Makin' Moqueca

A few weeks ago, a friend and I decided to try our hand at making a delicious Brazilian dish called moqueca. He had recently been living in Boston, which has a high Portuguese/Brazilian population. One night, a group of Portuguese women took him out for a bowl of moqueca. He loved it so much...we decided to give it a shot at home!

We chopped for like...ever

Started sweating the onions...

Threw on the bell peppers...

After layering tomatoes, bell peppers, and almost an entire bunch of chopped cilantro...
we placed the a few cod filets.

Then we covered it. (How cute is my new Staub?!)

After the cod was cooked almost through, we added a bit of coconut milk. 

 

Then we added some butterflied shrimp to the mix...

With a slice of lemon, it hit a mound of basmati rice!

The verdict: This was a really fresh dish and definitely had a lot of hearty ingredients...however, I have to admit that our recipe lacked the bit of kick I was really hoping for. My compadre and I decided a few ways we'd combat this the next time: 1) It needed heat. Next time, we would definitely add a spicy element, whether that be some hot sauce, chile pepper puree like Emeril Lagasse's recipe, or perhaps throwing in some chopped jalapeños in the last few steps.; and 2) It could have used a finish salt, making like some Maldon sea salt or grey sea salt.