Moqueca Baiana

Method

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1. Marinate the fish with the lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper for 30 minutes. No longer, or the acid starts to cook it.

   Mark done Start 30 min timer

2. Pour the olive oil into a wide clay pot or heavy casserole.

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3. Layer half the onion rings across the base, then half the peppers, then half the tomato slices.

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4. Scatter over half the coriander and spring onion.

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5. Lay the fish on top in a single layer, with any marinade.

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6. Cover with the remaining onion, peppers, tomato, coriander and spring onion, and the sliced chilli.

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7. Pour the coconut milk around the edges and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat.

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8. Cover and cook 18 to 20 minutes without stirring at any point. Shake the pot gently if you must move things.

   Mark done Start 18 min timer

9. Drizzle the dendê oil over the surface, cover again, and cook 3 minutes more.

   Mark done

10. Scatter with the last of the coriander and serve straight from the pot with rice, farofa and lime.

    Mark done

Chef’s Tips

• Do not stir. Moqueca is layered and left alone; stirring breaks the fish into flakes.
• Dendê oil is what makes it Bahian. Without it you have a perfectly good coconut fish stew but not a moqueca.
• A clay pot holds heat evenly and is traditional, but any heavy lidded casserole works.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• For a non-vegan version, double cream can generally stand in for the coconut milk; going the other way, a plant-based cream sold for cooking is the closer match to dairy than tinned coconut milk on its own.
• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• A pinch of dried chilli flakes works in place of fresh chilli — start with about a third of the quantity the red chilli in the list implies, since dried chilli is more concentrated, and add more to taste.

Pairing Suggestions

• White rice and farofa
• A caipirinha
• Pirão, the fish gravy thickened with cassava flour

Storage & Reheating

Refrigerate up to 2 days. Reheat very gently — the fish will break up if disturbed. Not suitable for freezing.

Common questions

Nutritional Highlights

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Treat these as an estimate — brands and cuts vary.