Brazilian Fish Stew – Moqueca – and the Weekly Meal Plan

Brazilian Fish Stew Moqueca

Well hello there! If you’ve come looking for the recipe for this gorgeous Brazilian fish stew, it’s at the bottom there for you. But first – my week! I spent a lot of time thinking about the months past. I’m a sucker for resolutions, vision boards, and planning the future, but I try to make a really earnest effort to look back at the year, take stock, and feel thankful for the opportunities that I’ve experienced, people I’ve met, and things I’ve achieved.

This was also a week of rest and rejuvenation. We continued to listen to Serial, this time as we headed to IKEA for some post holiday shopping, which is code for (we’ve run out of their crack-meatballs). I ended up taking home another Lack coffee table, only to put it together and find that the color (white) totally clashed with our living room. So it ended up repurposed as part of my photography station in the kitchen. Speaking about that – I’ve been working on my photography (both with my DSLR, and iPhone – and sharing regularly on my Instagram account!) – skills that I want to continue to focus on in the new year. I also got myself an extra Lowel Ego light to take pictures in the evening – or in New England, any time after 3:30 pm. And I got another cutting board from Ikea to take photos on. And I spray painted some foam core as a photo board, but I will tell you that that experience was a little bit of a bust. I’ve also been listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast from the very beginning, and I’m currently on the episode with Chase Jarvis, one of the co-founders of CreativeLive – an excellent resource for creative courses online.

And I must tell you about my incredible luck: last week I got a huge shipment from Chronicle Books – a few weeks ago I entered a giveaway over at SF Girl By Bay (one of my favorite blogs), and I ended up winning! Chronicle is another of one my favorite publishers, so this had me smiling for days. Some of these were in my collection already, so a few lucky people got some cookbooks this holiday season!

Chronicle Books Winnings

The Meal Plan: Week of December 28th

I’m already over the gluttony of holiday eating, and looking to get back on track. Healthy in this house is always delicious, and you won’t find any plain chicken breasts for dinner, but I do like simple meals! Things to use up in my kitchen: almost everything from last week: chopped Buddha’s hand citron, some chicken basil pesto sausage, a little bit of cheese, peppered turkey, dill. I have some cooked borlotti beans, boiled potatoes, celery, some beets, and a little bit of tomato sauce left as well.

Saturday: Whole Foods Salad Bar Night! I try to cook us meals to share, but some nights we’re craving different things, which is a perfect excuse to go and pick out our own meals. Have you tried their zucchini and tomato with garlic? It’s very good. I also came home with a maple kefir from Butterworks Farm.

Sunday: Brazilian Fish Stew inspired by my Cook Smarts subscription. (Recipe Below). I love this coconut seafood dish.

Monday: rack of lamb with pesto and roasted vegetablesMy freezer currently has a bit of a storage problem – a rack of lamb came flying out at me when I opened the door this weekend, so it ended up defrosting in the fridge for Monday night dinner. The vegetables are all actually leftovers from my spiralizer sessions. I put them in a small tupperware until I have a few cups to roast.

Tuesday: greens and eggs. I used to eat this meal once a week while Devon was taking his late night classes in Hayward. It’s still my favorite meal to go to when I’m craving all of the green things.

Wednesday: Mexican flavored meatballs? Baked potatoes with caviar? I feel like I should do something significant to usher in the new year, but as of yet, I haven’t figured out what. I’ll keep thinking about it!

Thursday: scallops with Thai scented pea puree A few years ago I bookmarked this recipe in Nigella’s Kitchen cookbook, and have kept coming back to it when I want something light. It’s always a nice treat!

Friday: Out! Or possibly eating more green vegetables.

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Quick Brazilian Fish Stew (Moqueca) 

Some notes – I’ve gone ahead and tweaked this recipe slightly from a traditional version – I like my onion and pepper texturally in a sort of smooth salsa-like paste before I cook them into stews. You could use any type of thicker white fish here, but I use cod. It’s also good with shrimp. You’d typically marinate the seafood in advance in lime juice, but for an easy weeknight meal, you don’t have to, and it still turns out delicious. Traditionally you would use full fat coconut milk and palm oil (which I spotted today in Trader Joe’s! – but I substitute olive oil, because that’s usually what I have in the house.)

1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 small bell pepper
1 tablespoon palm oil (or olive oil)
1 teaspoon chile powder
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 good pinch of salt
1 pound wild cod, cut into chunks
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock
juice of half a lime
lime and cilantro for garnish

In a mini Cusinart, chop onion, garlic, and pepper into a thick salsa-like consistency, alternately, you can chop these ingredients with a knife. In a heavy pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil, and cook the garlic, onion, and pepper mixture with the paprika, chile powder, and a large pinch of salt, stirring gently, for about five minutes.

Add tomatoes, coconut milk, stock, and another pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10 – 15 minutes, until the onion and garlic are cooked, and have lost their harshness.

Add fish chunks, and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes, turning the fish over after three minutes to ensure that they cook through. When fish turns opaque, take off the stove, stir in the lime juice, and taste for seasoning – you might need to add a little bit of salt. Serve over rice, with crusty bread, or with mashed potatoes. (This isn’t traditional, I’m just on a mashed potato kick.)

Brazilian Fish Stew Moqueca

What are you eating this week?
–– Sam

The Weekly Meal Plan

Fresh Pond

Last week I neglected to meal plan, which pretty much meant that most of our meals were odd combinations from the pantry, or take out. And truthfully, with a dead microwave, freezer meals take longer than they used to, so we ate a few extra meals out than normal. I still managed some good home cooked dinners –  the lamb chops, baby potatoes, and salad; grilled chicken + broccoli;  and roasted chicken with tomatoes were standouts – but I do wish that I had just sketched out  a few extra ideas before the week had started! I really do feel for people who are trying to meal plan but can’t quite get into the habit – sometimes it’s hard for me to do, and it’s one of my favorite weekly activities!

In fitness: I’ve been ramping up my active time these past two weeks – CrossFit, indoor cycling, lots of walking, and a little bit of running – and I’ve been trying to get outdoors as often as possible now that we’re experiencing some real spring weather! A few weeks ago my Jawbone UP died, and I finally got a replacement, and have been working my way back up to a daily ten thousand step goal. On weekdays this is usually the walk to and from work, and a brief walk at lunch. Weekends are tougher – I have to resist the urge to melt into the couch. Today I walked around Fresh Pond for the first time this season (pictured above), and got my fix of cute puppies and a beautiful view. To work up some motivation, I signed up for a spring DietBet to help get into optimum racing shape, and registered for the B.A.A. 10k for an easy goal to work towards!

Week of Saturday, May 3rd

Cook Smarts was having another “favorites week” and everything looked good to me! Four meals (listed below) with Cook Smarts, and the rest are pantry meals/out. This afternoon I shopped at two stores: Trader Joe’s and the new Wegman’s in Chestnut Hill. For non East-coasters, Wegman’s is a chain of supermarkets with a cult following, and they’ve just opened their first location in the Boston area. Think Trader Joe’s meets Whole Foods meets Costco – bonus points for lots of organic produce and meats, a phenomenal hot bar, and a closing time of midnight.

Saturday: Spinach salad, with cheeseburger and egg. I went to a blogger lunch at a steakhouse this afternoon, and a surprise burger came out after we’d had dessert. Everyone else went in for photos, but nobody was eating it – clearly the blog crew is different than my CrossFit people – that meat would have been GONE… So with glee I had it wrapped up, and took it home to make dinner with leftovers!

Sunday: Eggs, basil pesto sausage, and salad.  I like having eggs in my back pocket as an any night of the week meal. The sausage is smoked chicken and turkey from Trader Joe’s – a favorite of mine.

Monday: Cook Smarts Meal #1. Thai tacos with mango salsa. For me this will be Thai Taco Salad – featuring marinated beef, mango cucumber salsa, and a Vietnamese nuoc nam sauce with lime and fish sauce (I love Red Boat). Green beans on the side.

Tuesday: Cook Smarts Meal #2. Shrimp vermicelli bowl with cucumber, mint, and carrots. I make a version of this Vietnamese salad every few weeks, but I wouldn’t have sprung for shrimp on my own – but somehow with it “on the meal plan” I felt justified this time around.

Wednesday: Cook Smarts Meal #3. Pesto pasta with peas and fennel salad. Easy comfort food, and noodles are an excellent vehicle for pesto. For this meal I sprung for a fancy pasta from Formaggio kitchen, but will gladly make this with zucchini noodles once they are plentiful and in season. Cook Smarts had paired this with a strawberry fennel arugula salad, but I can’t bring myself to purchase out of season strawberries, so plain fennel salad it is!

Thursday: Cook Smarts Meal #4. Chicken with honey lemon butter and roasted potatoes. This was a winter favorite, but it’s spring time! I dropped the parsnips because I’m tired of roots now that spring has sprung, but the original recipe with parsnips was definitely delicious!

Friday: out.

What’s on your table this week?

–– Sam

A pineapple + the weekly meal plan

Pineapple Time

Today I bought a pineapple, mostly because I like how they look. It was a toss up between daffodils or the pineapple, and the pineapple won out. At some point I’ll get to eating it, but for a few days at least it’ll be decorative – they are just such cheerful looking fruit. (On a side note, I’ve always been a fan of that Williams-Sonoma golden pineapple emblem. I’ve considered stealing it and making it my own, but I don’t really have any connection to the pineapple other than a passion for its spiky top, patterned body, and golden flesh.)

This afternoon, we experienced a minor kitchen tragedy: our microwave bit the dust. The control panel turns on, but the microwaving doesn’t actually happen. I suspect a fuse has blown, or something has burnt out, but you can’t really go and tinker with a microwave, lest you’d like to risk going back in time or exploding into a million small particles. (So I’m telling myself.) I suspect we’ll be living microwave free for quite a while. I’ve gone years at a time without one, and while they are very useful for steaming vegetables and reheating coffee, I find that I eat better when I don’t have immediate magical cooking rays at my disposal – mostly I end up snacking on things that I’d probably be better off not. I’ll have to figure out this coffee re-heating business though. If you have any brilliant suggestions, do let me know.

Week of Sunday, March 30th

Last week I tried out Cook Smarts, and enjoyed the relief of not having to make any meal planning decisions, but this week I was eager to mix it up a little bit and get inspiration from some of my cookbooks as well. Instead of the menu of the week, I wanted to try some of the Cook Smarts “favorite” week recipes, or at least use them as a starting point for my own meals.

Sunday: Maple-dijon salmon with asparagus. The maple dijon salmon was a Cook Smarts “favorite” pick that caught my eye – users rate the dishes they cook, and write short reviews – so I decided to try it out. For some reason Whole Foods had king salmon (I’m assuming it was frozen), and I decided to splurge in anticipation of salmon season starting at the end of spring. King salmon is hands down my favorite salmon.

Monday: Pork chops with balsamic brussels sprouts and orzo. Another Cook Smarts “favorite”, although I’m skipping out on the red onions because we’re ambivalent about them in this household.

Tuesday: Cumin-spiced lamb meatballs with shepherd’s salad + hummus. One of our favorites around here, I’ll be making Turkish köfte. I also picked up some roasted red pepper hummus, and will serve it all as one big salad.

Wednesday: Chicken thighs roasted with grape tomatoes. I try to operate under a meat and veg or two veg or three veg policy, but sometimes I just want a big bowl of slow roasted tomatoes with chicken. Does this make me weird?

Thursday: Salad plus fixins’. The truth is, I went to the store and the last few meals on my list weren’t sounding so good anymore. So I bought extra romaine lettuce, and I’ll crack open the pantry and the freezer and round out a good salad with all the fixins’.

Friday: Out!

What’s on your table this week?

–– Sam