Fish and Seafood

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Seafood

Hake and cod are possibly the two types of fish which are most eaten and are used as a base for the most well-known recipes, such as hake in green sauce or the renowned Bizkaian-style cod.

Hake, a white fish, which is extremely tasty and delicate has a virtually unlimited range of cooking possibilities: in green sauce, Basque style, "koxkera" style, in eider, "Ondarresa" style, sauces which seem to have been created especially to bring out the taste of the hake. And hake just simply grilled is also exquisite.

However the most delicate and tender part of the hake is the barbels (kokotxas). These can be eaten gently cooked on their own or in green suace, "pil-pil" style, or in any other form and are simply delicious.

Salted cod is one of the most successful discoveries of Basque cooking. It has even been said that the Basques are the only people capable of converting a dried up piece of paper (cod is sold dried in the Basque Country and indeed looks like cardboard) into a tasty dish. There are endless possibilities of preparing cod: broken up into pieces and mixed with egg to make an omelette, casseroled with potatoes or bread in a "zurrukutuna" or accompanied by one of its most characteristic sauces: Bizkaian style, "pil-pil", in green sauce or with tomatoes and red peppers.

Tuna is the main ingredient for "marmitako", a fish and potato stew which was the staple diet of fishermen in years gone by and before potatoes reached Euskadi, and was made with bread. Nowadays "marmitako" is made of tuna, potatoes, onions, peppers and tomatoes.

Another highly prized fish is sea-bream, which can be savored in all its glory simply by grilling it. Sardines are also delicious when grilled or barbecued in the summer.

However the two fish-dishes which surprise visitors to the Basque Country most of all are squid in its own ink and elvers. The black sauce which accompanies the squid, and which is made of its own ink, is unique. Elvers (baby eels) are another dish which only very few countries eat. They are prepared by simply frying them in oil, garlic salt and paprika, but unfortunately their scarcity is converting them into a very expensive dish.

Sea-food has traditionally not had a very important role in Basque cooking. However there are some sea-food dishes which are typical of the Basque Country such as Donosti-style spider-crab, prawns and clams.