Summary

Preparation time (duration): 25 minutes
Cooking time (duration): 20 minutes
Number of servings: 4
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery cost: $12. 99 total ($ 3.25 per person)

Food Rating:  

Ingredients

• 1 kg of fish (I used haddock)  ~ $6.99
• 8 tiger shrimps, peeled and devined ~ $1.00
• Juice of 1 lemon ~ $0.50
• Salt
• 4 Pimenta Malegueta (hot red chilis) finely chopped
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped ~ $0.10
• 1 bunch of Cilantro, finely chopped – $0.10
• 6 Italian canned plum tomatoes, finely chopped ~ $1.99
• 1 red onion, finely chopped ~ $ 0.12 ($1.52 / kg)
• 1 red pepper, finely chopped ~ $0.50
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 can (400 mL) of coconut milk ~$1.19
• Dende oil (palm oil)
• Basmati rice ~ $0.50

Instructions

1.Make the basmati rice in a rice cooker.
2.Finely chop the cilantro, parsley, spring onions, tomatoes and chillis. Set aside.

3.Chop garlic, add salt, and continue chopping, until a paste forms (use a mortar and pestle if that’s easier). Add ginger and herbs to this.
4.Prepare fillets on a separate plastic chopping board to avoid cross-contamination.
5.Heat a large pot, over a low/medium flame.
6.Add mixed herbs, chillis, garlic and tomatoes.

7.As soon as you start to smell the perfume from the herbs filling the kitchen, add a splash of olive oil.
8.Clean fish, descale and rinse thoroughly. Pat dry with a paper towel. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the fish, season with salt, and carefully place over the herbs.
9.Add coconut milk, and dende oil.
10.Pop on the lid, and leave until cooked.

11.When the flesh starts to leave the bone you know it’s ready. About 15-20 minutes.
12.Serve with basmati rice.

Quick Notes

I used sesame oil instead of dende oil – not a good idea! If you need to substitute, try a milder-tasting oil, such as peanut oil. To compensate for the sesame oil taste, I added an extra tomato and 2 chili peppers to the broth half way.

Variations

This stew can be used with other types of white fish (i.e. mahi mahi, grouper, etc) and shrimp.

Result

The result was a mild, slightly spicy stew. My friends that ate with me said it reminded them of a Thai curry. The dominant taste was coconut milk. Overall, I thought this was a simple stew where I could make with most of the ingredients on hand already. The only thing we needed to shop for was haddock and cilantro. We looked for dende oil, but we couldn’t find it in our local market, with is the reason for the sesame oil substitution. I think I would make this again! Especially when looking at the grocery cost of about $3.25 a person, with most of the ingredients ones we already had on hand, this is a tasty and cheap meal!