Kabkabou
Fish braised with preserved lemon, olives, tomato and saffron, from the coast. The sauce is finished around the fish so nothing overcooks.
Photograph credit: Kabkabou by Emna Mizouni · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Making Kabkabou Ahead
Refrigerated for 2 days. Reheat very gently. Do not freeze.
Kabkabou: The Method
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Season the fish with the 1 tsp salt and set aside.
-
Soften the onions in the oil 10 minutes, then add the garlic and cook 2 minutes.
-
Stir in the tomato purée and harissa and fry 2 minutes until the oil runs red.
-
Add the tomatoes, saffron, ground coriander, salt and water and simmer 20 minutes, until reduced and glossy.
-
Stir in the preserved lemon rind and the olives and cook 3 minutes.
-
Lay the fish steaks into the sauce in a single layer and spoon sauce over them.
-
Cover and cook 8 minutes only, until the fish just flakes. Off the heat, add the parsley and lemon juice and serve.
Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.
Worth Knowing
- Reduce the sauce before the fish goes in.
- Preserved lemon rind only — discard the flesh and rinse it.
- Eight minutes for the fish. It carries on cooking off the heat.
Why the Method Is What It Is
The sauce is built and reduced first, and the fish goes in for the last eight minutes only. Fish simmered from the beginning of a thirty-minute reduction disintegrates into shreds — this way it poaches gently in an already-finished sauce and arrives in whole pieces. Preserved lemon is used skin only: the flesh is mushy and aggressively salty, and rinsing the rind before slicing brings it back to something you can use generously.
Good Alongside
Plain couscous · Khobz tabouna · Slata tounsia
Common Substitutions & Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Kabkabou Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .