Otherwise known as Brazilian fish stew, consisting of mostly slurpy, rich, fresh-tasting stuff. Oh, you wanted real ingredients? Fresh white fish couples with coconut milk, cilantro, garlic, bell peppers and (my addition) zucchini in this amazing stew. Yeah, there’s the zucchini again. I can’t seem to stop myself from adding zucchini to nearly every dish. It’s a disorder, I tell you!
But it works here, luckily. I got this recipe from one of the first cooking blogs I started reading, Simply Recipes. Great blog, great recipes. The author, Elise, posted this Moqueca recipe a while ago and I fell in love with it, despite despising (for real) onions and bell peppers at the time. I have since gotten over my fear of both. This is big, for those who know me. I actually took a bite of a RAW red bell pepper the other day and…. and…. found that it tasted…. it tasted… good. How weird.
Anyway! Great recipe, with a few changes to fit my need to shove a few more vegetables into every dish. Enjoy!
Moqueca
minimally adapted from Simply Recipes
serves 4
1 1/2 to 2 lbs of fillets of firm white fish such as halibut, swordfish, or cod (I’ve also used fresh tilapia with success), rinsed, bones removed if needed, cut into large portions
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped or sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, de-stemmed, chopped (or sliced)
2 small-medium zucchini, halved and sliced
2 cups chopped (or sliced) tomatoes
1/4 cup green onion greens (scallions), chopped
1 Tbsp Hungarian sweet paprika (I used regular because that’s all I had)
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 large bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
hot rice
In bowl, add fish and coat well with garlic and lime juice. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.
In large pan, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened. Then add bell pepper, zucchini, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until vegetables are soft (roughly 5-8 minutes). Add chopped tomatoes and onion greens. Simmer for 5 minutes then stir in chopped cilantro.
Remove half of vegetables to bowl, then spread remaining vegetables in pan to make a bed for fish. Place fish on top of vegetables, then add back previously removed vegetables to cover fish. Pour coconut milk over fish and bring to simmer. Reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes.
Serve atop hot rice and let the comforting flavors seep into your very being.
Perfect – we have cod in the freezer and I was going to make a (probably) boring traditional stew with potatoes and cream of celery soup. I don’t know if I can put a whole red pepper in there though…you came by that ‘dislike’ honestly.
I omitted it the first time but ended up using the entire thing the second time I made it. It’s delicious, hope you love it!
I made this for NYE and it was a huge success. Instead of one red pepper, I used a third each of a green, orange and red pepper chopped very small. The colours were great! I used a bit less lime juice, but it is a vital ingredient and I think lime works better than lemon. I used tilapia, which worked very well.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to try it with all the different color peppers next time.
I LOVE moqueca. I made it for a family of 8 during Thanksgiving weekend, and it was adored across the board.
I think this is the recipe I used, too. Nom nom nom!
I absolutely loved it the first time I made it, too!
This stew looks great! Definitely could use a bowl of this on a cold day like today!
Hey there,
I just finished making this and it came out delicious! I mixed cod and tilapia and it really was great, just so warming!
Thanks for sharing this
Thanks for coming back and commenting after you made it! I’m very happy to hear it was as delicious as I find it.
YUM!!! I made this with chicken and added a small amount of cilantro, it was delicioso! I invited a neighbore over and we watched, eat drink pray love, and it just fit! Thanks K!
M
Awesome!!! I’m so glad you loved it, Margaret! Movie, friends and moqueca. Sounds perfect!
Zucchini? Seriously? I do not think the purists would like it…
Yes, seriously.
I know it’s not precisely true to form but I cook what we love to eat.
BAM~!
[...] Moqueca – Morrocan Fish Stew (from Smokin’ Chestnut) [...]
I’ve made this twice, both times for company, and both times we were fighting over who got the last little bit. Even though my kids are not the pickiest eaters, I wasn’t sure how they would feel about this one but they gobbled it down. It is so delicious, and besides the coconut milk, quite healthy! I’m going to try making it with a combination of canned and fresh tomatoes. I’m really happy with this recipe. Great job!
Wow! Thank you very much! Just to let you know how far this incredible idea for a meal stretches, I am a Canadian living in Kingston, Jamaica where food is very expensive. I found a fish called Basa which originates from Vietnam (thanks Google) and it was absolutely perfect (and reasonably priced!). I was out of cilantro, and am able to grow fresh basil in my yard, so I substituted. This meal will be served for our many guests! (you can imagine how many Canadians want to visit Jamaica come Nov-March!)