Portuguese Fish Soup with Rice

In 2011, Nick e-mailed me and asked if I'd seen the article about fish stews on NPR.org.  He pointed out that the Fisherman's Stew of Graciosa looked really good.  I read the recipe and said I would attempt it, though I had never seen some of the ingredients.  It would be fun to use my mortar and pestle, I thought.

While I've seen various pickled peppers, I have no idea what variety the recipe is actually calling for.  The first time I made it, I tried mincing a seeded jalapeno.  Grinding a raw jalapeno in a mortar takes a long time.  But the soup was delicious...salty and tangy with umami from the fish and hint of sweetness...I tried it again with slices of canned jalapeno.  I also tried the same basic recipe replacing the fish with bone-in chicken thighs.  I would have made the soup more often if not for the time it takes to grind the damn peppers.  Then I saw Amore's Hot Pepper Paste (which appears to have been re-named Chili Pepper Paste).  Grinding the garlic still takes a little effort, but the seasoning paste now comes together in about the time it takes for my (still partially frozen) fish fillets to cook.

I still haven't seen Portuguese ground safflower anywhere, but I have paprika.  We like a bit of heat, so I usually use Hungarian Half-Sharp Paprika from Penzey's.  We usually ladle the soup over steamed brown rice, but for this batch I used some black rice, which was particularly beautiful with the white fish, red broth and green parsley.

I keep a small bottle of really good extra virgin olive oil that I mostly use for dressing salads and cold applications.  This is the only recipe where I heat the really good olive oil...

Since this soup has drifted from the original recipe over the last 2 years, Nick asked me if I had it written down... so here it is, written down.  The immersion blender is completely optional... but I do think you need to have a small mortar and pestle to grind the garlic.



2 rice cooker cups of whole grain (brown, red, or black rice)

2 ~ 3 lbs of cod, halibut or other meaty white fish (still frozen is OK)
1 quart water
1 T kosher salt
3 sprigs of Italian parsley
2 medium onions, quartered and sliced
3 bay leaves
1 T olive oil

1 1/2 T whole cumin seed
7 cloves garlic
2 t kosher salt
1 1/2 T finely chopped Italian parsley
2 T Amore chili pepper paste
3 T Amore tomato paste
1 T sugar
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar

Cook the rice in your rice cooker or in separate pot, following the instructions on the package.

Peel and quarter the onions, and slice thinly.  Combine the onions, water, kosher salt, parsley, bay leaves and olive in in large soup pot over medium high heat.  Nestle the frozen fish in the water and cover the pot.  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook until the fish begins to flake.

Measure the cumin seed into a mortar and pestle, and grind it.  You don't have to get it all into a fine powder, but all of the seeds should be broken into pieces 1/4 ~ 1/3 the size of the original seeds.  My mortar isn't large enough to hold all of the ingredients in the paste, so I transfer the cumin to small bowl.

Finely chop enough parsley leaves to make 1 1/2 T.  (Remove the tough stems.)

Smash the garlic cloves with the mortar and remove the skins.  Place the peeled garlic and salt int the mortar and grind with the pestle.  Scrape down the sides occasionally, and keep grinding until you have a chunky paste.  Add the chopped parsley and continue grinding until there aren't any large pieces of garlic left.  (Adding a little of the oil makes the grinding a little easier.)

If your mortar is less then 2 cups in volume, transfer the contents to the bowl with the cumin.  Add the nutmeg, pepper paste, tomato paste, sugar and the rest of the olive oil.  After all the seasonings are mixed into the oil, stir in the vinegar.

When the fish flakes, remove it to a platter and cover it to keep it hot.  Discard the parsley stems and bay leaves.  Use an immersion blender to grind up about half of the onions into the broth.  Stir the seasoning paste into the broth and bring it to a boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.

To serve, place a serving of fish and rice in a bowl or soup plate.  Ladle the hot broth over the fish.  You need to stir the broth between ladlefuls to keep the parsley and oil distributed between the servings.

This soup freezes and reheats well...and smells more savory than fishy when you reheat it in the break room microwave.