Fish Stew - Moqueca de Peixe (receita em inglês, da minha aula)

Brazilian Fish Stew
(Moqueca de Peixe)

Serves 6

First Part

• 1 ½ lb sea bass, grouper or cod, cut into 6 pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Salt to taste
• Juice of one lemon
• Leaves of ½ bunch of cilantro, coarsely chopped

Rinse the fish in fresh water and dry it. Press the garlic and add the salt and lemon. Rub this mixture on both sides of the fish. Spread the cilantro on top of the fish.

Prepare this part ahead of time to let the fish marinate for at least 4 to 5 hours. If you have time, do it the day before. In Portuguese you would say that you are letting the fish ‘moquecar’, which is the translation for ‘marinate’. Before using the fish to assemble the dish, scrape out the big chunks of garlic, which otherwise would give a strong flavor of raw garlic to the moqueca

Second Part

• 2 table spoons of annatto oil or what is enough to cover the bottom of a French Oven or buffet casserole. Prepare annatto oil by simmering ¼ cup annatto seeds in ½ cup of good quality olive oil for ten minutes. Don’t let the oil boil! Strain and save
• 18 slices of medium sized tomato or slices of 6 roma tomatoes. Peel and seed the tomatoes before slicing them
• 18 thin slices of yellow or red onion
• 18 thin slices of red or yellow bell pepper. Seed and core the pepper before cutting the thin slices
• Salt to taste
• ½ can of coconut milk
• ½ bunch of cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

Sauté the onions in the annatto oil until translucent, but not too soft. Add the tomato slices and cook until it loosens some of their extra moist if the tomatoes are too watery. If it’s meatier and they don’t have too much water, quickly sauté them. Salt to taste. Set it aside.

Arrange the remainder of the ingredients in layers following this order:

Olive oil to cover the bottom of a French Oven; marinated fish; slices of pepper decoratively distributed over the fish pieces; mixture of onions, tomatoes and annatto oil.

If you are multiplying this recipe, make a new layer on top of the first one. Don’t do more than two recipes in a pan. If you are making Moqueca for more than 12 people, start another recipe/s in another pan.

Cover the pan and let it ‘moquecar’ for some hours. You can let it marinating in the fridge for up to a day.

When it’s time to cook, put the pan on high heat until it starts to boil. Immediately lower the heat and let it cook for 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk on top of everything and cook for another 10 minutes. Use the cilantro to garnish.

(Angela Riberi and Elisa Lobo Neese version of the Moqueca de Peixe, Capixaba style. Capixaba refers to whoever is from the state of Espírito Santo, in Brasil)

This is the link to the video class showing how to make this dish, rice and farofa: