The Southern Cone · Volume 26, Coast, Valley and the Mapuche and German South
Paila marina
Chilean coast, fishermen's food
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Fishermen's food, cooked in a metal or clay paila over open fire from whatever the day's catch actually was.
As tradition built it
Serves 6 to 8. Shellfish and stock simmered together about 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 portions of fillets firm white fish, congrio for preference
- 1kg clams, 1kg macha tongues, 1kg mussels, 6 picorocos, 6 piure a mix of shellfish: clams, machas, choritos, picorocos and piure
- 1 medium, sliced onion, sautéed
- 1 tbsp ají de color
- 1 tsp oregano
- to taste salt and pepper
- 1 cup (240ml) white wine, for deglazing
- reserved shellfish cooking liquid fish stock
Method
- Sauté the onion with ají de color, oregano, salt and pepper as the base.
- Deglaze with white wine.
- Add the fish stock, then the firm white fish, congrio for preference, and the mix of clams, machas, choritos, picorocos and piure.
- Cook in a metal or clay paila over open fire, from whatever the day's catch actually is.
What a modern chef changes
A properly built stock, and congrio cooked sous vide
Method
- Roast the fish bones and shellfish shells briefly, deglaze, and clarify the resulting stock through a chinois for genuine depth and clarity rather than the cloudy, over-reduced result a rushed home version gives.
- Cook the congrio itself sous vide to a precise, still-moist doneness and add it to the finished broth only at the very end, rather than simmering it through with everything else until it toughens.
- Reserve and dehydrate a portion of the shellfish trim, then grind it in the spice grinder into a seasoning dust to finish the bowl, a genuine concentration of the sea rather than a garnish for its own sake.