Pescado Frito Guatemalan Style
by Tami Gilliam, s/v
Heart of Gold
Double click any picture to enlarge.
 One of the first things you notice as you travel down the Rio Dulce
River in Guatemala, is the large number of pescadors (fishermen) fishing the
river in their cayucos. One of the major staples in the local
diet for the people that live along the river is Moharra, a fish that
is very abundant in the river. Moharra have a delicate white meat,
but they do tend to be a bit on the boney side.
The cruiser's here at Monkey Bay Monkey Bay Marina decided we needed
to learn to cook a traditional Guatemalan meal. Yanira Arracely
Arveaga graciously offered to teach us gringos how to clean & cook this
delicacy.
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Moharra ...soon to be dinner. |
Off to the fish market we
went...Damon from s/v
Bruadair did the negotiations with the pescadors and found us 12
freshly caught Moharra. David, also from s/v Bruadair, and I had
the pleasure of learning how to clean them.
To gut the fish:
- Using a sharp knife, make a slit through the belly of the fish,
from just under the jaw down past the anal fin.
- Remove the entrails and using your knife scrape the inside of
the fish clean.
- We left the head & tail on. You could remove the head if
you want, but be sure to leave the tail...when fried its crispy &
very tasty.
Scale the fish:
- Lay the fish flat on its side and
using short strokes, move the knife from the tail to the head.
Watch out for the fins during this process as they are sharp
and will stick you.
- A fish scaler is an extremely handy item. I don't have
one, but as soon as I'm back in the states, I'm going to get one.
Score the fish:
- Using your knife, make three slits on each side of the fish.
Squeeze a lemon/lime into a pan of cold water and place the cleaned
fish into the water. Put in refrigerator or on ice until ready to
cook.
|
|
A fish
scaler is a very handy tool. |
Ingredients needed to prepare
Moharra Frito
Serves 12 (1 fish per serving)
3 onions (grated into dish)
Dozen limes (cut in half)
Garlic powder
Salt
Dried chicken consume
Spice Rub*
Flour
Oil for frying
Rub the fish on both the inside and outside
with ingredients in this order:
Onions
Rub mixture
Garlic powder
Consume
Salt
(When rubbing fish with
ingredients, be careful not to rub back and forth on fish or you will get stuck with
the fins. Patting the mixtures onto the fish works best.)
Squeeze fresh lime juice over
the entire fish, both inside and out.
Let fish marinate for at
least 20 min. then coat each fish in flour.
While you are coating the fish, heat oil in large skillet
until oil begins to crackle. If you put a pinch of salt in the
skillet and it crackles the oil is hot enough. If the salt sinks
with no crackling the oil is not ready.
Place fish in oil and fry until crispy,
turn over and fry the other side.
*The rub contains 1
tablespoon each of:
Oregano
Dried Cilantro
Black Pepper
Red Chili Powder such as
Cayenne
Mix all dried ingredients
together. This rub can be made in advance, put into a jar and used
for many different recipes.
This recipe would be great on
hogfish or snapper! Buen Provecho…
|
Floured up & ready to fry. |
|
Frying up
the Moharra |
|
Deborah from
s/v Argo getting
ready to enjoy the Moharra. |
Thank you Cheri, s/v
Namaste, for putting this
recipe on paper for us and making sure we all got a copy. With Cheri is
Yanira & Steve from s/v Argo.
Back to galley page .... |
