Red Mullet Savóro
November 2019, Pallouriotissa. I find myself once again at Mrs. Tasoula Demetriou's home. She's preparing red mullet in a rich sauce, I'm setting the table, and her husband Dinos watches us, smiling. After setting the table, I pick fresh purslane from her yard to make a salad. When everything is ready, we sit down, and I'm the first to taste the savóro red mullet she prepared. “The flavor is simply divine,” I tell her, and she begins to recount stories that transport us to her childhood home and her mother's kitchen. Her mother, she says, used to make savóro to preserve the fish, as there were no refrigerators back then. And that's how, out of such a need, this special recipe came about...
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 30 min
- Serves 4
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INGREDIENTS
- 1 kg cleaned red mullet
- 1 lemon
- 1 ½ teaspoon (12g) salt
- A pinch of freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup (150g) flour (any kind you have at home)
- 2 cups (460g) sunflower oil
For the sauce
- ⅓ cup (85ml) oil from frying the fish
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 - 3 sprigs lasmari (rosemary)
- 1 ½ tablespoon (30g) flour
- ½ cup (125ml) red vinegar
- 1 cup (125ml) water
METHOD
- Rinse the fish well. Pat them dry with kitchen paper and sprinkle them with lemon juice. Season them with 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper. Heat the sunflower oil well in a frying pan. Flour the red mullet and fry them over high heat for 2 - 3 minutes on each side, depending on their size. Remove them and place them on absorbent kitchen paper to drain well. Take ⅓ cup of oil from the pan where you fried the fish. Clean the pan and add the oil.
- Once hot, sauté the garlic and lasmari for a few seconds. Add the flour and stir to toast it well, for about 3 minutes. Pour in the vinegar. Stir, add the water, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt. Continue stirring for 1 - 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Pour the sauce onto a serving platter and arrange the fish on top.
