar mixture during this process, while others do not bother.
After you throw in the vinegar, the bleached fillet is coated with good quality olive oil that will preserve them. You can add as many as you want, chopped garlic, as you wish, as well as fresh chopped parsley.
So ... here is a real recipe.
BOQUERONES
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of fresh anchovies.
- Vinegar white wine.
- Extra virgin olive oil.
- Garlic.
- Petrushka.
- Salt (optional).
Method:
1. Upper and tail anchovies.
2. Drain the underside and discard the insides.
3. Open the fish.
4. Remove the central bone by lifting the tail up from the end of the tail.
5. Rinse well.
6. Place a layer of anchovy fillet in a shallow dish.
7. Sprinkle with salt (optional) and pour a lot of vinegar.
8. Repeat with another layer, changing direction.
9. Leave on moisturizing in vinegar for a few hours or overnight.
10. Pour vinegar.
11. Rinse the fillet very carefully.
12. Cover the fillets with olive oil.
13. Add pieces of garlic and chopped parsley.
It is so pleasant to find something in life that is a pleasure for the senses, affordable, healthy and does not harm anyone (apologies to any vegetarians there, as well as for small anchovies ...) So ... make more fresh anchovies while you are in Spain and enjoy!
