Caballa en escabeche

We will make an escabeche today. A delicious recipe from Spain. And I will use one of my favourite fish, mackerel, in Spanish caballa. Escabeches are popular in Spain. I love Spanish canned preserves. You can find wonderful fish and seafood (tuna, mackerel, mussels…) canned and preserved in escabeche. They are really good. Some people would say that a very good preserve improves the quality of the original. To this I have to say that some times this is true. Anyway, we will not make a preserve today. Let’s start cooking our Caballa en Escabeche.

Ingredients:

3 mackerel
1 carrot, peeled and cut in sticks
1 sliced onion
1 chopped green onion or 1 chopped leek
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
Some extra virgin olive oil
½ cup wine vinegar
½ cup water
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon sweet pimentón
10 black peppercorns
Salt to taste

First of all we will prepare the fish. If the fish is not cleaned already, we have to clean the mackerel properly. We will remove the head, the bones and the guts from the mackerel. We want our mackerel in fillets.
Then we will prepare the vegetables. We will cut the carrot, slice the onion and chop the green onion and the garlic.
Now we will put some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and we will heat it. Then we will start sautéing the carrot, the onion and the green onion. Two minutes later we will add the garlic. We will add the bay leaves, the thyme, the parsley, the sweet pimentón and the black peppercorns too.
Two minutes later we will add the vinegar and the water. We will keep on cooking for about 15 minutes. Then we will add the mackerel. We will bring to a boil. Then we will cover the pan, turning off the fire. We will let it rest for some minutes.
Then we will have our Caballas en Escabeche ready to eat. In fact, you can eat them hot or cold. Enjoy!