Moqueca de Peixe

Moqueca is a Brazilian fish stew originating in the North East region of Brazil, in paricular Bahia, but is popular throughout the whole country. Served with white rice and tabasco sauce this is a really colourful, flavoursome dish that is bound to impress.

White fish varieties such as snapper, cod, sole, haddock or flounder work best for this dish. I used haddock for my first attempt and have to say it worked very well. I also added atlantic prawns although this is by no means necessary. In Brazil it is very common to use a fish called cação, a type of small shark.

Preparation time:
20 minutes + 20 minutes marinating time

Cooking time:
25 to 30 minutes

Serves:
4-6

Ingredients:
500g of white fish fillets (skinless if possible)
200g of atlantic prawns (cooked)
white rice
1 lime
1 garlic segment
1 onion
3 tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
250ml coconut milk
coriander
salt & black pepper
2 tbsp dende oil (or olive oil, I used olive oil this time)
tsp tempero Baiano (Bahian spices, if you can source it! Otherwise, cayanne pepper is fine or one hot red pepper finely chopped)

Method:
First prepare the fish. Cut the lime and squeeze the juice over the fish. Chop the garlic and place on top. Season with salt and black pepper. Leave to marinate.

Chop the onion and the tomatoes into round slices. Deseed the peppers and chop into either rings or strips. Roughly chop the coriander.

Rinse the rice well and put on to cook.

In a large casserole pot on a low heat on the hob, add most of the oil and place the fish on the bottom. Add the shrimps as a layer on top, followed by a layer with the onion, then tomatoes and finally the peppers on top. Add the rest of the oil.

Add the coriander and tempero baiano (or cayenne pepper etc) and leave it to cook on the low heat. The juices will flow from the fish and vegetables, leave boiling gently for five minutes then add the coconut milk.

Gently mix the sauce around without damaging the layers. Simmer for 5 more minutes and serve immediately with the rice, adding tabasco sauce for extra fire!