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Romesco de peix (Catalan fish stew)
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5 from 3 votes

Romesco de peix (Catalan fish stew)

Romesco de peix is a delicious fish stew with a tomato-nut sauce as the base. Comforting, filling but not heavy, it has been loved by all we have shared it with. 
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Spanish
Servings: 2
Calories: 764kcal
Author: Caroline's Cooking
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Ingredients

For stock (if making own)

  • shells from shrimp, below
  • 1 small carrot
  • ½ small onion
  • 1 stick celery

For main stew

  • ½ lb shrimp prawns, shell on weight
  • 1 dried nora pepper or 1 dried ancho/California pepper
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • ½ red pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic (large)
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¾ cup finely chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned, can also use passata)
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ½ teaspoon Spanish paprika (sweet)
  • 1 pinch saffron
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste/puree
  • 1 ½ cups fish stock or a bit more, as needed
  • 3 tablespoon ground almonds
  • 3 tablespoon ground hazelnuts
  • 1 lb clams
  • ¾ lb monkfish or other firm white fish
  • 1 handful fresh parsley roughly chopped
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

To make stock

  • If you are making your own stock, de-shell the shrimp/prawns and put the heads and shells in a pan with the onion, carrot and celery and cover with around 3-4cups/700-900ml water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat so it simmers and cook for around 20-30min.

For main stew

  • Meanwhile, break the dried nora/ancho/Callifornia pepper open and remove the seeds. Break it into pieces and put it in a small bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave it to soak around 15min or more.
  • While it's soaking, finely dice the onion and slice the red pepper into half-length strips. Finely chop or crush the garlic. Remove any skin-like outer layer from the monkfish and dice into roughly 1in/2.5cm pieces.
  • Warm the oil in a pan then add the onion. Cook for around 5min until it starts to soften.
  • Remove the dried pepper from the water it was soaking in and roughly chop.
  • Add the garlic, red pepper, chopped dried pepper, fennel seeds and thyme to the onion and cook another 5min or so. Then add the tomatoes, wine, bay leaf, paprika saffron and tomato paste and stir.
  • Add 1 ½-2 cups/360-480ml of stock (strained if using your own as made above) and bring to a simmer. Cook for around 10-15min until it reduces in volume a little. If you add in the larger amount of stock, it may need to cook a little longer to reduce more but it should deepen the flavor.
  • Next, add the almond and hazelnut flours and stir in well to thicken the sauce.
  • Add the clams to the sauce and press them under. If they are larger clams (like littlenecks), cover with a lid and allow them to steam a few minutes first. When they are starting to open add the monkfish and shrimp/prawns and press them gently under the sauce and cover again. If the clams are smaller, you can add everything together. Check now and then and turn the fish and shrimp if needed to get under the sauce.
  • Once all of the fish and seafood has changed translucent and the clams are open (ie they are cooked), sprinkle over a little parsley and serve.

Notes

If not making your own stock, you won't need shell-on shrimp/prawns nor the other items under stock ingredients list. If not using shell-on, in theory you need slightly less weight but you don'r need to be too precise.

Nutrition

Calories: 764kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 64g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 338mg | Sodium: 1937mg | Potassium: 1554mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 6995IU | Vitamin C: 67.5mg | Calcium: 381mg | Iron: 7.7mg