Hake, Chorizo & Cannellini Beans

Definite Family Favourite!

This dish is a real crowd-pleaser on a cold day. Loads of flavour and so healthy. It is a take on a traditional Spanish dish, Merluza a la Gallega, from Galicia. Here I used some beautiful hake from K. O’Connel fishmongers in the English Market, Cork City and used Gubbeen Chorizo from West Cork. You could steam the hake in the same pot as the stew, but I fried it for some extra flavour. This is a great way to use up some vegetables hanging around the fridge.

Recipe..

Serves 4

Ingredients:

750g Hake fillets
1 Gubbeen chorizo sausage
1 onion chopped
1 stick celery diced
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 large carrot diced
1tbsp smoked paprika
1 large sweet potato diced
500ml chicken stock
½ tin tomatoes
1 tin cannellini beans
250g baby spinach

Method:

For the stew I diced the chorizo, onion, carrot, celery small and left the sweet potato slightly bigger for some texture. Start by frying the chorizo with a tablespoon of olive oil in the pot, get a small bit of colour on it. Now add the vegetables except the sweet potato and fry for 2 minutes. Add the smoked paprika and fry for a further minute. Then add the stock, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile descale your hake by running the edge of a knife from the tail end towards the top and remove any bones that might be in the flesh. You could ask your fishmonger to do this for you, but I always like to check that it is clean. Turn your oven on to 180’C.

Pat the fish dry on a piece of kitchen paper and fry in a hot pan to crisp up the skin, then place on an oven tray lined with grease proof paper. I did this in two batches and then deglazed the pan with some butter to pour over the hake.

Now check that the sweet potato is cooked in the stew, if so, add the beans heating it through for 5 mins followed by the spinach just before you serve it.

Hake cooks very quickly so you only need heat it through in the oven, this will depend on the thickness of the hake. Should only take 5 minutes, the fish should be slightly firm when pressed.

To serve, spoon some of the stew into a bowl and place pieces of hake on top. Enjoy! Here is a link to my photography page where I wrote about some of these images.