fish stew ideas?

"TheGist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have some frozen mahi mahi.
I was thinking of something simple like just adding some stewed tomatoes
and some spices along with some mussels and maybe some shrimp for a fairly
simple fish stew. I figured this could be simmered for a while to fully
cook everything?
I have never cooked anything like this before, however.
Should I thaw the mahi mahi first?
Most importantly, how long should I cook this for? What temperature?

Check out this recipe. I've used with many kinds of fish. It's always a hit.
I don't buy mahi-mahi, so I don't recall how firm it is. Pay attention while
cooking so it doesn't fall apart.

Fish in Crazy Water

PESCE ALL'ACQUA PAZZA

Recipe from "Marcella Cucina" by Marcella Hazan

1 1/2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes

4 cups of water

3 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced very thin

2 tablespoons very finely chopped parsley

Chopped red chili pepper, 1/8 teaspoon or to taste, or dried red pepper
flakes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt

A 1 1/2- to 2-pound red snapper, filleted with its skin left on

Optional: 4 slices of

day-old or grilled sourdough bread

For 4 persons

One of the most frequently recurring conversational expressions in the
dialect of my native Romagna is anicreid, "I don't believe it." That
skepticism is a characteristic I share with people of my region. When a dish
has a fanciful name, I resist trying it, feeling that it has been dressed up
to cover up a lack of substance. Had it been up to me, I never would have
sampled that Neapolitan creation, fish in crazy water. "What's crazy water
go to do with cooking and anyway, who wants to eat fish in water?" Such were
my thoughts, until my friend from Amalfi, Pierino Jovine, one day simply
brought the dish to the table without asking or telling. Now, I am the one
who goes crazy over it. Water is what brings together all the seasoning
ingredients, the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, chili pepper, salt, and olive
oil. They simmer in it for a full 45 minutes, exchanging and compounding
their flavors, producing a substance that is denser than a broth, looser,
more vivacious, and fresher in taste than any sauce, in which you then cook
the fish.

1.Peel the tomatoes raw using a swiveling-blade vegetable peeler, and chop
them roughly with all their juice and seeds. The yield should be about 2
cups.

2.Choose a saute pan in which the fish fillets can be subsequently fit
flat without overlapping. Put in the water, garlic, chopped tomatoes,
parsley, chili pepper, olive oil, and salt. Cover the pan, turn the heat to
medium, for 45 minutes.

3.Uncover the pan, turn up the heat, and boil the liquid until it has been
reduced to half its original volume.

4.Add the fish, skin facing up. Cook for 2 minutes, then gently turn it
over, using two spatulas. Add a little more salt and cook for another 12
minutes or so. Serve promptly over the optional bread slice.

TheGist said:

I have some frozen mahi mahi.
I was thinking of something simple like just adding some stewed tomatoes
and some spices along with some mussels and maybe some shrimp for a
fairly simple fish stew. I figured this could be simmered for a while to
fully cook everything?
I have never cooked anything like this before, however.
Should I thaw the mahi mahi first?
Most importantly, how long should I cook this for? What temperature?

By far, this is my favorite Mahi Mahi recipe!

Mahi Mahi in "Crazy Water"
Recipe from: Cuisine at Home, Feb 2003
Servings: 4
Time: 35-40 minutes

1 small lemon, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons capers, drained
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon chrushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup tomato, chopped (or 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved)
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 4 to 6 ounce mahi mahi fillets

Fry lemon slices and capers in olive oil in a large sauté pan over
medium-high heat. Cook lemons on both sides until they begin to brown
around the edges, and the capers start to shrivel slight, 3 to 4
minutes. Remove and set aside.

Sauté garlic and red pepper flakes in the pan, stirring constantly,
just until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add water, tomato, wine, and thyme and bring to a simmer.

Poach fish fillets in simmering liquid, covered, just until cooked
through, 8 to 10 minutes. Lift the lid occasionally to make sure the
poaching liquid isn't boiling hard and adjust heat accordingly.

Remove fish, transfer to shallow serving bowls, divide lemon and
capers amoung fish, and cover to keep warm. Increase heat; boil
broth 3 to 4 minutes to reduce, then taste for seasoning and
divide amoung fish. To finish, drizzle with oil and sea salt to taste.

I have other Mahi Mahi recipes:

http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/table_of_contents.cgi?fish

--
Clay Irving <[email hidden]>
Must be a different Larry Wall. There are at least 137 of us in the U.S.
-- Larry Wall in <[email hidden]>

"TheGist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have some frozen mahi mahi.
I was thinking of something simple like just adding
some stewed tomatoes and some spices along with
some mussels and maybe some shrimp for a fairly simple
fish stew. I figured this could be simmered for a while to
fully cook everything?
I have never cooked anything like this before, however.
Should I thaw the mahi mahi first?
Most importantly, how long should I cook this for?
What temperature?

Simmer your stock first, to blend the flavors, then add your fish, mussels
and shrimp and simmer for for maybe five minutes, until the mussels open,
the shrimp turn pink and the fish flakes easily. You don't want to overcook
the fish.

For a more exotic fish stew, if you can lay your hands on palm oil (the red,
unrefined type), you could try this:

Abenkwan (Palm Nut Soup)
2 cups palm oil (no substitutes)
1 cup chopped onions
1 chopped chile pepper, crushed or 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups chopped tomato
2 cups okra
1 medium eggplant cut into chunks
1 pound fish or crab meat
1/2 tsp salt

In a large, heavy stewpot, boil the palm oil for 10 minutes. Add the onions
and pepper and continue cooking on high heat for another 5 minutes. Reduce
heat, add emaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or more, until the
soup is somewhat thickened. Stir from time to time. If there is too much
palm oil on the surface for your liking, skim it off with a large spoon
before serving.

From:
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Miscellany/Recipes_from_12913.html

And I suppose it's served with foofoo or something of the sort (see the page
for such recipes). I went looking for recipes with palm oil earlier in the
year, because we bought a bottle of the stuff at an african market in
Hamburg, where we stopped in to see what sort of hot sauce they had
available (good hot sauce is hard to come by in Copenhagen, at least in my
estimation). It was Friday evening, after work, and a group of Ghanaian men
were socializing; we were heartily welcomed and directed to the hot sauce
(found one I really, really like -- habanero-based but with lots and lots of
flavor, too) and, in discussing food differences between Germany and Ghana,
persuaded (it didn't take much 🙂) to buy a bottle of palm oil, too. I
haven't used it yet, although it makes an interesting and dynamic thing in
the kitchen, as it is solid at relatively high room temperature, and has
only recently started to liquify into the most astonishing and brilliant
orangy-red. I plan to make the above recipe, probably when the husband
isn't around -- I think he's slightly horrified by the amount of oil in
it... 😉

Anyway, hope you find the recipe interesting, even if it's not something
you'd ever consider making.
-j