Escovitch fish

As tradition built it

Escovitch fish

Serves 4. About 40 minutes, plus resting overnight.

Ingredients

The fish

• 1 (about 900g) whole fish, such as snapper, scaled and cleaned
• 60ml white vinegar, for the wash
• 1 litre water, for the wash
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 250ml vegetable oil

The pickle

• 1 onion, sliced into rings
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1 cho cho (chayote), julienned
• 1 sweet pepper, julienned
• 1 Scotch bonnet, chopped
• 6 berries pimento
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 480ml white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar, optional

Method

1. Wash the fish in the vinegar and water, then pat it dry. Cut two slits into each side, down to the bone. Mix the salt and black pepper and rub it over the fish, into the slits and inside the cavity. Cover and leave it to take the seasoning: an hour will do, overnight in the fridge is better.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wide skillet over a medium flame. Add the crushed garlic and fry it for a moment to flavour the oil. Lay the fish in and fry it until browned and crisp on both sides, about 5 minutes a side. Do not turn it until it moves freely in the pan; that is the crust forming. Lift it out and drain it on a rack or on paper.
3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the oil. Over a low heat, add the onion, carrot, cho cho, sweet pepper, Scotch bonnet, pimento and thyme, and saute for 2 minutes.
4. Pour on the vinegar, add the sugar if you are using it, stir, bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Lay the fish in a dish with a lid and pour the hot pickle and all its vegetables over it. Cover and leave it overnight in the fridge. It is eaten the next day, cold or at room temperature, with bammy or festival.

Notes

Multiple sources credit Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, carrying fish-pickling technique to the New World, as the transmission route into Jamaica; this specific claim is plausible and widely repeated but was not traced to a named historian or primary Jamaican-Jewish source.

The pickle is Grace Foods' escoveitched sauce, Jamaica's own, and the fish is fried their way, with the garlic in the oil. The slits, the five minutes a side and the night under the pickle are from Taneisha Morris, The Seasoned Skillet, and from Lesa of Jamaican Foods and Recipes, who both fry and dress the fish the same way. Some cooks drop a whole Scotch bonnet and a few pimento berries into the frying oil with the garlic.

What a modern chef changes

Fried once, pickle finished separately

Rung 02

Method

1. Fry the fish once, hard and hot, then hold and finish the pickle separately.
2. Reduce the vinegar sauce and strain it through a chinois for a clarified, glossy dressing rather than a chunky relish.
3. Dress the fish only just before serving so the skin stays crisp under a bright, clean sauce rather than softening overnight in a cloudy one.

Notes

This is our own reasonable extension of the pickling logic above, not a documented chef precedent, and should be tried and judged on its own merits.