We all know that eating fish at least once a week is a good call, both for our hearts and our brains. In the summertime, it’s easy. I love tossing a piece of fish seasoned with just a little salt and pepper on the grill, giving it a bit of char and squeezing it with bright lemon and serving it next to a lightly-dressed coleslaw or a chopped grilled veggie salad. In summer, I like not feeling full.

  Delicious cod with a mushroom red wine pan sauce.

But our poor friends in the northern hemisphere, they face winter right now. That’s why we should crave for something richer and meatier. Food that fills the belly with warmth and coats our tongue with luscious, deep flavors.

  Wonderful Cod fillets in a pan. Southern Californian rock fish.

A simple, quick sauteed fish recipe comes to the rescue! It’s a classic saute plus pan-sauce method: Saute the fish and remove from the pan, add in some veggies and aromatics and cook until tender, deglaze the pan with broth, wine, or other liquid and then add finishing touches, such as whisking in a pat of butter or adding chopped fresh herbs.

  This Mahi Mahi filet we could buy in Panama at our fish shop, never seen here in Uruguay. Notice the beautiful and typical Mahi Mahi markings.

The recipe today, Quick Corvina with Red Wine Pan Sauce has a few tricks up its sleeve to satisfy our winter palate. I use meaty portobello mushrooms as the veggie, which amps up the filling-factor of delicate corvina. And for the sauce, I use beef broth and red wine, surprising companions for a white fish dish. But, get excited, because they work.

   Big Corvina filets we buy here in Uruguay.

Corvina with red wine pan sauce.

4  150gram (5-ounce) fillets of corvina, rockfish or other sturdy white fish fillets , such as coley, whiting, pollock, mahi mahi, cod etc. skin off, pin-boned
2 teaspoons of flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, finely sliced – one medium red onion will do too
250 gram (8 ounces) button (or other white) mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup beef stock
1/3 cup red wine (heavy taste like Shiraz or Tannat, or even a sweetened one, such as Marsala or Madeira, will do)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Parsley, chopped, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Salt and pepper

  Mushroom red wine sauce. Excellent for many purposes.

How to do.

Pat the fish dry with a paper towel and season it with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour on the fish, using a silicon brush to coat the fish very lightly with the flour.

Heat half the oil over medium high heat in a large nonstick skillet.
Cook the fish until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side, flipping the fish only once to retain the nice crust.
Place the fish on a warmed platter and set aside.

Add the remaining oil, shallot and mushrooms to the skillet and sauté until mushrooms begin to soften, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and remaining teaspoon of flour, and stir for a minute.
Then add the stock and wine to deglaze the pan, and bring to a boil for a minute or two, until sauce starts to thicken.

Turn off the heat and add in the lemon juice and whisk in the butter to make the sauce glossy. Top with parsley and a lemon wedge for garnish.
Serve the sauce with the fish, either on the side to spoon on, or on top of the fish.

Tips.

I like this sauce so much that I always double the ingredients for the sauce. Same sauce is magnificent for a lovely filet steak. Once I tried the above recipe with white wine, wasn’t as tasty as the red wine one.

  Corvina with a tomato, saffron, garlic sauce and Quinoa.

The sauce is ideal for freezing, while I am cooking, sometimes I make a liter or two and deep freeze the portions for a later use. Only thing is, that you are careful if you want to use cream (no freeze) in this sauce. Add the cream at the very last, just before serving.

  What a delight, Salmon in red wine pan sauce.

If you want to have a side dish, serve the fish on a bed of baby spinach, spaghetti squash or quinoa to soak up the tasty sauce.
I rather like the french way, using the good red wine I used for the recipe aside and dunk up the goodies with some baguette. Trust me, it’s a delight, just ENJOY !!