The Sancocho Series: Sancocho de Pescado (Colombia)

One of us has an aunt who only eats fish as her choice of meat. As you can imagine, it can be somewhat irksome sometimes when preparing a meal with her around. But nevertheless she is a nice person, and we invited her over for dinner one night. As usual, we were feeling somewhat lazy and wanted a simple one-dish meal that could be served alongside rice. Cooking rice is always easy in asia. You just need to dump everything into a rice cooker. No stirring. No mess. No pain.

After some thought, we decided to settle on a fish Sancocho. We have eaten Sancocho before (a colombian-american friend cooked it for us), and love how it complements so well with rice. Fish Sancocho can be found in quite a few countries. Some examples are Colombia, Venezuela and the Canary Islands of Spain. As we are most familiar with the colombian version of Sancocho, we decided on settling with a simplified colombian recipe. Where almost all ingredients can be easily bought at any decent supermarket in Singapore.

Sancocho de Pescado

Ingredients:
-1 tablespoon vegetable oil
-1 large onion, finely chopped
-5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-1 kg frozen (or fresh) white-fleshed fish fillets (such as red snapper, halibut or cod), thawed and cut into large chunks
-10 fish or ikan bilis stock cubes (Knorr is the preferred brand), dissolved in 10 cups of hot water
-1 kg potatoes, deskinned and cut into quarters
-1 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon cumin powder, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
-1/2 cup coriander, finely chopped
-2 cans canned corn, drained
-4 limes, cut into quarters
-3 to 4 ripe avocados (optional but highly recommended), diced

In a large pot, fry the onion and garlic with the vegetable oil over medium to low heat until onions soften and garlic turns brown. Add in the fish stock and turmeric-cumin paste. Clamp a lid onto the pot and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Make sure you give the liquid a good stir. Add the fish fillets into the pot and bring to a boil again. Clamp back the lid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the potatoes and bring to the boil again. Simmer again for another 30 minutes. This time with the lid off. Turn off the heat and give the mixture a taste. It should be salty enough so we do not recommend any additional salt. Stir in the corn and coriander and allow mixture to sit (rest) for about 2 to 3 hours (make sure the lid is off). Just before dinnertime, reheat the mixture and serve with rice, lime and avocado.

Sancocho, A Fond Memory

Sancocho is a meat and root vegetable stew that is found throughout latin america. Every latin american country has a different way of flavouring and preparing it. Latin american Sancocho evolved from a few different types of Spanish stews that was introduced during the Spanish conquest. Namely Cocido, Puchero Canario and the original Sancocho of the Canary Islands. Which is usually prepared with fish.

Our first exposure to Sancocho was when a colombian-american friend cooked it for us 2 years ago. We took pictures of the ingredients that he bought and documented parts of the cooking process. But after 3 hours of watching him cook, we became a little listless and in the process, somehow misplaced the notes. We regretted it after that though, because the stew tasted so good. It was nothing like we have tasted before. In order to replicate it, we had to backtrack using the photos that we took and by remembering the quantities of what went in (he was not very particular about that, making it a little more complicated for us). After some heavy thinking, we have re-created the recipe in a simpler, smaller and cheaper form (his version took 4 hours in total to prepare and cook, which was enough to feed 20 people, and his ingredients billed up to a whooping $300). There are many different types of meat that can be used for Sancocho. The one that we first tasted was made with beef. However, we decided on a chicken one this time as we had some Hindu friends coming over for dinner that night.

Simple Sancocho De Gallina

Ingredients:
-1 red bell pepper (capsicum), roughly chopped
-1 onion, roughly chopped
-4 sprigs spring onions, sliced
-2 teaspoons cumin powder & 1 teaspoon turmeric powder mixed with 3 tablespoons water
-5 cloves garlic, crushed
-2 cans corn kernels, drained
-1kg potatoes, deskinned and cut into quarters
-12 cups water
-5 tablespoons chicken stock powder (Knorr is the preferred brand)
-2kg frozen chicken thighs, deskinned and joints separated
-1/2 cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
-salt and black pepper to taste
-3 to 4 ripe avocados (optional but highly recommended), diced

In a blender or food processor, pulse the bell pepper, onion and spring onions with 1 cup of water. In a large pot, bring the blended ingredients, spice paste (cumin & turmeric), remaining water and chicken stock powder to the boil (do so with the lid on). Add in the chicken and bring to the boil again with the lid on. Simmer for 20 minutes and add in the potatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer again for another 30 minutes. This time with the lid off. Turn off the heat and season with salt and black pepper. Stir in the coriander and corn. Allow the Sancocho to sit (rest) with the lid off for about 2 to 3 hours. This helps its flavour to 'develop' further. Reheat and serve with white rice and avocado.