Ever since I traveled to Jamaica last year, I haven’t had Escovitch fish and I’ve been dying to finally learn how to make it on my own. The other day, I was going through my Snapchat feed and an editor from Conde Nast Traveler was in Jamaica learning how Escovitch fish is made —this alone made my taste buds go a little nutty! That’s it, I went and got some snapper and bought all of the ingredients to make my own!
What you’ll need:
For Escovitch sauce:
- Peppers – I used red, green and yellow
- Scotch bonnet pepper
- 1 carrot
- 2/3 cup of vinegar
- Pimento berries
For the fish:
- Sugar (optional)
- Vegetable oil
- Thyme
- Onion
- Snapper (half or whole your choice)
- Black pepper
First things first, clean and season your fish overnight. After cleaning with a lime, I seasoned my fish with salt and pepper. The next day allow fish to dry by placing between sheets of paper towel to soak up any excess water—this will help avoid the splashing of oil when it’s time to fry. You can also season the fish some more at this time, I decided to add some jerk sauce into my fish because I like it hot! I also added some onion and thyme for an extra kick of flavor.
While the fish was drying I used this time to cut my peppers, onions, and carrots to make the Escovitch sauce. Following this I brought 2/3 cup of vinegar to a boil in a saucepan then added in the peppers, carrots, onions, and pimento berries to simmer for about 2 minutes. I like my veggies crunchy!
To fry the fish I added vegetable oil to a frying pan (make sure it’s really hot before adding the fish) then fried the snapper for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Once the fish is done, it’s now time to pour your sauce all over the fish and serve!
Be sure to check out my Açai bowl recipe!
