Cim y tomba de raya, un plato marinero y económico para chuparse los dedos. / Cocina catalana

Cim i tomba is an excellent seafood dish—delicious, easy to make, and economical. It has deep maritime roots in Tossa de Mar. This dish was traditionally prepared aboard trawlers and small fishing boats when fishermen had to spend long hours at sea. It's one of the boat dishes most closely associated with the fishermen of Tossa and the local traditional cuisine. INGREDIENTS 800 g of skate. At the fishmonger's, they sell it cleaned and ready to cook. 3 Kennebec or Monalisa potatoes 3 Figueres onions 2 garlic cloves 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika Fortified wine Flour Extra virgin olive oil Salt To make the fish stock: 1 leek 1 carrot 2 or 3 garlic cloves Rockfish or a monkfish head Extra virgin olive oil PREPARATION AND COOKING Prepare the fish stock: Chop the leek and carrot into pieces. In a cold pot, add a drizzle of oil, the fish for the stock, the leek, the carrot, and the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves. Turn on the heat and let it cook until the fish starts to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add 1.5 liters of water and boil for 25 minutes over high heat. Turn off the heat and let it rest for at least half an hour. Strain and set aside. The skate is sold cleaned and cut at the fishmonger's. Slice the onion into julienne strips. Crush two unpeeled garlic cloves and set aside. Dream the skate in flour and sear it in a casserole dish with olive oil. It doesn't need to be cooked through. If the flour sticks a little to the bottom of the casserole dish, even better. Once seared, remove it and set aside. In the same casserole dish, sauté the onion and garlic over low heat. This will take approximately an hour. We want the onion to be very golden brown. Once cooked, remove the sautéed garlic cloves and set them aside. Peel the potatoes, roughly chop them, and set them aside. Heat the fish stock. Add the sweet and hot paprika, along with one of the garlic cloves, to the sautéed vegetables. Mix it in and quickly add a splash of aged wine to prevent the paprika from burning. Add the potatoes to the pot and stir to combine them with the sautéed vegetables. Add about 800 ml of hot fish stock. Let it simmer for 15 minutes. It should be quite soupy. Add the reserved skate and cook for about 7 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pieces. Prepare the aioli. You can use the reserved garlic clove from the sautéed vegetables or a raw garlic clove. If you use raw garlic, the flavor will be more intense. In a mortar, crush the garlic with a pinch of salt, add oil, mix with the pestle, and set aside. Finally, we add the aioli to the suquet and shake the casserole dish to emulsify the sauce. This "cim i tomba" motion is what gives the dish its name. You can find all the recipes on our cooking blog www.kilometre0.cat. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook as @kilometre0.cat. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Enjoy! Júlia and Montse