Escoveitch Fish
By: Anonymous
Published: Friday, December 4, 2009 - 2:08am

Ingredients




1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
pinch salt
pinch sugar
2 cloves, diced garlic
4 sprigs of Cilantro
5 teaspoons whole allspice berries
1 inch White onion, cut  rounds (like you’d do for oni
1 half a Scotch Bonnet or Habanero pepper 
1 half a julienned Chayote squash (delicious, but I’m not sure how necessary it is). I
3 julienned carrots, depending on size
Fish fillets (you can do almost anything here, but I recommend something white and f
Preh

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 2 Simmer the vinegar, water, onion, carrot, squash, garlic, Scotch Bonnet, salt, sugar and pimento berries for about 5-7 minutes. Let cool for about 3-4 hours or (best) overnight. 3 Wash and dry the fish. Add a bit of salt and pepper and then dredge in flour. As I’ve mentioned before, seasoned flour is a great option for this kind of dish. Use it here if you have it. 4 Add vegetable oil to a hot pan and cook fish for 3-4 minutes per side. Add to an oven safe dish and pour the vinegar mixture over the fish. Add to the hot oven for about 8 to 10 more minutes, or until the fish is flaky, but not overcooked (this is tbd depending on the fish you choose -my mahi fillet took about 18-20 minutes in total). 5 Remove from the oven, add bruised cilantro and let sit for 30-40 minutes to let the vinegar absorb into the fish. This dish isn’t commonly served hot, so if that’s your thing, let it sit and then re-heat it slightly. I prefer the flavor at room temperature, but again, if that’s not your thing… 6 Serve with rice and black beans, or, as i did, as a delicious Jamaican fish taco.

About


NOTE: If you haven’t worked with Scotch Bonnets before, be careful. They are extremely hot, and can leave welts on your skin if you’re not careful when cutting them. Do NOT rub your eyes or your nose when cutting. I recommend cuting the pepper in thin strips, using a plastic baggy to move them onto your knife, and then adding to the vinegar sauce. Afterwards, clean your knife and cutting board.  If you want this dish SPICY, use even more of the Scotch Bonnet. When measuring the Scotch Bonnet’s heat, take a look at the Scoville Scale, which measures the amount of capsaicin in peppers. Consider for a moment that Jalapeños have about 2500-8000 Scoville Units, while Scotch Bonnets fall at about 100,000 to 250,000 SU. Pepper spray, to level set, is about two million SU. So, check the spice-tolerance of your guests prior to moving forward with this pepper, especially in consideration of adding more.