Take the fishmonger. We’re only an hour and a half from the coast, so when the fish is fresh, it’s really fresh. They restock on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Well, on Saturdays for sure, Thursdays mostly, and I’m not at all confident about Tuesdays. That means that Saturday is fish day in the Flaherty household. But what kind of fish? It varies with the catch of the day. There’s always hake and cusk-eel, usually salmon and pomfret and corvina, sometimes a whole albacore tuna being sliced into steaks. It took some research to figure out what was what, as the fish here are not the same as what one finds in the market in California. There’s also a lot of misinformation. For instance, most foreigners will tell you that congrio is conger eel (it’s not; it’s cusk-eel) and corvina is Chilean seabass (it’s not; it’s a local fish called corvina in English, too). And in a recent article on the culinary scene in Valparaíso, the author claims to have eaten a perfectly cooked grouper—which can’t possibly be right, since there is no grouper in Chile. That last little slip-up led me to research the fish varieties in Chile more thoroughly. Some time ago, I found a list of all commercial fish in Chile, compiled by the National Fishing Service (www.sernapesca.cl, but my original link to the list no longer works). I recently used this list to cross-reference the genus and species at www.fishbase.org. Here’s a list of the main fish varieties sold in Chilean markets, with their local names and English translations.

Albacora: swordfish
Alfonsino: splendid alfonsino (I’ve never actually seen this in the market, but I love the name splendid alfonsino)
Anguila: snake eel
Apañado: grape-eye seabass
Atún aleta amarilla: yellowfin tuna
Atún aleta larga: albacore tuna
Azulejo: blue shark
Bacalao de profundidad or mero chileno: Chilean seabass (there’s also a Bacalao de Juan Fernández, which is Hapuka in English)
Blanquillo: tilefish
Bonito: eastern Pacific bonito
Cachurreta or barrilete: skipjack tuna
Cojinoba: palm ruff (there’s also a cojinoba del sur, which is white warehou, but palm ruff is more common)
Congrio: cusk-eel (congio colorado is red cusk-eel, dorado is pink, and negro is black)
Corvina: corvina (native to the Chilean and Peruvian pacific)
Dorado (or dorado de altura): common dolphinfish
Corvinilla: a species in the croaker family
Jurel: Inca scad (in the mackerel family)
Lenguado: flounder (not sole—there is no true sole in Chile)
Lisa: flathead mullet
Merluza: hake
Mero: Chilean sea bass (in Spain, mero is grouper, but not in Chile)
Palometa (sometimes vidriola): yellowtail amberjack
Pejerrey: silverside
Raya: filetail fanskate
Reineta: Southern rays bream (in the pomfret family, so I just call it pomfret)
Róbalo: Patagonian blennie
Rococo: Peruvian banded croaker
Salmón: farmed Atlantic salmon
Salmón trucha: literally salmon trout, either rainbow or sea trout
Sierra: snoek (sometimes called sea pike in the US; escolier in France)
Tollo: speckled smooth-hound (in the houndshark family)
Vieja (sometimes mulata): no English equivalent; native to the Chilean Pacific

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Poached fish fillets with orange sauce

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided), at room temperature
2 tablespoons minced shallot
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup orange juice
3 slices ginger (about the size of a quarter)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 tablespoon Cointreau (optional)
a squeeze of lemon juice
fresh mint, minced (for garnish) 

For the poaching liquid:
2 cups water 2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
a few slices of onion
1 bay leaf 

4 fish fillets (such as pomfret or flounder)

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan and add the shallots. Sauté until translucent (about a minute). Add the wine, orange juice, and ginger slices, then reduce by half. Strain into a measuring cup; if you have more than 1/2 cup, reduce further. Return the sauce to the pan and set aside while you poach the fish.

Combine all the ingredients for the poaching liquid and bring to a simmer. Add the fish fillets. If necessary, add additional water to cover. Gently simmer the fish until just done (it only takes a few minutes for thin fillets). It is important that the water does not fully boil, as this can cause the fillets to break apart. When done (I gently cut into one to check), remove to a platter and blot dry with paper towels. Keep warm while you finish the sauce.

To finish the sauce, bring the reduced liquid to a boil. Whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time. The sauce should be emulsified, like a vinaigrette. Add the orange zest, salt, Cointreau, and lemon. Taste for salt, then serve over the fish, garnished generously with the mint.

Merquén is usually a blend of the smoked pepper, oregano, cumin, and salt, but the rich smoky flavor and spicy hot (picante) pepper dominate. It is available at some Whole Foods stores and also online. If you can’t find it, you might try substituting chipotle powder, which is also smoked but has a different flavor profile.

For the tartar sauce, I start with a blender mayonnaise, season with merquén, and then add capers, pickle, and green onion.

I fried the fish in caper oil and garnished with fried capers. This is a trick I learned from John Ash—frying takes the bite out of the capers and leaves a nicely flavored oil. Rinse the capers (about a tablespoon per person) and pat dry. Heat the olive oil in a small pan and deep fry the capers for a few minutes, until crisp, being careful not to burn the oil. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the capers to a paper towel to drain.

Now pour the oil into the pan you will use for the fish. (I suppose you could fry the capers in the fish pan, but you won’t get that deep-frying effect.) Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper and lightly coat with flour. Pan fry in the caper oil a few minutes per side, until done. I cover the fish on the first side, to ensure it cooks through, then leave the cover off on the second side.

Serve with the merquén tartar sauce and a garnish of fried capers. Sra. Juana’s pebre is spectacular as a second sauce—the garlic and cilantro complement the tartar sauce beautifully. Our wine last night was a 2007 Equus Chardonnay, which was nicely balanced (although the label did not withstand the ice bucket, as evidenced in the photo).

Merquén tartar sauce

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 TBSP white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 – 1 tsp ground merquén
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup (or more) vegetable oil (or use all olive oil)

3–4 TBSP dill pickle, chopped
2 TBSP parsley, minced
1 TBSP capers, chopped
1 TBSP green onion, minced

To make the mayonnaise: combine the egg, egg yolk, vinegar, mustard, salt, and 1/2 tsp merquén in a blender and process until smooth. With the blender on low, slowly pour in the olive oil and 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Add additional vegetable oil if needed for consistency. Taste and add additional merquén, as desired.

To finish the tartar sauce, stir in the pickle, parsley, capers, and green onion. Refrigerate until needed. Can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

My kids are still in that pesky phase when all sauces are suspect. More than suspect, they’re scary. So I usually either poach or pan fry the fish very simply, and then serve some sort of sauce or condiment for Ed and I.

This cilantro pesto is a favorite. It is very strongly flavored with garlic, green olives, pickles, and vinegar, which provide a good tangy complement to the subtle fish. Here, I battered and fried the fish and served it with ensalada chilena (made with white wine vinegar instead of red) and humitas. Humitas are basically a fresh-corn tamale served throughout summer in central Chile. The wine was a 2007 Sutil Sauvignon Blanc.

A note on cilantro: I used to painstakingly pick out all the stems and use only the leaves. What a waste of time! Small stems are fine and do not affect the texture, so just pick out the thicker stems. Be sure to wash well and spin dry, as it can be gritty (at least in our local markets).

Cilantro pesto

2 cups (packed) cilantro leaves
12 green olives, pitted (about a quarter cup roughly chopped)
1/4 cup chopped dill pickle
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cashews
1 slice bread (I use whole wheat sandwich bread, but any will do)
3 TBSP white wine vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste (I don’t usually add salt, as our “unsalted” cashews are actually a bit salty)

Place the cilantro, olives, pickle, garlic, and cashews in a food processor. Cut the crusts off the bread. Drizzle one tablespoon vinegar over the bread; turn the bread over and repeat. Add the bread and the final tablespoon of vinegar to the food processor. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Process until smooth, adding more oil as needed. Refrigerator the pesto while you prepare the fish, which will allow the flavors to marry.