World Cup Fiesta: Brazilian Fish Stew, Moqueca

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Are you a World Cup fan? Or are your family or friends World Cup enthusiasts? There's nothing better than enjoying delicious food when family and friends gather together to watch matches. The recipe I'm going to introduce may not be a very simple one, but it is worth it when you see the smiles on those you love, eating what you have prepared for them with love.

Moqueca (Brazilian Fish Stew)

By Cin Chau Lai

This Brazilian fish stew is usually served with farofa or white rice. I have also tried putting vermicelli into the soup and it was great.

My Shrimp and Scallop Moqueca Vermicelli

Prep time: 1 hour 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 hour 45 min
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients: 
Firm white fleshedfish (chopped): 600g 
Shrimp: 360g 
Onion (diced): 1 
Ginger (finely sliced): 2 small pieces 
Garlic (minced): 3 cloves 
Olive oil: 4 tablespoons 
Cilantro (chopped): 2 tablespoons 
Lemon juice: 2 tablespoons 
Salt: 1 teaspoon 
Tomatoes: 2 (1 diced, 1 sliced) 
Green bell pepper (diced): 1 
Clam juice: 250ml 
Coconut milk: 250ml

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix fish, half of the onion, half of the ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tomato (diced), 2 tablespoon of olive oil (or palm oil if you prefer a Brazilian taste), chopped cilantro, lemon juice and salt.

2. Cover the bowl of mixture with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to marinate.

3. Peel and devein shrimp. Stir-fry shells over high heat until dry, then set aside. Steep the peeled and deveined shrimp in brine, which is 1 litre water, 60ml salt, 60ml  sugar and 45ml lemon juice. After 15 minutes, remove shrimps from brine. Rinse briefly and dry them. [This is Bewitching Kichen's idea to put the shrimp in brine, and it does really plump the shrimps and improves their texture!]

4. With 2 tablespoons of olive oil, stir-fry the rest of onion, ginger and garlic over medium heat until the onion is translucent.

5. Add green bell pepper, tomato (sliced) and shrimp shells. Stir-fry over medium heat for 5 minutes.

6. Add clam juice and coconut milk and let it come to a boil over medium heat.

7. Add fish and the marinade. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until it boils again.

8. Add shrimps. Cook for another 5 minutes. 

My illustrated recipe in Chinese: http://seeddauding.blogspot.com/2014/07/moqueca.html

Notes:

1) Even though it is traditionally  a fish stew, you can play with the recipe and have different kinds of seafood. Remember I made a Shrimp and Baby Scallop Moqueca Vermicelli (the second picture on this page)?

2) If you want to have more vegetables, you may try asparagus. Just add peeled and chopped asparagus (about 8-10 spears) into the soup in the last 2 minutes. Or you may look for palm heart for a more Brazilian flavour.

3) It is my very own idea to put shrimp shells in the stew, as they contribute substantially to the delicious aroma and sweetness of the stew. The shrimp shells are soft and edible after the long time of cooking. But if you do not want them in your stew, make a shrimp-shell stock instead. Dumping unused shrimp shells would be a waste and a loss.

4) The coconut milk should be unsweetened.


References:
http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2009/07/12/shrimp-moqueca/
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Brazil-Fish-Stew
http://leitesculinaria.com/32717/recipes-brazilian-fish-stew.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/moqueca-brazil-recipe.html
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/33421/moqueca+brazilian+fish+stew
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moqueca___brazilian_fish_stew/


Do you like this recipe? I would love to hear from you.