Moqueca de Peixe (Afro-Brasilian Fish Stew)
A flavorful, colorful fish stew made from a base of coconut milk and palm oil.
Scale
Ingredients
- 1 lb. white firm fish (I prefer swordfish)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1–2 habanero pepper, de-seeded
- 1 red chile pepper, de-seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup of cilantro, rough chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1” ginger
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 8 garlic cloves
- 1 lime, halved
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- ⅔ tsp of smoked paprika powder
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup palm oil
- 2 – 13.25oz coconut milk
- Salt to taste
- 1 handful of shredded kale (optional)
Instructions
- Clean fish with 1 lime and chop into bite size pieces and set aside.
- Make fish stock by mixing 1 tsp of fish sauce with ¼ cup water and set aside. (If you have fish stock already prepared, you may use ¼ cup of that instead.)
- Mix ¼ cup of cilantro with sliced red chile pepper and shallot and set aside. This will be your garnish.
- Grate 1″ piece of ginger with 8 garlic cloves using a microplane or the fine edge of your grater. If you don’t have either, you may blend them or chop them in a food processor as well. You may have to add a little water to make a paste in blender. Don’t worry about that, the water won’t affect the strength nor taste.
- Blend 2 tomatoes with seedless habanero(s).
- Add palm oil to dutch pot and heat on medium flame.
- Once heated, add ginger-garlic and paprika paste to oil and “fry” until fragrant.
- Once fragrant, add ONLY ½ of the onions and peppers and “fry” until fragrant again.
- Once fragrant, add tomato-habanero blend and “fry” the tomato mixture in hot oil for about 1 minute.
- This step allows all of the flavors to seal and set the tone for the stew.
- Reduce heat to low.
- Lay fish pieces on top of tomato mixture.
- Next lay the OTHER ½ of onions and peppers, followed by kale and more cilantro if you like.
- Pour fish stock, coconut milk and lime juice over veggies and fish.
- Cover the dutch pot and cook until fish is done.
- It doesn’t take long for the fish to cook (about 7-10 minutes).
- Don’t worry about mixing the pot neither, there will be plenty of time to do that once the dish is finished.
- Serve by itself with garnish of (shallots, chiles and cilantro) or over rice or with boiled green banana or cassava.