Recipes from an Islandmix. Chef Abraham Ortega. Gran Canaria.

This how Vieja fish paste, with ‘autodate’ coated potatoes, scarlet shrimp and Valleseco apple spheres is made

INGREDIENTS AND COOKING METHOD

Textured Vieja fish
2 cleaned vieja fish
2 cloves of garlic
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Parboil the de-skinned and deboned vieja fish. Once cooked, place into a blender with the rest of the ingredients and mix into a paste.

Crunchy fish scales
Vieja fish scales
Extra virgin olive oil
Dry the scales off in the oven for half an hour at 100ºC. Fry them at 180ºC for two minutes until they become crunchy.

Vieja fish paste, with ‘autodate’ coated potatoes, scarlet shrimp and Valleseco apple spheres

Coated potato
A large Canary ‘autodate’ potato
Extra virgin olive oil
Chop the peeled potato into large chunks, which are the base for the presentation of the recipe. To coat the potato, dip the potato chunks in the olive oil until they are covered. Put into the oven at 70ºC for an hour.

Scarlet shrimps
100 ml. oil infusioned with two scarlet shrimps.
Boil the oil with the two scarlet shrimps at 70º for 3 hours.
When the time is up, take out the shrimps and leave 100 ml of oil and mix with 100 gr of maltosec .
Mix to the ideal texture.

Apple spheres
1 l of natural Valleseco apple juice
Calci 10 gr
1 litre mineral water
10 gr algi
Blend in the apples in a juicer to obtain the juice.
Then mix the juice and the Calci together in a blender.
Separately mix the water and calcium algicato together in the blender.
With a spoon, pour the apple juice and calci mixture into the water and algi mix. Leave it submerged for three minutes until balls are formed and then take them out carefully.

Download recipe [PDF - 365 KB]

THE CHEF’S INSPIRATION

Chef Abraham Romero tells of how his creation came about:

"This recipe is inspired by the fishing districts of Gran Canaria, and the lovely vieja fish eaten at their local restaurants. We wanted to give the recipe a twist by adding a bit of greasiness to the dish.

The fresh flavour of the Valleseco apples in winter, the acidy flavour we use to clean around the mouth, contrasts with the greasy creaminess of the vieja fish. The similarity of the flavour of the vieja fish together with the elegance of the scarlet shrimps, the kings of the seas, hints at a contrast in colour while maintaining harmony in the mouth. I always try to get inspired by my cooking experiences, my journeys and my home island, and its wonderful landscapes and sea."

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¿Quién es Abraham Ortega?

"From a very young age I always wanted to cook, and I used to spend time with my mother and grandmothers while they were cooking. I was inspired by them when I make up any new dish. The root idea comes from them which I then develop".

Our chef trained at the Santa Brígida Hotel and Catering School, and then started working at the Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahía Real in Fuerteventura. He then moved on to Madrid where he plied his trade at several different restaurants, until arriving at Merimee on calle Fuencarral, where thanks to chef Ángel Uro, he came into his own with his cooking "Ángel showed me how to love my cooking, and started me on my life of sacrifice and learning".

Following his time at Merimee, he worked in several kitchens in Madrid, including the Corral de la Morería and 7delicatessen, at San Antón Market, which proved a turning point for our chef. 7delicatessen was a market stall specializing in Canary food, which was turned into a gastrobar with cross sales of Canary products. This learning period of local island products led to Abraham changing course in his career. "We enabled both traditional and modern Canary cuisine to get a look-in in Madrid. We took our culinary creations to ITB Berlin, Warsaw, and Stuttgart. It had a quality seal, without forgetting our roots".

Around this time he received the award of “Best Canary Cook around the World 2016” for the work he did at 7delicatesen and Mad Planet Madrid.

He would then return to Gran Canaria, and worked at a number of different establishments, until he landed at El Santo Restaurante, where he is now head chef, creating a cuisine that contains the remarkable influences of his cooking roots. He was a semifinalist at the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Iberian Region for chefs under the age of 30 in Spain and Portugal, in 2018, he won the award for 'best new gastronomic talent in the Canaries' at the 5th annual Mahou - La Opinión - La Provincia Gastronomy Awards, and the future career of Abraham seems destined to provide us with an ocean of flavours over the next few years.

Our 24th dish-enhancing' secret ingredient

Apples are a star product in Valleseco, the municipality in which over half the apples on the island are grown. They belong to the pippin variety, and their cultivation is increasingly well thought of, providing the basic ingredient for a cider cottage industry in the town. Many of the town’s delicious products come from apples; from still cider to fizzy cider, plus cider wine, and of course many superb pastry recipes, including the local truchas and apple profiteroles.

Check out further information here on Gran Valle Cider from the town of Valleseco.