Fish Stews can be so boring…but not a BRAZILIAN Fish Stew!! With a fragrant tomato coconut sauce with a fresh hit of lime, this is such a different exotic way to serve up fish that is off the charts delicious – yet simple to make.
Brazilian Fish Stew
When I think of Brazilian food, I immediately have visions of grilled meat. Specifically, Churrasco. Serious quantities of grilled meat on giant skewers with the waiters walking from table to table, slicing the meat straight from the skewer onto my plate.
Carnivore heaven. 🙂
Because of the strong association of Brazilian food with Churrasco (and also because I don’t have a giant grill with a rotisserie) I thought sharing this traditional Brazilian fish stew would be nice for something a bit different!
The sauce of Brazilian Fish Stew is essentially a coconut curry sauce. Lightly spiced with a hit of lime, great depth of flavour!
What Brazilian Fish Stew tastes like
It tastes like a mild version of Thai Red Curry – and requires a whole lot less ingredients to make! The flavour of the sauce isn’t as kapow in-your-face, it is slightly more refreshing and not quite as rich.
While the flavour isn’t as intense, it doesn’t mean that it’s not as tasty! You will be amazing at the flavour you get from the relatively short list of ingredients. The key to this recipe is searing the fish first, and letting the sauce simmer down.
What you need
Here’s what you need to make Brazilian Fish Stew. See? I promised they were all “normal” ingredients!!!
Virtually any fish fillets will work here, though I’d avoid fish that dries out easily such as swordfish, kingfish, bonito and tuna. I’ve used snapper below. Other popular fish that will work well here include: tilapia, salmon, cod, basa, catfish, barramundi, bream, ling, John dory / Silver dory. See the recipes notes for more suggestions.
(Tip: These fish selection guidelines are good for any recipes where fish are braised or poached like this, such as Chinese Rice Soup and Goan Fish Curry.)
I remember the first time I saw this Brazilian Fish Stew recipe, I was a bit dubious that the sauce would have sufficient flavour with so few ingredients for the sauce. It gets a helping hand by searing the fish in the pan first. The golden bits left in the pan (it’s called fond) after searing the fish adds a good hit of savoury flavour into the sauce.
How to make Brazilian Fish Stew
And here’s how to make it. It takes around 1 hour all up including a brief marinating time for the fish, and simmering time to reduce the sauce.
What to serve with Fish Stew
Serve this over rice or mashed potato so you have something to soak up that glorious sauce. If you want to up the ante, try it with this Lime Rice – and a crusty hunk of bread to mop your plate clean wouldn’t go astray either (try this quick no-yeast Irish Bread).
If you’re going low carb, serve it over Cauliflower Rice or Creamy Mashed Cauliflower.
For a side salad, this Cucumber Salad with Herb & Garlic Dressing would go really well. The fresh, juicy, crunchy cucumber goes really well with this creamy coconut sauce. Otherwise, serve it alongside a leafy green salad with a vinaigrette (rather than creamy dressing) such as French Dressing, Italian or Balsamic Dressing.
Enjoy! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Brazilian Fish Stew (Moqueca Baiana)
Ingredients
Fish
- 1 lb / 500g firm white fish fillet , no skin, cut into 1″/2.5cm cubes (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Broth
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil (Note 4)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 small onion , finely diced (brown, yellow or white)
- 1 red capsicum / bell pepper (large), halved and sliced
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar (any)
- 1 tbsp cumin powder
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 14 oz / 400ml coconut milk (full fat best, Note 2)
- 14 oz / 400ml canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup fish broth/stock (or chicken or vegetable, Note 3)
Finishes
- 1 – 2 tbsp lime juice , plus more for serving
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped fresh cilantro / coriander , plus more for serving
Instructions
Fish
- Combine the fish, lime juice, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Heat the 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the fish and cook until just cooked through and light golden brown. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
Broth
- Reduce the stove to medium high and heat 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil in the same skillet. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until the onion is starting to become translucent.
- Add the bell peppers and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining Broth ingredients. Bring to simmer, then turn down to medium. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until it thickens. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Return the fish to the broth to reheat – about 2 minutes.
- Stir through lime juice.
- Garnish with cilantro/coriander and serve with rice or Lime Rice. For a low carb option, try Cauliflower Rice!
Recipe Notes:
a) Feast Magazine – Fish soup (moqueca baiana)
b) Brazilian Foodie – Moqueca Baiana
c) Saveur – Brazilian Fish Stew
d) Simply Recipes – Moqueca – Brazilian Fish Stew 6. Nutrition per serving assuming 4 servings, excludes rice.
Nutrition Information:
Originally published September 2015. Updated with new photos, brand new video and of course, a Life of Dozer section added!!
Less meat, more fish!
Life of Dozer
The one place in the new house he’s not allowed – the SPA. Can you imagine how much of his hair would come out with jets blasting on him?? Major filter clogging!!!
Hi
Can you freeze this? I live alone and its difficult to make single portions because I then waste a lot of ingredients.
Sure can Stuart!! N x
Cooke this for dinner tonight i used monk fish it was delicious and I will be interested to see how the flavours develop overnight.
Thanks Nagi💕
This looks delicious, but, unfortunately, my husband really dislikes cumin. Do you have a recommendation for a substitute, or would you just omit it? Thanks for the great recipes!
Hi Jessica, it’s not overpowering in this recipe but you can omit if you prefer! N x
This was my first attempt at a fish stew and it was delicious, and so easy to make. Highly recommended.
A delicious dish and so easy to make. Thank you Nagi for another great recipe!
We made this in school today – I work in a special school. It was simple enough for our students to make and absolutely delicious! Everyone loved it, including people with very conservative tastes. It was cheap to buy the ingredients and I used one bag of frozen pollock as the fish which was a perfectly suitable fish. I will definitely be making it at home and I’ll check out your other recipes too!
Oh that’s awesome Fran, I love hearing this!!! N x
Beautiful dish , luckily had everything on hand. Thank you !
Have made this twice for dinner parties both accompanied by lime rice. Guests have raved about it! Used fresh trevally first time and snapper next- both fantastic. Feels good to introduce a new cuisine to friends. An easy exotic, delicious, little known recipe. Thanks again Nagi
This was fantastic! I left out the sugar as I am doing a Whole 30 and added some sliced plantains because I had them on hand. I went back for seconds and almost went back for thirds! The flavor was delicious!
Made this today, using grouper fillets and home made fish stock. Absolutely incredible topped on steaming hot rice. Wish my fish was bigger because we finished it so fast, but the gravy on its own was so flavorful we mopped it up with crusty bread. I simmered this for only 15 minutes this time, gonna try 20 next time to see the difference. Thank you so much for this!
Made this last night. Used defrosted Red Barsch and about 6 large shrimps. The Barsch fell apart slightly in the end but still had mostly nice large pieces. Used vegetable stock with a teaspoon of fish oil. Served with some large homemade breadcrumbs in the bottom of the bowl. We loved it. Thanks for another great recipe!
Another hit!
Delicate blend of flavours you could pimp up or down as required for tastes. The cucumber salad was a brilliant side – thanks Nagi!
This is a great recipe! It is packed with flavor and is adaptable to the fish or seafood you have. My question would be regarding paprika. We have several kinds. What do you prefer Nagi?
FABULOUS!!! MyThis is my number 1 all time favorite fish stew. Thought the whole tablespoons worth of cumin and paprika would be too much but glad I followed the recipe.bit was superb.
I had 2lbs of salmon filet and I didn’t want to eat it baked as usual. I had everything in my pantry to make this except the coconut milk. I subbed the coconut milk for evaporated milk and I double the ingredients. Word of advice, don’t use a spatula to turn the salmon, use tongs instead. The spatula broke the salmon pieces but I don’t mind. Overall tastes great but I accidentally added it too much cumin and ended up with a curry instead of a stew 😂
Substituted tofu for fish, but otherwise followed the exact recipe. My wife and I loved it! We will make this often. We are looking forward to trying out some of your other recipes.
Just made as read on previous comments ok to freeze…. if it wasn’t for my mum i’d devour it now! Smells, looks and tastes amazing – used cod, naturally smkd haddock ( accident thinking it was cod!) then added prawns and chickpeas thanks Naga anuver winner x
This looks great can i make and freeze?? I know my mum would love this so i’d love to cook, freeze and deliver as a lock down love present
Hi Justine, yes you can, reheat gently to prevent the coconut milk from splitting. N x
Made this last weekend with rock ling and prawns served with plain rice cooked in pressure cooker, so yummy! I’ve tried a couple of moquecas in Brazil a few years ago and although I don’t remember the flavour much, I do remember it was such a delicious dish. Well, this recipe is also very delicious, easy to make and will definitely be made again.
This dish was awesome! Simple with the perfect seasonings. I ended up adding a bit more salt at the end when I was eating, which made it more enjoyable for me, along with a little bit of fresh thai pepper. Overall, a very wonderful recipe, thank you!