World Cup Food Challenge - Escabeche, Chile.

To South America and the next country in Group B; Chile.

Chile have had a decent start to their world cup campaign, coming second in their group which can be considered a successful outing so far as they weren't the favourites to escape to the last 16 with the European powerhouses of football Spain (ha!) and Holland, taking up residence.

So what to cook...

Chilean cuisine has very strong Spanish influences and because of its location of the west side of South America has vast amount of seafood at it disposal. Scouring the internet I stumbled upon a recipe for escabeche, something I've wanted to but never had the opportunity to try.

Escabeche simply means 'pickled' and consists of fillets of fish, quickly fried or poached then soaked in a pickling liquor to marinade until serving.

So having decided to give Escabeche a go, I needed a recipe, enter River Cottage with this delicious recipe: Escabeche of mackerel. The recipe is also available in River Cottage Fish, which you really need to have in your collection.

I stuck to the recipe instructions with everything apart from the fish, I fancied rainbow trout and after trying it, it works fine.

The end result was delicious, lightly pickled fish, not to the extent of rollmops, and with a lovely spicing. You can almost feel yourself filling with virtue at the healthy deliciousness of it all. Give it a go.