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¡Receta de Yaneria para los pescados perfectos!

Translated means: Yaneria’s recipe for perfect fish! Since arriving in Guatemala Damon has discovered that he has a constant craving for fish! In particular fish that has been prepared the Guatemalan way. The restaurant at Mario’s marina use to cook fish for Damon all the time, but since moving over to Monkey Bay Marina, he has not had it quite as often as he would like.

Recently our guardian here at Monkey Bay Marina got married, and even more recently the two have become three with the addition of their daughter, Abigail! Yaneria, Efrain’s wife, was in the palapa one evening when Damon and she were talking and the topic of fish came up. So Damon asked if he were to buy the fish, one each for Yaneria, Efrain and Damon, would she prepare it for him. Si! Was the answer. But Yaneria was also very surprised, she didn’t think Gringos liked fish. So off Damon went to the fish market and returned with three large mojorro’s. Yaneria quickly left and an hour later there was a knock on the boat. The fish was done. I have not been the fish fan like Damon, but I have to tell you that it smelled wonderful! And the taste was even better! Damon being the connoisseur of fish said that it was the best that he has ever had! So he left the boat with his plate of fish and ventured around the marina giving everyone a taste…a very small taste mind you!

The next day while we were playing our daily ‘Baja Rummy’ game, Yanetta came up to the palapa with her daughter Abigail to enjoy a hammock, and we asked her if she wouldn’t mind giving a cooking lesson to us ‘gringo’s’ on how to prepare and cook fish in exchange for free fish for her family and a fair ‘tuition’ for the class. She was very excited and the date was set.

A few days later, Damon collected money from everyone interested in learning how to cook mojorro’s and he set off to the fish market. (Damon’s note: I stayed at the fish market for almost five hours hand picking only the best Mojarros fresh off the cayoucos that were coming in with their catch. While most of the catch was small it took sometime to find the right sized ones and negotiate a fair price, about $2 per fish). When he returned we showed Yaneria the fish and said that we would put in the refrigerator until time to cook. We were quickly corrected and told that the fish needed to be cleaned immediately and then refrigerated. Tami and I were the only two available at the time to assist in the cleaning so we grabbed our knives and followed Yanetta to her ‘casa’ for fish cleaning 101.

First the fish needed to be scaled, then gutted. Tami thoroughly enjoyed the gutting part as she stared into the fishes belly and saying, ‘I have to use my hand to get this out?!’ We had 14 mojorro’s to do so the whole process took some time. I was excited that I finally got to use my fish scaler that I bought before leaving Kemah. I don’t know about Tami, but I was really beginning to feel like one of the three stooges next to Yaneria. Here I was with my fancy fish scaler tool and a rather large knife while she worked with only a fork and a small knife and for every one that I did, she did at least two! And I was also covered in fish scales to boot! Yaneria got a big charge out of this! But we did get them all cleaned, gutted and washed. Then the last thing to do was to put three scores on each side of the fish. Then they were placed into a pan and taken to the refrigerator until ready to be cooked.

4 o’clock in the afternoon arrived and pescados cooking 101 began! We met in the large ranchero. Joining the cooks of Heart of Gold and Bruadair was Steve, the chef of Argo. Cheri from Namaste showed to be the official scribe. Yaneria by this time I know thought that we were all nuts as we stood around asking each other did you bring this, or did you bring that, and she just started working. When we finally realized that she didn’t have time to wait on the crazy gringo’s we got our act together and began to follow along with her. Seasoning the fish is actually a two part process. The first part is as follows keeping in mind that there really were no actual measurements:

Grate one onion onto a plate. (Yaneria used one small and one large onion for all 14 fish.) Coat fish inside and out with onion. Salt the fish inside and out. Sprinkle garlic powder over fish inside and out. Coat the fish with special spice mixture inside and out. Then rub the fish with powdered chicken consume inside and out. And lastly squeeze fresh lemon over fish inside and out. Now set the fish aside and let marinate for 20 minutes.

The special spice mixture is a blend of oregano, chili powder, dried cilantro and black pepper, Yaneria had this in a jar already mixed rather than add each spice individually.

While the fish was marinating, the pans were put on the burners and filled with approximately one inch of oil and a sprinkle of salt was added into each pan and left to heat until smoking hot! The best that we can figure is that when the oil is hot enough the salt starts popping and crackling. Unlike boiling water Yaneria said not to put the lid on the pan, because it would cause moisture and this is ‘no bueno’! If you are inexperienced with frying, as I am, leaving the oil to heat this way without anything in it is nerve wracking! All I could hear was my grandmother saying, ‘watch out for flare up!’

As the oil was heating attention went back to the fish and each one was given a good coating of flour, you guessed it, inside and out. We had many fish and only three pans to fry in. As we were flouring Yaneria stopped me from finishing them all. Only flour what you are going to fry right then. You get a crisper coating, and the flour doesn’t soak up as much moisture which can cause excessive splattering.

We were able to get two fish per pan, except Damon’s which barley even fit into the pan itself, and fried them all until golden brown. This took approximately 15 minutes. While the first batch was frying the second batch was then floured. The fish went from the pan to the plate and then to the table. We served them with rice, cole slaw, and a cucumber, tomato and onion salad. It was definitely restaurant quality and a heck of a lot more fun! Our thanks to Yaneria for giving up her time to teach us gringo’s the perfect way to cook fish!

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