Behold A Bowl Of Lobster “Veracruz”!
As with most delicious meals, this one began when my sister-in-law Cherie made my wife Alex some incredible Lobster Veracruz! Alex wanted me to know how good it was, which led me to make the decision to try and make some at home myself!
Veracruz-style food, or “a la Veracruzana,” is a regional Mexican cuisine characterized by a fusion of indigenous, Spanish, and Afro-Cuban influences. It’s known for its bold, often spicy and tangy flavors, with seafood, particularly fish, playing a starring role.
I mostly followed a recipe from a terrific blog “Smart In The Kitchen”. Here are the ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra virgin oliveo oil
½ white or yellow onion diced
1 14.5-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes or 1 ½ pounds fresh vine ripe tomatoes diced
1/2 small can tomato paste
3 garlic cloves grated on a microplaner
10 green olives such as manzanilla – I used Castelvetrano which are delicious!
2 bay leaves
1 lb white fish: snapper, sea bass, halibut or even redfish or trout – Cherie used Lobster!
1 tablespoon flat-leaf Italian parsley
Note: most recipes also use capers and jalapeño peppers for extra spice, but that’s not me!
Heat olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic – and yes as Pete knows, I use a lot of garlic! Salt with about ¼ teaspoon of salt. Let it sweat and cook down until softened, about 7-10 minutes.
Pour the diced tomatoes and juice into a bowl. Mash the tomatoes slightly with a potato masher or a pastry blender to drain the tomatoes through a fine mesh sieve over a bowl to save the juice.
Add the drained tomatoes, tomato paste and olives, plus the bay leaf. I let it commercials for about ten minutes.
The recipe I found had the dish baked like this: preheat oven to 375 degrees, and in a glass or ceramic baking dish, place ¼ cup of the reserved tomato juice from the drained tomatoes in the base of the dish. Top with the fish and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Spoon the Veracruz sauce over the top of the fish and bake for 30 minutes.
BUT….watch what I did!
You see, I used red snapper and the filets were fairly thin, so I just cooked it on the stove!
I made some roasted corn rice and this is how I used it as a base for the dish:
And here’s the result! I LOVED this dish: the fish was moist and delicious, and the sauce had a rich flavor with just a bit of olive brininess but the smoky goodness of roasted tomatoes and tomato paste…now, about these two photos:
I made sure not to put too much sauce on it so I could show the rice, fish and then sauce…but after taking the shot, I splashed on more of the sauce so it would look like this!
You want to add a lot of this sauce – it is indeed spicy, tangy and rich with flavor – you could even add some paprika if you wanted to! It was a great meal…you can make a salad alongside if you want and you are good to go!
As I said, I got this recipe from an online site…check it out here – this blogger now has a cookbook for sale as well – see details here:
I love cooking with fish and here’s another example:
Have you tried “fish in crazy water?”
It’s delicious and easy – click here to find out what “crazy water” is!
Here’s a fun summer fish dish as well:
Fish Tacos!
Yes, they are easy and fun – great for gatherings where everyone can build their own – see the recipe here:
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Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Pictures, Food Writing, Recipes, Wacky Food
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Hi John, this sounds very nice. I would think that. Jalapeños would overwhelm the delicate fish flavour.
Yes it’s part of the recipe but I’d never use them…still, they must work because they are a mainstay in it! That’s a great point
💚
this looks really good and I think it was a good call making the fish on the stove and assembling it all after
The dish looks great and I love all the ingredients! Snapper is the easiest to get here . . . and I love the olives and would try the capers . . .jalapeno peppers are used more on your side of the Pond than ours but are available of course . . . Must say you photograph food very well indeed . . .
I love tomatoes and olives! I wouldn’t mind a few capers, either. Great fish dish!
Capers aren’t my favorite but they are indeed a great part of this dish for everyone else! Thanks for the note!
I would definitely try this, but like you I would ditch the capers and jalapenos.
Best wishes, Pete.