By beceeene on Flickr

Suquet de Peix is a fish stew that is very Catalan and can be made with any type of fish. The word “suquet” comes from the verb suquejar which in Catalan means “to release juice”.  Suquet de Peix originates from the Costa Brave and began as a way to make use of fish that arrived damaged  to the market. Suqet is prepared with a very simple sauce., and ome recipes for this dish also incorporate clams and mussels into the dish.

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound de sea bass

* 1/2 pound de monkfish

* 1/2 pound de shrimp

* 1/2 pound de mussels

* 4 prawns

* olive oil

* salt

* pepper

* 1 onion, sliced thinly

* 2 ripe tomatoes

* 4 cloves of garlic

* 1 slice of day-old bread

* 2 tablespoons sweet paprika

* 1 cup fish stock

* water

* parsley

Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4
Vegetarian-friendly: No

Directions
Roast the tomatoes and peel them. Fry the slice of bread in bit of olive oil. Rinse the fish and seafood well and season with salt and pepper. Steam the mussels until they open, reserving the water. In about 1/4 cup of olive oil, fry the fish and the seafood (except the mussels). Remove the fish and seafood and with the same oil  fry the onion over medium heat until golden. With a mortar and pestle, make a “picada” withthe garlic and the fried bread by mashing it all together until forming a rough paste, then add the tomato into that paste. Mash until tomato is incorporated into the picada.

Add the picada mixture to the onions in the oil, the add in the paprika and stir. When this starts to bubble, transfer to a stew pot or deep frying pan, add the fish stock and the reserved water from the mussel, the fish and all the seafood. Let simmer 25 minutes and serve.
Wine pairing
Waltraud blanco Joven, 2004. DO. Penedes.