Catfish fillets poached in a tomato and onion sauce with cumin and a spoonful of butter. Twenty-five minutes from start to plate, for two.
Sauce first, fish last
The order in this recipe is doing real work. Butter and onion for five minutes, then tomato and garlic for a few more, then the water, and only after all that do the fillets go in.
Onion needs time to soften and sweeten. Tomato needs time to break down and lose its raw edge. Catfish needs ten minutes and not a moment longer, so it comes in at the point where everything else is already where it should be.
Ten minutes and then stop
The fillets go into the liquid, the lid goes on, and the heat stays low. Ten minutes is the figure in the recipe and it is close to the maximum rather than a minimum.
The signal is the flesh: it turns from translucent to opaque and separates into flakes under gentle pressure. Once that has happened it is done, and every further minute takes moisture out of it.
Overcooked catfish in a sauce is easy to spot, because the fillet stops being a fillet and starts being pieces.
Butter instead of oil
A tablespoon of butter is what the onion is softened in, which is a little unusual for a Colombian fish dish and makes a noticeable difference. It rounds off the acidity of three tomatoes and gives the sauce body without cream.
It also browns, which oil does not, so the onion picks up a little colour and flavour in the first five minutes.
A note on the ingredient list
Until this rewrite, the ingredient list on this page read 3 to matoes. The word tomatoes had been split down the middle across two database fields, with its first syllable stuck inside the quantity.
It appeared that way in the printed recipe card and in the structured data search engines read. The quantity was always three; only the word had come apart.
More fish
- Fish sancocho — the same fish in a soup.
- Coconut fish soup — from the coast.
- Trout in mushroom and shrimp sauce — a richer pan sauce.
- Fish head soup — for the rest of the fish.
Catfish in Sauce FAQ
When it turns opaque all the way through and flakes if you press it with a fork. Ten minutes covered over low heat is usually enough, and past that it dries out and starts falling apart in the sauce.
The Colombian river catfish. It is a firm, meaty white fish with few bones, which is why it holds together in a sauce instead of disintegrating. Any firm white fillet works the same way.
Because onion, tomato and garlic all need far longer than the fish does. Putting everything in at once means either raw sauce or ruined fish.
It turns the sautéed vegetables into something the fish can poach in. Without those 160 ml, the fillets would be frying against the pan rather than cooking gently in liquid.
Yes, thawed completely and patted dry first. Frozen fish releases a lot of water as it cooks and will thin the sauce noticeably if it goes in still icy.
No. A pinch of cumin, salt and pepper is the whole seasoning. Colombian cooking of this kind is aromatic rather than hot, and any chilli would be added at the table.
📖 Recipe
Bagre en Salsa (Colombian Catfish in Tomato Sauce)
Imprimir Pin ComentarIngredients
- 2 catfish fillets
- 3 tomatoes (diced)
- 100 g onion (cut into small cubes)
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 160 ml water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 pinch cumin
- Salt and pepper
Notas
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the onion, cut into small cubes, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the diced tomato and the finely chopped garlic and let it simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pour in the water and lay in the catfish fillets, seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin. Cover and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the fish is done.
- Serve the catfish with the sauce spooned over it.
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