For your enjoyment…

Do you feel the same as I do on weekends on or special holidays, or when you have guests over? I’d like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoiled for choice or I can’t think of anything at all. If even intensively searching the internet turns out to be fruitless or leafing through piles of cookbooks doesn’t turn up any solution, try our Recipe of the Month!

From the chefs of the Schick Restaurants in Vienna, every month there is a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to prepare and enjoy at home! If you don’t want to have to prepare the recipe yourself, you can order the finished dish in comfort at the corresponding Schick Restaurant and indulge all around…

In February 2016 – recipe by Marcel Neumann – new chef of the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Zarzuela
bell-pepper stock . mackerel . scallop . scallions . thyme

Ingredients for 4 servings:
240 g mackerel fillets
2 scallops
120 g red and yellow bell peppers
1 shallot
10 g sweet paprika powder
2 tbsp. olive oil
50 ml white port wine or semi-dry white wine
500 ml fish stock (alternatively vegetable stock or water)
2 thyme sprigs
1 scallion (or baby leek)
1 tbsp. butter
2 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
1 bay leaf

Fish and scallops:
Wash the mackerel fillets and pat them dry using paper towels. Debone fish and remove the outer layer of fat. Slice into 8 equally large pieces. Wash scallops and make sure the muscle (the white part on the side) is removed since this part becomes tough when fried. Slice the scallops into quarters and allow to cool along with the fish.

The stock:
Peel scallops and finely slice them into small cubes. Wash bell peppers, remove the stems and core, and also dice into small cubes (approx. 1/2 cm).

Sweat scallops in 1 tbsp. olive oil until they become slightly glassy. Then add diced bell peppers, sweating them only briefly. Sprinkle with paprika powder and roast the whole mixture for approx. 1 minute, stirring constantly so that the paprika powder does not burn (it becomes bitter). Quench with port wine and simmer for approx. 2 minutes. Afterwards, infuse with the stock/broth and simmer for another 10 minutes. Season with bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove the stem from one thyme sprig and add the thyme during the final 2 minutes of cooking.

Wash scallion (or baby leek) and slice into very fine rings.

Salt the fish and scallops and sauté on the skin side in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. As soon as the meat of the fish begins to solidify (visible on the outside of the fish), turn the fish, add a tablespoon of butter as well as the garlic and a sprig of thyme, and sauté for approx. 30 seconds. Set the fish and scallops on a paper towel and allow to drip. Remove the bay leaf from the pepper stock and serve as in our photo, for instance.

Have fun preparing this recipe… Marcel Neumann wishes you bon appétit!