Moqueca Capixaba de Peixe

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Black unglazed panela de barro from Goiabeiras, or a heavy 3 to 4 liter pot with lid
• •Wide spatula or large spoon for serving
• •Shallow dish for seasoning the fish

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the fish

   Pat the fish dry and lay the pieces in a shallow dish. Season with 1 teaspoon of the salt, the lime juice, and the garlic, turning the pieces gently so they are coated on all sides. Let them sit for 15 to 20 minutes while you cut the vegetables. The fish should smell clean and bright, not sharp with too much lime. Longer is not better here; too much acid tightens the fish before it reaches the pot.

2. 2

   Color the oil

   Warm the oil in a black panela de barro or a heavy 3 to 4 liter pot over medium-low heat. Add the urucum seeds and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until the oil turns orange-red and smells lightly earthy, then scoop the seeds out. If using colorau, stir it into the warm oil for 30 seconds. Urucum gives color through fat, so let it bloom in the oil instead of dumping it into the broth like a sad shortcut.

   Use colorau only if it is made from urucum. Read the label. A packet full of mystery seasoning is not this recipe being convenient; it's someone selling you imitation flavor.
3. 3

   Start the base

   Add half the onion to the stained oil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, just until it starts to murchar and turn glossy. You are not browning it. You are making a soft bed so the fish does not grab the bottom of the pot and so the sweetness of the onion begins the sauce.

4. 4

   Layer the pot

   Lay half the tomato slices over the onion, then scatter half the coentro and scallions. Set the fish pieces on top in one layer, scraping any garlic and juices from the dish over them. Cover with the remaining onion, tomatoes, coentro, scallions, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. These layers matter because the vegetables collapse into sauce around the fish while the fish stays whole.

5. 5

   Simmer, don't stir

   Cover the pot and cook over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tomatoes have released their juices, the sauce is glossy, and the fish flakes when nudged at the thickest part. Do not stir. If the pot looks dry after 8 minutes, add water or light fish broth 2 tablespoons at a time around the edge. Stirring breaks the fish; a gentle shake of the pot moves the sauce without turning dinner into flakes.

6. 6

   Rest and finish

   Turn off the heat and let the moqueca rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Finish with the extra-virgin olive oil and a little fresh coentro. The rest lets the fish settle and the caldo thicken slightly, so every spoonful tastes like one pot instead of separate vegetables floating around.

7. 7

   Serve the pot

   Serve straight from the pot with arroz branco soltinho, feijão if it is part of your table today, and something green. Spoon the broth over the rice. Save any leftover caldo for pirão by warming it and whisking in farinha de mandioca little by little until it turns creamy. Nothing here gets wasted, because comida de verdade keeps feeding you after the first plate.

Chef Tips

• •Choose firm white fish that comes in thick pieces: badejo, robalo, dourado, namorado, or another local firm fish. Thin fillets overcook fast and break if you look at them too sternly.
• •Tomatoes matter here. If they are pale and hard, wait until they are actually good, cheap, local, and not tired from travel. Want it anyway? Use the ripest ones you can find and don't blame the recipe for winter tomatoes behaving like furniture.
• •Moqueca capixaba takes urucum, not dendê. Bahian moqueca with dendê and coconut milk is its own beautiful pot, and I won't fake a fight to crown a winner. Today we are cooking Espírito Santo.
• •No bell pepper in this version. If your hand reaches for one out of habit, pause. The clean tomato, onion, coentro, lime, garlic, and urucum flavor is the point.
• •The honest shortcut is colorau made from urucum instead of staining oil with seeds. The cost is a little less fragrance. The bad shortcut is a seafood seasoning packet, because salt and powder don't know your fish.
• •For pirão, use leftover broth while it is warm and add farinha de mandioca slowly, stirring the whole time. It thickens suddenly. Stop when it is creamy and spoonable, not stiff enough to repair a wall.
• •Muma de siri, a nearly forgotten Capixaba crab dish, deserves its own place back on the table. I am naming it here because traditions stay alive when a gente cooks them, not when we turn them into museum labels.

Advance Preparation

• •Cut the vegetables up to 6 hours ahead and refrigerate them covered. Keep the tomatoes separate so they do not water everything down before cooking.
• •Season the fish only 15 to 20 minutes before cooking. Lime is useful, but if it sits too long it starts firming the fish like ceviche, and that is not what a gente is making.
• •Cook rice before the moqueca goes on the heat, or start it as soon as the fish is layered. The moqueca cooks quickly and should not wait around while rice catches up.
• •Leftover moqueca keeps 1 day in the fridge. Rewarm gently over low heat without stirring hard, or use the broth for pirão and eat the fish cold over rice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)