Mero

[Panosmex]

From Pátzcuaro, México:

For Friday's dinner, I'm planning on making Filetes de Pescado a la Veracruzana. Our local pescadería offered tilapia, cazón, huauchinango and mero. I haven't used mero before. I Googled it, and it seems to be grouper.

How would that work for pescado a la Veracruzana? I like the thick, meaty filets. Tilapia is out of the question, as I find it nearly tasteless and lacking is substantial texture. Cazón may be fibrous, in my limited experience with it. Huauchinago is expensive, over $130 pesos the kilo!

Maybe I'll revert to Plan A: fried, breaded fish filets, Southern catfish style, oven-fried potatoes, slaw, tartar sauce, pickled chow chow, and corn bread.

Saludos,

Panosmex

[kalypso]

From Pátzcuaro, México:

For Friday's dinner, I'm planning on making Filetes de Pescado a la Veracruzana. Our local pescadería offered tilapia, cazón, huauchinango and mero. I haven't used mero before. I Googled it, and it seems to be grouper.

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Fish Veracruzana is a standard in my house. I've done it a gazillion different ways using a variety of different fish.

We don't see a huge amount of grouper where I am, but it should work just fine. I've used the rock fish labeled as red snapper on the West Coats, halibut, swordfish and mahi (which I think would be called dorado where you are). I've made it with filetes and I've made it with with whole fish. I made it on the range top in a skillet and baked it in the oven. No matter the fish, and no matter the cooking method, it almost always turns out pretty well. The fish isn't the star of the show in this dish, it's the sauce

On the range top I've both slipped the fish into the simmering sauce to cook, or briefly sauteed the fish and then poured the sauce over to finish cooking. For the oven, I slash the fish on each side, rub with a bit of lime and salt, arrange in the baking dish, cover with foil and punch a couple vents into the foil and then bake.

Mike, you can't go wrong with Pescado Veracruzana, it's a hard dish to mess up. Have you looked at a whole huacinango, it might be considerably less to purchase a whole fish than filetes. My favorite fish for this dish are - in this order - huachinango, halibut, mahi. All of these fish have a fairly firm flesh. IIRC, grouper also is a fairly firm flesh fish. I say, give it a whirl and see what happens. Focus on making the sauce as good as you possibly can and it may not really matter what type of fish you use.

[Panosmex]

From Pátzcuaro, México:

For Friday's dinner, I'm planning on making Filetes de Pescado a la Veracruzana. Our local pescadería offered tilapia, cazón, huauchinango and mero. I haven't used mero before. I Googled it, and it seems to be grouper.

←

Fish Veracruzana is a standard in my house. I've done it a gazillion different ways using a variety of different fish.

We don't see a huge amount of grouper where I am, but it should work just fine. I've used the rock fish labeled as red snapper on the West Coats, halibut, swordfish and mahi (which I think would be called dorado where you are). I've made it with filetes and I've made it with with whole fish. I made it on the range top in a skillet and baked it in the oven. No matter the fish, and no matter the cooking method, it almost always turns out pretty well. The fish isn't the star of the show in this dish, it's the sauce

On the range top I've both slipped the fish into the simmering sauce to cook, or briefly sauteed the fish and then poured the sauce over to finish cooking. For the oven, I slash the fish on each side, rub with a bit of lime and salt, arrange in the baking dish, cover with foil and punch a couple vents into the foil and then bake.

Mike, you can't go wrong with Pescado Veracruzana, it's a hard dish to mess up. Have you looked at a whole huacinango, it might be considerably less to purchase a whole fish than filetes. My favorite fish for this dish are - in this order - huachinango, halibut, mahi. All of these fish have a fairly firm flesh. IIRC, grouper also is a fairly firm flesh fish. I say, give it a whirl and see what happens. Focus on making the sauce as good as you possibly can and it may not really matter what type of fish you use.

←

Thanks, Kalypso for the encouraging reply.

The only time I made Pescado a la Veracruzana that was really bad was with pieces of bony fish, baked in the oven. It overcooked and fell apart, leaving us with bones at every forkful.

I'll look into get a whole huachinango, although I prefer the fillets.

EDIT: I should add that one of the guests will be a 4-y/o boy, who is not accustomed to chiles. So, I'll need to make the sauce quite mild, and add strips of Jalapeños to part of the finished dish.

It's either that, or it's back to fried fillets with optional sauces and condiments. My guests have simple tastes, and may prefer that.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Panosmex (log)