Gulf Snapper Escabeche & Kalamata Olive Causa

You can find Vermillion Snapper along our Gulf Coast this time of year. Check out this 2019 Alabama Seafood Cook-off award winning recipe from Chef Ramon Jacobsen from Odette in Florence, Alabama.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces olive oil
• 4 Snapper filets, skin removed (save skins)
• 4 cups red onions, sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 Aji Amarillo (Peruvian pepper), thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons Aji Panca paste (dried Peruvian pepper)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs oregano (remove from stems)
• 4 ounces red wine vinegar
  2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 cups frisee, cleaned
• 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
• 3 limes, juiced
• 5 Aji Amarillo, pureed
• 1 cup Kalamata olives, chopped
• Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Meanwhile, pour 1 ounce of the oil in a pan and set over medium high heat. Fry both sides of filets until golden brown. Remove from pan and place on paper towel lined plate. Pour remaining 1 ounce of the oil in the same pan, add onion, garlic, and aji Amarillo. Saute? until onions are softened. Add aji panca paste, bay leaves, oregano, and sugar and saute? 3 more minutes. Add cooked filets to the pan and pour red wine vinegar over pan, cook 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat. Clean fish skins, season with salt, and bake over a sheet tray pressed by another sheet tray for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. Start boiling potatoes and cook until softened, rice them, and let them cool. Add oil, lime juice, aji amarillo puree, olives, salt and pepper to taste. Mix by hand until well combined. Let cool completely. To plate, place causa on first, then place fish on top of causa and onion on top of fish. Spoon escabeche sauce over fish and causa. Garnish with crispy fish skin & frisee. Enjoy!

https://eatalabamaseafood.com/