make | SPAIN | fabada asturiana, seafood style!

So, fabada asturiana is a Spanish dish that is normally eaten when it's a bit colder outside.  Seeing as the weather appears to have turned a bit (after that glorious flash of sunshine, which I am sure was a prelude to a wonderful summer ahead), we decided we'd try this recipe.

It's a really simple hearty little dish - perfect comfort food.

Traditionally, fabada asturiana is a rich bean stew.  Similar to French cassoulet (which we made in March), or American Boston baked beans, you normally slow cook bacon and pork in a stew of white beans and saffron until you get a heavily flavoured, unctuous, comforting hug in a bowl.  In Spain, you can buy it in tins in supermarkets - kind of like our fondness for a tin of Heinz baked beans!

Seeing as summer is nearly upon us, and also as we had a glut of prawns to use up, and also because we just love fish, we decided we would mix up our fabada asturiana and give it a bit of maritime style.

We think we hit the nail on the head.

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

Fabada Asturiana, Seafood Style
Serves 4 generously

- 2 rashers bacon
- 200 - 250g prawns, cooked
- 4 fillets white fish
- 1 can cannelini beans or butter beans (410g)
- 1 onion
- 2 big cloves of garlic, mashed
- 700g passata (or the same amount of chopped tomatoes, pureed!)
- 200g shredded cabbage (serve the rest on the side)
- 1 bay leaf
- sprig of rosemary, leaves finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- small pinch of saffron threads
- lots of black pepper (as usual!)

• Cook the bacon, onion and garlic in a big pan until the onion is transparent and the bacon is cooked.

 

• Add the bay leaf, smoked paprika, saffron and black pepper.  

• Tip in the beans (trained and rinsed before hand), cabbage and passata.  Stir it up and let it bubble away for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes have reduced a little.  

• Now tip in the cooked prawns and stir them through.  Leave to simmer on a low heat for another 5 minutes or so.  

• Add the fish fillets to the pan, leaving the tops of the fillets showing through.  Cover the pan and cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat or until the fish is cooked completely.  

• Meanwhile, steam the remainder of the cabbage to serve on the side with some crusty bread.