The Mexican Mariscada (Mariscada Mexicana)

Here is an easy recipe for a seafood casserole, the mexican mariscada… This dish has its origins in Spain and Portugal, and today you will find a local version of this dish in almost every country that was colonized by anyone of these two countries. The mariscada can almost be seen as a generic term for a latin seafood dish, with a wide selection of seafood, and yes, it is very important for any seafood dish to use ingredients that are as fresh as possible!

Mexican recipe for Mariscada:

Ingredients:

* 1/2 lb. raw shrimp
* 1/2 lb. Large Tiger shrimp
* 1 lb. Surimi or Crab meat imitation sticks, sliced
* 2 lb. Mussels
* 1 crab
* 8 Langoustine tails
* 1 lobster
* 3/4 cup olive oil
* 1 cup white wine
* Ground black pepper
* 2 onions, chopped
* 6 cloves of garlic
* 1 cup parsley, finely chopped
* 2 jalapeno chiles, washed and sliced in strips
* fresh cilantro, washed and chopped
* 1 lemon
* salt

Preparation:

1) Fill a pot with plenty of water, and bring the water to a boil; when it boils add all the seafood you chose (except for the surimi and the mussels) into the pot for the seafood to cook; immediately after putting the seafood in take out the extra water.

2) Reduce heat setting and simmer about 8-10 minutes (a bit longer if you use frozen seafood) this should have cooked all seafood. Take the seafood out of the water and into a strainer let them drain and let them cool down in a large bowl; keep about half the water in the pot.

3) With the seafood in the strainer, put the mussels in the pot (they should not be covered in water), cover the pot and cook until they have all opened. Once they are cooked discard the ones that didn’t open, and reserve half cup of the seafood broth they cooked in.

4) Heat up a bit of oil in a skillet, fry the chopped onions with the cilantro and when they become translucent press in one clove of garlic and put in the sliced crab imitation meat, the jalapeno strips and cook a bit more, add the seafood broth we reserved earlier and cook to reduce slightly; reserve all this.

5) We will now prepare our seafood parsley sauce using mortar and pestle. First we put in the garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Crush until you get a thick paste, then add the finely chopped parsley. Continue crushing as we gradually pour the oil in, to get the green sauce.

6) Lastly, pour back the reserved water in the pot, along with the white wine; heat up then put in the crab meat with onions, and all seafood. Mix and simmer for a few minutes.

Serve this mexican Mariscada in a bowl with the green parsely sauce, the quartered lemon on the side and some mexican style rice.