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    Fish Veracruz style (pescado a la veracruzana)

    pescado a la veracruzana / huachinango a la veracruzana

    Pieces of red snapper or sea bass cooked under a sauce of roasted tomato, ancho chile and spices, studded with olives, capers and pickled jalapeños. This is the 1952 recipe of Josefina Velázquez de León, Mexico's prolific cookbook author, as transcribed by UTSA Special Collections.

    Three pieces of fish in brick-red Veracruz-style sauce with chopped olives, capers and pickled jalapeno strips.
    Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.
    Servings
    6
    Preparation
    30 min
    Cooking
    20 min
    Total
    50 min
    Difficulty
    Moderate

    Equipment

    • Dry frying pan for the chiles; grill or comal for the tomatoes
    • Blender
    • Wide casserole (cazuela) with a lid
    Servings6

    Ingredients

    • The fish

    • The sauce

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Toast the ancho chiles in a dry pan, remove the seeds and veins, and soak them in hot water for 10 minutes.

      Timer · 10 min10:00

    2. Roast the tomatoes until blistered with black spots. Blend them with the onions, garlic, parsley leaves, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and the soaked chiles until smooth.

    3. Stir in the chopped olives, capers, jalapeño strips, sherry, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

    4. Oil a wide casserole, lay in the pieces of fish and pour the sauce over them. Cover and cook over a high heat for 20 minutes, shaking the pan often so that nothing sticks.

      Why Velázquez de León shakes the pan rather than stirring, so the fish stays in pieces.

      Timer · 20 min20:00

    5. Serve very hot.

    To drink & serve with

    Substitutions

    • Red snapper or sea bass → Any firm white fish, such as cod or pollock (UTSA).
    • Sherry → Water, as the UTSA translation allows.

    Common mistakes

    • Stirring the fish: it breaks up. Shake the pan.
    • Skipping the roasting of the tomatoes: the sauce tastes raw and thin.

    Storage & reheating

    Refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days; reheat gently until steaming hot.

    Safety

    Contains fish and sulphites (sherry, vinegar, pickles, olives may contain them). Cook until the fish is opaque and flakes easily (63 °C, US FDA).

    Allergens

    Fish · Sulphites

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Dietary

    gluten-free · dairy-free

    Veracruz's best-known fish dish

    Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, was Hernán Cortés's landing place and long Mexico's most important port, tied to Spain and the Caribbean. UTSA Special Collections quotes Zarela Martínez calling huachinango a la veracruzana "Veracruz's most celebrated contribution to world cuisine" and Diana Kennedy calling it "the best known and favorite Mexican fish dish". Olives, capers and pickled chiles give it its Mediterranean-meets-Mexico character.

    This version comes from Cocina Mexicana de Abolengo (1952) by Josefina Velázquez de León, who published more than 140 cookbooks between 1930 and 1960 and ran a cooking school in Mexico City. Her sauce is unusual for today's readers: the roasted tomatoes are blended with ancho chiles, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns, a reminder that the dish has always varied.

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    How it connects

    Place

    • origin Veracruz In preparation

    Recipe

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