Spanish fish Stew Recipes

The long coastline of Spain, combined with the two archipelagos, the Balearics and the Canaries, ensures that fresh fish and shellfish are ubiquitous elements of the Spanish table.

This section showcases only a small number of the dishes that cooks and chefs throughout the country regularly prepare as seafood main courses, such as suquet, the seafood stew of Catalonia; Dorada a la Sal, fish baked in a salt crust from Murcia; and txipirones en su tinta, Basque-style squid in its own ink.

Simpler grilled, pan-roasted, fried, and boiled fish are popular menu items as well, typically accompanied with mojos, vinaigrettes, or other sauces that add color, flavor, and a distinctive regional stamp

Spaniards believe that some of their country's fish and shellfish taste better when eaten in their place of origin, such as the angulas, or baby eels, of the north; the carabineros, or jumbo red shrimp, of the south; and the salmon of Asturias. But salt cod, sometimes called the 'inland fish', crosses all borders.

In this section, you will find some regional dishes that star salt cod. My favorite is the Basque Bacalao al pil-pil, in which the hard dried fish turns velvety and delicious when simmered in a cazuela with olive oil. Bacalao con alioli from the Balearic Islands pairs salt cod with the region's emblematic sauce, while in tiznao from La Mancha, salt cod and vegetables are grilled, chopped, and married with chiles and olive oil. Finally, bacalao al ajoarriero from Navarra, named after the ajoarrieros or 'muleteers', who once transported salt cod along with other foods across Spain, calls for braising the cod with potatoes, tomatoes, and eggs.

Suquet: suquet is the diminutive form of suc, or 'juice', in Catalan, which means that this wonderfully flavored dish is more correctly called juicy fish stew. The fish and shellfish used vary from cook to cook, and so does the amount of liquid - in fact, some people call this a stew, while others call it a soup - but saffron and almonds are typically part of the mix.