Hake in salsa verde

Hake in home made salsa verde. 

Alalunga recommend warming the hake in salsa verde under the tap before opening, and topping a plate of broad or butter beans with it.

The meaty hake fillets are accompanied by a salsa verde thickened with a fumet or fish stock made from the parts of the hake not used in the tin, and flavoured with garlic, onion and parsley. The hake is line caught in Galicia and the sauce was developed by the cannery founders and inspired by a recipe traditionally made by fishermen.

About the cannery:

Alalunga is based in Cantabria and was 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.