I am happy to introduce Annabelle of The Piri-Piri Lexicon who kindly provided us with her family’s recipe of Portuguese Caldeirada(Fish Stew) for today’s Cooking Series! Annabelle’s family is luso-franco-gerdie. They live in Germany and blog about their multicultural and multilingual displaced’ family’s adventures around the world.

       (photo courtesy of The Piri-Piri Lexicon)

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We are a real foodie family. Cooking (and eating) are a big part of our family life. Through food, our daughter gets to discover her heritage. Our favourite family dinner at the moment is a typical Portuguese dish called Caldeirada. As most of Portuguese cooking, Caldeirada is a very honest dish: it comes from the boats, docks and homes of the people whose survival depended (or even still depends) upon the sea.

The advantage of this dish is that it can be modified and still taste amazing. In its purest form, it is composed of just fish. Yet others will add shellfish or even chorizo* (ideal for little ones who are not keen on fish). Different regions have different versions. So just open your fridge and go for it!

While this may not be the easiest meal to get the kids involved, our daughter loves throwing the different ingredients in the pan and of course eating it!

Portuguese caldeirada (the piri-piri lexicon way)

For a large family portion:

1 large chopped onion

5 peeled and sliced potatoes

400g canned tomatoes

600g of fish and/or shellfish (anything will work really, but we like monkfish, squids, cod, halibut, prawns, or mussels)

1tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

2 tsp oregano

Water

Olive oil

Heat up a large casserole dish.

Fry the onions in a little bit of olive oil with a bit of salt.

Add the tomatoes and the spices.

Leave the tomatoes to cook with a little water (about 200ml) so the tomatoes don’t fry but gently simmer. You can also replace the water with white wine**.

After about 5 minutes, add the potatoes and cover completely with water. Leave to cook until potatoes are just cooked.

Fnally add the  fish and shellfish and cook until the fish is done.

Serve with a nice crusty bread and a big laddle to soak up the juices!

Bon appétit!

* chorizo is a type of pork sausage

** many recipes of Caldeirada call for wine, however here at Little Artists we don’t cook with alcohol and use alternatives when the recipe calls for wine, brandy and such. You can try grape juice, for example. Or as Annabelle suggested – just water will do!

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I am definitely trying to make Caldeirada this week! I bought few pieces of fish fillet a couple of days ago and they’ve been waiting in our freezer to be cooked. Thank you, Annabelle, for sharing this easy recipe. I’ll be sharing how it came out soon!