Pescado a la Veracruzana

Ingredients

• 4 red snapper fillets, skin on (about 180g each)
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large white onion, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 800g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 120g pitted green olives, halved
• 3 tbsp capers, rinsed
• 4 pickled jalapeños or güero chiles, sliced, plus 2 tbsp of their pickling liquid
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 100ml fish stock or water
• 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• steamed white rice, to serve

Before you cook

• Squeeze the lime juice over the fish fillets, season them with the salt and pepper, and leave them on a plate in the fridge for twenty minutes.
• Thinly slice the onion and garlic.
• Peel and chop the tomatoes, halve the olives and rinse the capers under cold water to take off the excess brine.
• Slice the pickled chiles and chop the parsley.

Steps

1. Heat three tablespoons of the olive oil in a wide deep pan over medium heat.
2. Add the sliced onion and cook for six minutes, until soft and translucent but not coloured.
3. Stir in the garlic and cook for one minute, until it smells sweet.
4. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, oregano, thyme and the cinnamon stick.
5. Simmer the sauce for fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have collapsed and the oil starts to separate at the edges.
6. Stir in the olives, capers, sliced pickled chiles and their pickling liquid.
7. Pour in the fish stock and simmer for five minutes more.
8. Taste the sauce carefully. It should be salty and briny from the olives and capers, so add salt only if it truly needs it.
9. Pat the fish fillets dry with kitchen paper.
10. Heat the last tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over high heat and sear the fillets skin side down for two minutes, until the skin is crisp.
11. Nestle the fillets seared side up into the simmering sauce.
12. Cover the pan and cook for six to eight minutes, until the fish flakes when you press it with the back of a spoon.
13. Lift out the cinnamon stick, bay leaves and thyme sprig.
14. Scatter the chopped parsley over the top and serve straight from the pan with white rice.