Recipe: Escovitch Fish with Bammy

Bring the island flavors into your kitchen delight your taste buds with this simplified recipe for Escovitch Fish.
Chef recently demoed his recipe for “Escovitch Fish” during a Shop and Cook with Chef Tour. Here is the simplified recipe so you can recreate it at home.

What is Escovitch?

“Escovitch” is a Jamaican variation of Ceviche. It is a process of cooking whereby fish is usually fried and then doused liberally with a pickling sauce made from vinegar, pimento, onions, pepper and carrots.
In this dish, Chef has used filet of fish instead of frying the fish whole as is traditionally done. You can use a filet of snapper or a light white fish. The marinade only needs to be as spicy as you would like it at home.

Ingredients

• 4-6 filets of fish
• 2 small red onions, sliced
• 6 whole black peppercorns
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium white onion, sliced
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, diced or minced
• 2 red, green, yellow sweet peppers, sliced
• 1-2 medium carrots,  julienned
• 2 sprigs of Thyme, 1 whole, 1 finely chopped
• ½ cup of light colored vinegar such as apple cider (in Jamaica we use cane vinegar)
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper, de-seeded, deveined and diced – if you want it spicy! Or, substitute chili pepper.

Instructions

1. Add flour to bowl or pan with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Add filets to bowl and coat both sides of fish with mixture.
2. Lightly fry fish in pan with extra virgin olive oil or butter, until cooked through (about 3-4 minutes on each side). Remove and cover.
3. Saute garlic with extra virgin olive oil or butter until just soft – careful not to burn.
4. Add all vegetables and herbs into the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add vinegar, followed by brown sugar. Remove bay leaf and sprig of thyme.
5. Prepare Bammy according to instructions below
6. Spoon escovitch mixture over each piece of fish, serve with bammy and enjoy!

Bammy

Bammy is made from Casava and sometimes substituted in Jamaica for bread.  If you don’t have bammy, use a nice crusty, toasted bread or avocado pear. There are three ways to prepare bammy.

1. Soaking – In a shallow dish soak bammy in 1/2 cup of coconut milk or salted water. (Note: if you are using canned coconut milk dilute 50-50 with water.) Pour half the liquid over bammy. Flip bammy and pour the rest of the liquid. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
2. Toasting – Broil both sides of bammy until toasted. Cut open and spread inside with butter while still hot.
3. Frying – Fry both sides of bammy in hot oil until golden brown (about 6-7 minutes). Cut into quarters.