Hake cheeks in olive oil

Hake cheeks in olive oil - a cherished delicacy in Basque cuisine.

Alalunga suggests plating the hake cheeks or topping some pasta with them, and then hand whisking the olive oil, which is infused with gelatine from the hake cheeks, into an emulsion - you can do this in the tin or in a small bowl. This creates a delicious sauce to drizzle over the cocochas. Finish with some chopped parsley.

The hake is line-caught in Galicia and carefully prepared at the Cantabrian cannery by a very small team. Technically not the cheek but the neck of the fish, the tender gelatinous discs are packed in olive oil and Arbequina extra virgin olive oil.

The Arbequina is from Navarra in northern Spain, a milder flavoured extra virgin olive oil than others, chosen as an ingredient so that the delicate flavour of the hake cheeks can shine. 

About the cannery:

Alalunga is a cannery in Cantabria, founded by brothers Alvaro and Pablo Huidobro in 2017. The name is part of the albacore tuna's scientific name: Thunnus Alalunga. The brothers hail from a family of foodies and their knack for cooking, they say, is instinctive, honed on the many family trips to Cantabrian restaurants they took as children, and their grandmother's cooking.

The quality of the Alalunga range is down to a number of factors. Here are three:

Cooking methods that are novel in the canning industry. The brothers use the sous vide technique where fragile white fish like hake and sea bass are sealed inside a vacuum pack and cooked in a water bath at a carefully regulated temperature so as to preserve their delicate flavours and texture. 

Precisely timed recipes. The pair down kitchen tools just before the cooking is complete, and let the steam ovens where the sterilisation process occurs, finish the work and bring the recipes to fruition. 

And most importantly, the highest grade raw materials available are used - seasonally caught cuttlefish, line caught Galician hake, premium sea bass farmed off the Canaries, earmarked for the finest restaurants, including Michelin starred ones, and one cannery: Alalunga.