Caldero del Mar Menor "Fish and Seafood Rice Stew"
Caldero del Mar Menor is a wonderful regional fish and seafood rice dish from Southeastern Spain. Originating in a small fishing town called Cabo de Palos near Cartegena, this dish relies on a concentrated fish stock to gives its flavor. This small town is bordered by the warm inland sea called the Mar Menor (little sea) on one side and the cooler Mediterranean Sea on the other side. Fisherman used to make this dish in order to use up some of the lower quality fish from their catch. They would typically not eat the fish, but instead use it to create the stock to flavor this wonderful dish. Normally, this dish consists only of the rice with perhaps some of the fish from the stock on the side. I make mine a little differently and actually have a little monk fish and shrimp in the dish with the rice, it makes it a little more luxurious. It is also commonly served with alioli, a garlic flavored mayonnaise sauce. In its most traditional sense, this dish relies on ņoras, a small dried Spanish pepper which is the source of paprika. Being outside of Spain, I could not find these so I used paprika. It gave the taste, but not the darker red color from the ņoras. I really suggest you try this dish and pair it with a
nice crisp Spanish white wine
. Enjoy!
Serves: 4-6 Preparation time about 1 hour 15 minutes INGREDIENTS for the caldero: about 1 lb round Mediterranean rice (like Calaspara Bomba) 1 lb monkfish 15-20 raw shrimp, peeled about 1-2 lbs of variety of whole fresh fish like seabream, sea bass, red mullet, etc, cheaper fish is fine 2 ņoras or 2 ts sweet paprika 1/4 white wine 6 cloves garlic 1 onion chopped 2 tomatoes, peeled, finely chopped 3-4 stems of fresh-leaf parsley 5 TB olive oil for the alioli: 1 egg yolk 1 ts lemon juice 1 ts dijon mustard 2 TB olive oil 5 TB extra virgin olive oil DIRECTIONS We begin by making the stock. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large stock pot. If you were able to find the ņoras, add them to the hot oil and cook for few minutes and then remove them (reserve them). Now add the fish heads to the hot oil and cook until they are brown. Remove the heads. Place the garlic (and cooked ņoras if you have them), in a pistol and mortar and grind them into a paste. Add the onion and garlic to the hot oil and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the white wine and 140 oz. (18 cups) water to the pot. Add the parsley and bring to a boil. Roughly cut the fish into pieces and add to the stock. Cook the stock for 10-12 minutes or until the fish is done. Remove the fish (I reserve the monk fish, and discard the rest). Strain off the large chunks and make sure the bones are removed from the stock. Now add the rice and cook for about 20 minutes or until the rice is done. About 10 minutes before the rice is done, add the shrimp and reserved monk fish. Caldero is supposed to be a little soupy, so add a little more water if it gets too thick. Serve the caldero with a lemon wedge and the fresh alioli sauce. For the alioli sauce:  Return from Caldero del Mar Menor Recipe to Home
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