• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Subscribe
Subscribe by email Connect on Facebook Connect on Pinterest Follow Me on Instagram

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

Finding the Forgotten Feast

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Shop
    • Public Events
  • Podcast
  • Game Recipes
    • Venison Recipes
    • Duck Recipes and Goose Recipes
    • Rabbits, Hares and Squirrels
    • Pheasants, Turkey, Quail
    • Dove and Pigeon Recipes
    • Wild Pig and Bear Recipes
    • My Best Taco Recipes
    • Wild Game Sauces
  • Charcuterie
    • Homemade Sausage Recipes
    • Smoker Recipes
    • Bacon, Jerky, Hams, etc
    • Salami Recipes
    • Confit, Pate, Terrines
  • Fish
    • General Fish Recipes
    • Salmon Recipes
    • Snapper Recipes
    • Crabs, Shellfish and Squid
    • Little Fish and Oddballs
  • Gathering
    • Preservation Recipes
    • Mushrooms
    • Sweet Things
    • Wild Greens and Herbs
    • Acorns, Nuts, Starches
Home » Spanish » Spanish Green Sauce for Fish

Spanish Green Sauce for Fish

By Hank Shaw on March 25, 2021 - 6 Comments

Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe Comment
5 from 5 votes
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Merluza en salsa verde, or hake with a Spanish green sauce, is a quintessential — maybe the quintessential — Spanish fish dish.

I’ve eaten it dozens of times, and made it at home even more. It’s a really very simple recipe, and it works with any firm, white fish, not just hake.

Fish with Spanish green sauce on a plate
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Hake, Merluccius merluccius, is a cousin of the codfish, haddock and cusk, and all are perfect substitutes for it, although if you are reading this anywhere New York or New Jersey, the fish you really want is what we call ling or red hake, Urophycis chuss.

Freshwater anglers will want to use walleye, burbot or small catfish, while Gulf anglers should look for whiting or speckled trout. Westerners? Well, there isn’t much that fits the bill exactly, but Pacific rockfish will do. So will bass or big crappies, small snapper or black seabass.

Spanish green sauce, which is what I am calling it to distinguish it from Mexican salsa verde, is one of a family of green, herby sauces all over the world. I also have recipes for chimichurri, a German green sauce and and Italian salsa verde, too.

This is one of the simplest. Minced onion or shallot and garlic, sweated in olive oil, with a little flour added, some white wine and hot fish broth, sometimes a bit of chile, and lots and lots of parsley. Sometimes you will see other green herbs, too, and Penelope Casas uses chopped, hard-boiled egg in her version in the great book The Foods and Wines of Spain.

But no matter what, Spanish green sauce is heavy on the parsley.

A Basque variation on this recipe, called merluza a la vasca, uses the chopped eggs Casas uses, along with peas and little clams. Feel free to add them if you want.

A plate of Spanish green sauce over fish
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

How you cook the fish is up to you. I’ve seen it baked, grilled or even broiled. Here I am sautéing the fish after it has been dusted in flour. I prefer this way, although with certain fish grilling would be great, too — like salmon or tuna or cobia. Regardless, you want to add the Spanish green sauce at the end, so it stays vivid. If you bake your fish with the sauce, it will turn dull.

Once made, the sauce will keep a few days in the fridge, and it’s good on eggs, or warmed up as a dipping sauce for bread, which is what I serve this dish with.

A plate of Spanish green sauce over fish
Print Recipe
5 from 5 votes

Fish with Spanish Green Sauce

I am using cusk, hake or cod here, but any fish will work, as would chicken or pork or other white meats.
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time40 mins
Course: lunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Spanish
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 279kcal
Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

  • 1 pound skinless, boneless fish
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Flour for dusting
  • 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
  • 1 yellow or white onion, minced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
  • 3/4 cup white wine
  • 1 cup fish stock or chicken stock
  • 1 cup finely minced parsley, fennel fronds, dill, chervil, or cilantro
  • Lemon juice to taste

Instructions

  • Salt and pepper the fish and set aside while you chop the vegetables and herbs.
  • Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet and put that in the oven. Set the oven to 200°F.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small pan and gently cook the onion until it is golden and translucent. Don't brown it. Turn off the heat and let everything sit for now.
  • Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. While it is heating up, dust the fish with flour. Press the flour in, then shake off the excess. Fry the fish in the olive oil until nicely browned on both sides, about four minutes per side. Move the fish to the rack in the oven as it browns.
  • When the fish is ready, move the onion and as much of the oil as you can scrape out of the little pan into the pan you cooked the fish in. Let this heat up, adding the garlic now. Let all this cook a minute or two.
  • Pour in the wine, bring it to a boil and let it roll a minute or two, then pour in the fish stock. Bring this to a boil and let it cook down for a couple minutes. Taste it for salt and add some if needed. Add all the herbs and cayenne and stir to combine. Let this cook 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Add black pepper and lemon juice to taste.
  • Pour some sauce over the fish on everyone's plate and serve with crusty bread, potatoes or rice.

Nutrition

Calories: 279kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 268mg | Potassium: 688mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 1364IU | Vitamin C: 24mg | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @HuntGatherCook or tag #HankShaw!

Thanks for Sharing This!

169 shares

Filed Under: Featured, Fish, How-To (DIY stuff), Recipe, Spanish

Avatar for Hank Shaw

Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet's largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Avatar for Loye BLoye B says

    September 8, 2021 at 3:01 pm

    What type of parsley would you recommend for this ?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      September 8, 2021 at 3:11 pm

      Loye: I always use flat-leaf parsley.

      Reply
  2. Avatar for Colin McClayColin McClay says

    March 25, 2021 at 2:10 pm

    Looking forward to making it,have just spent a week fishing off the north island of New Zealand.

    Reply
  3. Avatar for Patricia GadsbyPatricia Gadsby says

    March 25, 2021 at 5:19 am

    So the “little flour added” to the sauce would be the flour residue left in the pan after cooking the flour-dusted fish? What if you grill the fish? Do you add a sprinkle of flour after sweating the onion and garlic before adding the liquids?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      March 25, 2021 at 7:19 am

      Patricia: Exactly.

      Reply
  4. Avatar for LarryLarry says

    March 25, 2021 at 5:08 am

    Great piece here. You can find variations of this dish all over down neck in Newark’a Spanish/Portuguese neighborhood!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Hank Shaw holding a rod and reel in the American River

Hi, my name is Hank Shaw. I am a James Beard Award-winning author and chef and I focus my energies on wild foods: Foraging, fishing, hunting. I write cookbooks as well as this website, have a website dedicated to the intersection of food and nature, and do a podcast, too. If it’s wild game, fish, or edible wild plants and mushrooms, you’ll find it here. Hope you enjoy the site!

More about Hank...

Featured Recipes

red chimichurri with venison steak
Red Chimichurri
Cucumber sauce for salmon on a pretty plate
Cucumber Sauce for Salmon
A plate of arrachera tacos with salsa
Arrachera Tacos
A bowl of cherry tomato confit
Cherry Tomato Confit
Fire roasted salsa in a molcajete
Fire Roasted Salsa
Two hands holding a fried fish sandwich
A Simple Fried Fish Sandwich

As Seen In

As seen on CNN, New York Times, Simply Recipes, Martha Stewart, Food and Wine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, and The Splendid Table

Never Miss a Recipe

Receive recipes direct to your inbox.

 

 

Back to Top
  • Home
  • About
  • Classes & Events
  • Tutorials
  • Podcast
  • Charcuterie
  • Wild Game
  • Fish
  • Foraging
  • Privacy
Subscribe by email Connect on Facebook Connect on Pinterest Follow Me on Instagram

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

© 2022 Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, All Rights Reserved.

Site built by: Site by Status Forward

169 shares
  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • 72Facebook
  • WhatsApp
  • Save
  • Email
169 shares
  • 72