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Escabeche de pescadoFried fish in sweet-sour onion sauce

In Lima, escabeche de pescado belongs to the criollo kitchen of the old city: it turns up on Friday lunch menus, on buffet tables, and above all in Lent and Holy Week, when families eat fish and this dish can be made the day before. Fish is fried until golden, then covered in a warm sauce of thick-cut red onion softened in oil with garlic, ají amarillo, ají panca, cumin and vinegar, and left to cool so the flavours soak in. It is served cold or at room temperature with boiled sweet potato, hard-boiled egg and purple botija olives. It tastes tangy, sweet and gently fruity-hot, with crunchy onion over tender fish. The fish here is fully cooked, but because it is a cold seafood dish, pregnant people, babies, older people and anyone with weak immunity should eat it well chilled and within 2 days. Common mistake: stewing the onions until limp; they should only lose their raw bite. It is ready when the sauce has soaked a little into the fish and smells of vinegar and toasted chilli. Chef's tip: use thick fillets of corvina or bonito; thin fillets break under the sauce.

50 min

Peruvian Fish

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Fried Christmas carp

For many Polish families, Wigilia, the meatless Christmas Eve supper, is not complete without fried carp, bought live from market tanks in mid-December or, more often today, cleaned and cut into steaks at the fishmonger. The steaks are salted, floured and fried until the skin crisps and the white flesh turns sweet and juicy. Serve with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut with peas, or simply bread and a lemon wedge, after the beetroot barszcz. Keeping a scale from the Christmas carp in your wallet is said to bring money all year. Carp has a reputation for tasting muddy, and the usual culprit is skipping the salting and resting time. Ask the fishmonger to score the steaks finely so the small Y-shaped bones soften as they fry. Chef's tip: salt the steaks and leave them in the fridge for 20 minutes, then pat completely dry; the flesh firms up and the flour clings in a thin, even crust.

40 min

Polish Fish

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Ryba po greckuFish under sweet-sour vegetables

Ryba po grecku, 'Greek-style fish', has no Greek roots at all; it is a Polish invention from the communist years, when cheap frozen cod and pollock met carrot, parsley root and tomato purée to make a festive dish out of very little. Today it sits on almost every Christmas Eve table and at name-day buffets, served cold. Pieces of fried white fish disappear under a thick, orange layer of soft vegetables stewed in tomato with allspice and bay, sweet and tangy at once. It needs a night in the fridge for the vegetable sauce to soak into the fish. The usual slip is grating the vegetables too fine, which turns them to mush; use the coarse side of the grater or cut thin matchsticks. Chef's tip: let the fish and the vegetables cool before layering, then chill; it tastes better on day two and keeps for three days.

60 min

Polish Fish

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Smoked eel

Fish smokehouses dot the shores of the Great Masurian Lakes, and an eel hot-smoked over alder, golden-skinned and glistening, is the prize of any summer trip to Węgorzewo or Ruciane-Nida. The flesh is rich, soft and smoky-sweet, and it is eaten cold on rye bread with grated horseradish and a squeeze of lemon. European wild eel is endangered, so buy farmed eel from a responsible fishmonger, ready gutted. This is a fully hot-smoked version: the fish is brined in the fridge and cooked through in the smoker. Smoked fish can carry listeria if it is not cooked through or kept cold, so it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system unless reheated until steaming. Many home smokers run the heat too low throughout, which leaves the eel smoky but undercooked. Chef's tip: ready hot-smoked eel from a lakeside smokehouse is the easy route; just serve it well chilled with the same garnishes.

240 min

Polish Fish

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Fried vendace

Sielawa, the small silvery whitefish of the deep Masurian lakes, is a holiday treat in Mikołajki, Giżycko and the lakeside fish huts, sold freshly fried on paper plates with a lemon wedge and a slice of bread. The fish are so slender that, once floured and fried in butter, the fine bones become soft enough to eat and the skin turns golden and crunchy around sweet, delicate flesh. A cold cucumber salad or chips are the usual companions. Overcrowding the pan is the chief error: the fish steam instead of frying and the coating goes pale and soggy. If vendace is hard to find, smelt, small whiting or sprats work the same way. Chef's tip: dry the fish properly before flouring and fry in two batches, adding a little fresh butter and oil each time so it never burns.

25 min

Polish Fish

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Highland grilled trout

Trout farms fed by cold Tatra streams supply the roadside grills and mountain inns of Podhale, and pstrąg po góralsku is what hikers order on the terrace with a view of Giewont: a whole fish, stuffed with garlic and fresh herbs, crisped in butter until the skin crackles. The flesh is sweet and delicate, scented by dill and parsley from the inside out. Serve it with boiled new potatoes, lemon and a cucumber salad with sour cream. The classic error is flipping too early, so the skin tears and sticks; leave it until it releases on its own. If you have a grill basket, the same fish is excellent over charcoal. Chef's tip: score the thickest part of each side twice, right down to the bone, so the head end cooks as fast as the tail.

28 min

Polish Fish

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Śledź po kaszubskuHerring in sweet-sour tomato sauce

Kashubian fishing families along the Baltic coast and the lakes near Kartuzy always kept a crock of herring in the cellar, and this layered version, with a thick sweet-and-sour sauce of slow-fried onion and tomato, is now a fixture of the Christmas Eve table across Pomerania. Mild salted fillets sit between spoonfuls of the soft, glossy sauce, and after a night in the fridge the two flavours merge into something savoury, tangy and gently spiced. Eat it cold with boiled potatoes or rye bread. Herring like this is cured but never cooked, so buy ready-salted or matjes fillets from a good fishmonger, keep them chilled, and note it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Pouring the sauce on while hot is a mistake: it partly cooks the fish and turns it grey and soft. Chef's tip: taste a corner of a fillet before soaking; mild matjes need only a short rinse, while barrel-salted herring needs hours.

40 min

Polish Fish

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Pulpo al olivoOctopus with olive mayonnaise

Created in Lima in the 1950s by a Japanese-Peruvian chef, pulpo al olivo is now a fixture of Nikkei restaurants and smart cevicherías: paper-thin rounds of tender, cold octopus covered with a smooth violet mayonnaise of Botija olives, the big, dark, fruity olives of the southern coast. It is cool, rich and briny, eaten as a starter with lime and a drizzle of olive oil. Allow 1 hour for chilling after cooking. Tough octopus is the usual let-down, and the fix is simple: use frozen octopus (freezing tenderises it) and simmer gently, never at a rolling boil. Because the sauce is an egg emulsion, make it with a pasteurised egg, or use a good ready-made mayonnaise. Chef's tip: slice the octopus while it's cold and firm; warm octopus slices raggedly.

85 min

Peruvian Fish

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Thimpu de carachiPoached fish with potatoes

Around the shores of Lake Titicaca, thimpu is weekday food and Lent food alike: carachi, a small native lake fish, laid over potatoes and chuño (freeze-dried Andean potato) and gently poached, then drenched at the table with a hot sauce of onion fried with ají. The fish is soft and delicate, the chuño earthy and pleasantly chewy, and the sauce brings colour and fire. Outside Puno, small whole trout, tilapia or perch, or thick trout fillets, work well. Chuño needs an overnight soak (plan for it) and is sold in Andean and Latin shops; swap in extra waxy potatoes if you can't find it. The trap here is boiling the fish hard so it falls apart; keep the water at a bare shiver. Chef's tip: make the sauce while the fish poaches and spoon it on boiling hot, so it sizzles over the plate.

60 min

Peruvian Fish

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TiraditoSliced fish in ají amarillo sauce

Lima's Japanese-Peruvian cooks turned ceviche on its head with tiradito: instead of cubes soaked in lime, the fish is cut thin like sashimi, laid flat and dressed at the last minute, so it stays silky with only the surface turning white. The sauce here is the classic golden one, ají amarillo blended with lime, garlic and ginger, fruity and medium hot. It is served as a starter in cevicherías and upmarket Miraflores restaurants with boiled sweet potato and corn. Because the fish is eaten almost raw, this version uses sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first (allow for that), kept cold and eaten the moment it is dressed; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The mistake people make is dressing it ahead: after ten minutes the lime cooks it through and it turns chalky. Chef's tip: chill the plates in the freezer for 10 minutes before you lay out the fish; it keeps the slices firm while you work.

20 min

Peruvian Fish

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Trucha fritaFried trout with potatoes and rice

Rainbow trout farmed in the cold, clear water of Lake Titicaca is what you eat in Puno, at lakeside restaurants and on the floating islands: a whole fish, dusted in flour and fried until the skin crackles, with boiled Andean potatoes, rice, a simple salad and lime. The flesh is pink-white, sweet and moist; nothing else is needed. Ask your fishmonger to gut and scale the trout. The most common mistake is moving the fish too early, which tears the skin; leave it until it releases from the pan by itself. Chef's tip: slash the thick part of each side twice before flouring, so the fish cooks evenly and the skin crisps right up to the head.

30 min

Peruvian Fish

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Choros a la chalacaCold mussels with corn salsa

Named for the people of Callao, Lima's port, choros a la chalaca are what you order with friends at a seafront cevichería on a hot afternoon: steamed mussels, chilled, each on its half shell under a bright, wet salsa of red onion, tomato, Andean corn, rocoto and lime. Cool, sweet, briny and sharp, they are eaten with your fingers in two bites, often before a ceviche or a jalea. Here the mussels are fully steamed open first, so nothing is served raw. People often overcook them while waiting for the last stubborn shells, which leaves the rest rubbery; lift them out as soon as each one opens. Chef's tip: dress the salsa no more than 15 minutes ahead, and spoon a little of the juice onto every mussel; that juice is the whole point of the dish.

30 min

Peruvian Fish

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Jalea mixtaMixed fried seafood with cassava

Ordered to share at a Lima cevichería on a Sunday, jalea mixta arrives as a tall golden pile: chunks of white fish, squid rings and prawns, all in a light, crackly coat, on top of fried cassava and buried under a fresh tangle of salsa criolla. The contrast is the point, hot and crunchy underneath, cold, sour and sharp on top, with tartar sauce or ají on the side and cold drinks all round. A frequent mistake is crowding the oil, which drops its temperature and gives you a soggy, greasy coat; fry in small batches and let the oil come back up between them. Chef's tip: boil the cassava first and let it steam dry before frying; it turns fluffy inside and shatteringly crisp outside.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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MajariscoPlantain mash with seafood

Its name blends 'majado' (mashed plantain) and 'marisco' (seafood), and along the coast of Piura and Tumbes, near the Ecuadorian border, it's what cevicherías and beach restaurants serve when you want something hot and filling. Mashed green plantain is folded into a sauce of garlic, onion, ají and seafood juices, with prawns, squid and mussels running through it, so every forkful is creamy, garlicky and briny. Serve it with lime and salsa criolla. Mussels must be alive: tap any open ones and discard those that don't close, and discard any that stay shut after cooking. Overcooking the seafood is the most frequent mistake; it goes in at the end, just until pink and opaque. Chef's tip: keep the mussel cooking liquid and use it to loosen the mash; it's pure seafood flavour.

55 min

Peruvian Fish

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Maki acevichadoPrawn tempura rolls with ceviche sauce

Lima's Nikkei sushi bars invented the acevichado and it has become the roll every Peruvian orders: prawn tempura and avocado rolled in rice, topped with thin slices of fish and drenched in a creamy, lime-sharp sauce built from leche de tigre, ají amarillo and mayonnaise. Crisp, warm, cold and tangy in one bite, it is party food and Friday-night takeaway alike. For a safer topping, use sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first, keep it cold and eat the rolls at once; you can also sear the slices with a blowtorch or use cooked prawns instead. Even so, the raw-fish topping is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Overfilling is the usual mistake: the roll won't close and the rice splits. Chef's tip: use a pasteurised-egg mayonnaise and wet your hands with vinegared water so the rice doesn't stick.

90 min

Peruvian Fish

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Paiche a la parrillaGrilled paiche steaks

Paiche (arapaima), one of the largest freshwater fish on earth, has thick, white, almost boneless flesh, and in Iquitos it is farmed and cut into meaty steaks that sizzle on the grills of riverside restaurants. Marinated briefly in garlic, lime, cumin and achiote, it chars on the outside and stays juicy and mild inside, a little like cod but firmer. Serve it with a tomato and onion salad, rice, or tacacho (mashed fried plantain balls). Frozen farmed paiche is sold in some fishmongers; thick cod, halibut or hake loin are good stand-ins. Leaving it in lime too long is the big mistake: the acid starts to 'cook' the surface and it sticks and tears on the grill, so 15 minutes is plenty. Chef's tip: oil the fish, not the grill, and don't move it for the first 3 minutes so it forms a crust and releases cleanly.

25 min

Peruvian Fish

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PatarashcaLeaf-wrapped grilled fish

Wrapping fish in leaves and cooking it over embers is how the riverside towns of Loreto and San Martín have always cooked their catch, and in Iquitos patarashca is sold on Belén market grills and in the restaurants along the Malecón. A whole fish or thick fillet is smeared with garlic, ají dulce, tomato, onion, cumin and sacha culantro, folded in large bijao leaves and grilled until the parcel chars and the fish steams in its own juices. When you open it, the flesh is soft and fragrant with herbs. Banana leaves from Asian shops are the best swap for bijao; foil works at a pinch. Too thin a parcel is the usual mistake: the leaves burn through and the fish dries out, so use two layers. Chef's tip: serve it in the opened leaf with boiled plantain or cassava and spoon up every drop of the juices.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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