Hake cheeks in salsa verde. Cocochas or hake cheeks are a delicacy in Basque cuisine. Technically not the cheek but the neck of the fish, the tender gelatinous discs are packed in a salsa verde made from hake broth, garlic, parsley and Arbequina olive oil. The hake is line-caught in the Bay of Biscay and carefully prepared at the Cantabrian cannery by a small team of experts.
Recipe tip: finely slice some new potatoes and fry in butter until golden. While the slices of potato are browning, you can quickly warm through the hake cheeks and salsa if you like. Plate the crispy potato rounds, top with the hake cheeks and drizzle with the salsa.
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. This preserves the delicate flavours and texture of the fish.
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, this line-caught hake from the Cantabrian Sea, premium sea bass farmed off the Canaries that is earmarked for Michelin starred restaurants and one cannery: Alalunga.
