AMBERJACK
CABO VERDE

Amberjack chowder bg

Caldo de peixe

In one generation, Cabo Verde has leapt from least developed to middle-income country status. But its economy remains fragile. Just over half a million people live on nine scattered islands; a drought or a pandemic such as COVID-19 can quickly tip households into poverty and threaten access to food. Collective memory is still scarred by the pre-independence Desastre da Assistência, or Welfare Disaster, which struck as famine loomed in 1949. On that February day, thousands of Cabo Verdeans had gathered at the welfare office in the capital, Praia. They were queuing for food aid when a wall collapsed on top of them. More than 230 were killed.

Closer to our times, Cabo Verde’s seafood sector acts as a social safety net and export earner. Paradoxically, it’s proving harder to persuade the local hotel sector – the country draws much of its revenue from tourism – to source its fish domestically. FAO has meanwhile been helping Cabo Verde develop sustainable fishing practices and manage its marine ecosystem: at the time of writing, the Dr Fridtjof Nansen, a research ship operated by FAO in a Norwegian-funded programme, had just set off on its third mission to the islands.

The fish trade in Cabo Verde is a gendered business. The men catch and the women sell, either at markets or door to door. The cuisine, in this oceanic nation with ten times more water than land area, has much to offer: it draws on the same blend of Afro-Portuguese and tropical sensibilities that bubble through Cabo Verde’s famed music scene.

  • green bananas 2 large green bananas, or 3 smaller ones
  • amberjack fillet 800 g amberjack fillet
  • manioc 800 g cassava (manioc)* (root, peeled, sliced 1.5-cm thick, cleaned and presoaked)
  • squash ½ butternut squash (or acorn squash, pumpkin, etc.), peeled and diced, about 300 g
  • yam 1 kg yams or sweet potatoes, sliced
  • peppers 2 capsicum (or acorn squash, pumpkin, etc.)peppers of different colours if available, diced
  • kale ½ head kale (leaf cabbage), chopped into 3-cm sections
  • tomato 2 or 3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped (To peel the tomatoes more easily, score the skin and blanch them for a minute in boiling water, then leave them to cool. The skin will curl up and separate.)
  • parsley 1 combined handful parsley and chives, chopped
  • onions 2 onions, sliced
  • garlic 6-8 cloves garlic
* For a wider discussion of cassava, see River fish of the Amazon Note that you should start soaking your cassava slices well in advance to eliminate toxicity.

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
ANCHOVY
Türkiye

Anchovy Pilaf bg

HAMSİLİ pilav

“The Turks are the greatest Mediterranean connoisseurs of the anchovy,” writes the British diplomat and cookery author Alan Davidson. The tone of his Mediterranean Seafood, a book both encyclopaedic and quirkily humane, may seem a little peremptory half a century after publication. Even so, there’s no denying that the Black Sea anchovy – hamsi – is central to Türkiye’s food and socializing culture. The country produces over 170 000 tonnes of anchovies a year, with the season running from November to February: fresh hamsi are a winter delicacy.

Anchovy fisheries are particularly dense in and around the port city of Trabzon. The area is home to Türkiye’s Central Fisheries Research Institute (SUMAE) – but also, more ancestrally, to a seam of anchovy-themed lore: this includes the Horon folk dance, in which shimmying movements are said to replicate the thrashings of the captured hamsi.

As early as the first half of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi marvelled at Trabzon’s hamsi obsession. Residents – many from the Georgian Laz community – prepared the fish, Evliya wrote, in some 40 different fashions. Among these, he notoriously listed a sweet anchovy baklava. If true, that intriguing recipe appears to have been lost. Then again, the travel literature of the time did not shrink from the odd flight of fancy: Evliya also tells us, for example, that all bodily pains disappear right after consuming anchovy. Our hamsili pilav might not quite hit that target (if it does, we’d like to hear), but should hit a few pleasure centres nonetheless.

Hamsili pilav is unambiguously a party dish; you may think of it as a sea torte. It consists of cooked rice, fragrant with currants and spice, which is then encased in anchovy fillets and cooked again.

If you buy your anchovies whole, you can fillet them by tearing off the head, then running your thumb down the cavity to flush out the innards. When this is done, pinch the top of the backbone between forefinger and thumb and pull down. The bone will come off with the tail, leaving behind naturally butterflied fillets.

  • water 250 ml water
  • anchovies 1 kg anchovies, butterflied
  • grain-rice 250 g short-grain rice (baldo or arborio variety)
  • pine-nuts 2 tbsp pine nuts
  • onion 1 onion, finely chopped
  • black-currant 2 tbsp black currants
  • sugar 1 tsp sugar
  • cinnamon 1 large pinch cinnamon, ground
  • butter 30 g butter
  • bunch-parsley 1 bunch parsley
  • bunch-dill 1 bunch dill

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
CARP
Hungary

Fisherman’s soup bg

Halászlé

Lying flat in the middle of Europe, Hungary is core carp country – as well as one of the world’s most water-savvy nations. Lake Balaton has the status of an inland sea; the Danube and the Tisza shape the folklore and terroir; and hot springs bubble through Budapest’s cityscape. All of this has built up to a distinct hydrological expertise – for engineering and therapeutic purposes, but also for winemaking and aquaculture. The first fish farms were established here in the 1890s. Add Hungary’s status as the home of paprika, and you’ll find these strands gastronomically synthesized in the hot red halászlé. Historically cooked by fisherfolk riverside, halászlé is now present on tables around the country.

The soup has its variations: the version associated with the town of Szeged, on the Tisza, involves a mix of carp, pikeperch and catfish – as opposed to the carp-only Danubian iteration. Fish roe is sometimes incorporated for extra layering and texture, as are, occasionally, egg noodles. But what halászlé boils down to is a rich, spicy stock made with chopped freshwater fish (skin, bones and all), tomatoes and hot peppers. The soup is then strained and augmented with the finer bits of the fish. Much like in the Sichuanese hotpot, carp’s sturdy flavour stands up well to the fiery broth.

Serve the halászlé with chunks of white bread, good for dunking and soaking, and a glass of Riesling or white wine spritzer (fröccs).

  • carp 1 carp (1–1.5 kg)
  • onion 1 onion, finely chopped
  • tomatoes 1 - 2 tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
  • paprika 2 tbsp paprika (hot, sweet or smoked, or a mix, according to taste)
  • chillies 1 - 2 chillies, deseeded

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
CARP
Uzbekistan

Fried fish with
garlic and herbs bg

qovurilgan baliq

Uzbekistan features cooking that is frank and fragrant, a moreish crossroads of Slavic, Turkic and Asian culinary traditions. Dill meets coriander here, while lamb and raisins join parsnips and beets. Uzbek melons once made precious gifts for caliphs and czars. So popular is the nation’s cuisine across the former Soviet space that Moscow alone boasts hundreds of Uzbek restaurants.

That said, fish does not loom large in Uzbek diets. The fisheries and aquaculture sector only employs a few thousand people, in a population of nearly 35 million; production and per capita consumption are low. But what there is, is worth the stop. In this dish served at roadside eateries, the carp is cut to order, deep-fried in bubbling oil (be very, very careful when cooking this at home!) and immediately smothered in garlic marinade and herbs. The clash of the hot and the wet, the sizzling and the raw, the oily and the fresh – all shot through with the tang of allium – will have you begging for seconds.

  • carp 1 carp, 1– 1.5 kg, cleaned, gutted, head and tail removed
  • garlic Up to 10 cloves garlic, depending on taste and tolerance, finely chopped
  • tomatoes 2 medium-sized tomatoes
  • bunch-dill 1 large bunch dill (and parsley and coriander if desired), finely chopped
  • tomato-paste 1 squeeze tomato paste (optional)

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
CARP
Bangladesh

Carp stew bg

Mach kola

Moulded by rivers and home to the mighty Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, Bangladesh is one of the world’s top producers from inland fisheries. The country has a labour force to match: over a million people work in the sector. Fish is the most widely consumed food from animal sources, and carp dominates aquaculture. The popular saying has it that mache bhate Bangal – fish and rice make a Bengali.

In its authentic incarnation, the recipe featured here calls for a carp species called rui or rohu (Labeo rohita). Native to South Asia, rui is popular from Pakistan to Viet Nam. This, however, is specifically a Chakma dish, originating among Bangladesh’s Indigenous minorities. It’s also a fine example of cucina povera that shines through vibrant seasoning, rather than through a multitude of ingredients or complexity of treatment.  

If you’re cooking this outside the region, substitute any type of carp for the rui – or indeed, any none-too-bland white fish. Serve the mach kola with (you’ve guessed it) rice.

  • carp 4 pieces carp from the middle of the fish about 5 cm thick, cut through the bone
  • onion 1 medium onion, chopped
  • ginger 3 cm ginger root, peeled and grated
  • garlic 2 cloves garlic, grated
  • green-chili 2–4 green chillies, halved and de-seeded (depending on taste and tolerance)
  • coriender 1 bunch fresh coriander
  • turmeric-powder 2 tbsp turmeric powder

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
CARP
THE Democratic Republic of the Congo

Barbecued
leaf-wrapped fish bg

liboke de poisson frais

Mboto – sometimes rendered as mbutu or mboutou – is the Lingala name for a fish of the genus Distichodus, endemic to central Africa. Its members frequently resemble the stripier species of carp; some are exported for their ornamental value. In both the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – but also in Cameroon and the Central African Republic – mboto provides a vital source of protein. With access to refrigeration scarce, the fish is often smoked. One survey found that in 2019, nearly nine in ten households in the city of Brazzaville were consuming smoked mboto and similar river fish at least once a week.

This recipe, collected from the riverside municipality of Nsele, just east of Kinshasa, uses the fish fresh. Liboke (again, a Lingala word) is the method of cooking fish, and other foods too, by wrapping them in leaves. These may be banana or maranta, a plant whose root is eaten and whose sturdy, decorative green parts are commonly used as packaging. The wrapping is discarded at the end, so any other thick leaves or barbecue-proof parchment paper will do: the idea is to keep the fish moist, even as it absorbs the charred scent of the barbecue. (Yes, you will ideally need a barbecue for what is essentially an easy party dish; as for the fish, substitute either common carp, other freshwater fish or, ultimately, any fish you like.) Count 200 grams of fish per person – overall quantities will depend on the size of your party and that of your barbecue.

  • carp Carp or other freshwater fish
  • ginger Ginger
  • lemon-juice Squeezed lemon juice
  • onion Onion
  • tomatos Tomatoes
  • chives Chives

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
CATFISH
Afghanistan

Afghani fish bg

Tarz tahia Mahi Afghani,  coriander-powder

Da Afghani Mahi pakhli tarkib,  coriander-powder

Afghanistan’s legacy of upheaval and the civil collapse of 2021 have combined with flooding to cause tremendous food insecurity. At the time of writing, FAO estimated that nearly half the country’s people – 20 million or so – were facing acute hunger. Four-fifths of those most at risk are in the countryside: the better-resourced cities have maintained a degree of economic life, which includes lively fish markets (machli bazaar). Here, as scalers speedily clean the fish, much of it imported from Pakistani farms, cooks chop it up and throw it into bubbling cauldron pots.

Our own recipe features a more affluent and urbane version of Afghan fish fare: it requires some dedication in securing the ingredients, though subcontinental grocery shops will routinely store most. The charcoal will be sold in barbecue bags: in many parts of the world, these may not be available through the year. If that’s the case, save this dish for a summer’s day – you wouldn’t want to miss out on its beguiling smokiness.

  • coriander-powder 1 tbsp powdered coriander
  • catfish-fillet fish fillets, either catfish or another white fish cut into 5-cm pieces
  • cashew 10 cashew nuts
  • tomatoes ml canned pureed tomatoes
  • Onions 2 medium onions, quartered
  • Fresh cream 1 tbsp fresh cream
  • yogurt 1 tbsp yoghurt
  • ginger 1 piece fresh ginger, about 2.5 cm long, sliced
  • garlic 8 garlic cloves
  • ghee 2 ½ tsp ghee (clarified butter)
  • Red Chilli 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • lemon-juice 1 good squeeze lemon juice
  • vinegar 1 splash vinegar
  • clove 4 cloves

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
CATFISH
Guinea

Smoked catfish casserole bg

poisson chat fumé en sauce/konkoé touré gbél

Smoked catfish is much enjoyed in Guinea. The country’s late president, Lansana Conté, is reputed to have always travelled with a handy supply of it. Guinean expatriates are used to receiving shipments of it from family back home. Unlike most catfish seen globally, the species used here is a marine one, Arius africanus, known in French as mâchoiron – or “big-jawed one” – and in the local Susu language as konkoé. Touré gbél designates the sauce, liquid enough to be halfway to a soup, which accompanies the fish: its colour and warmth are derived from the red palm oil that is also present in Afro-Brazilian cuisine. (For a Brazilian recipe involving the local version of palm oil, see Amazonian fish stew.)

This dish would be served quite spicy in Guinea: dial the chilli content down – or up, for that matter – to suit your taste. The recipe calls for manioc, but if this is hard to come by or too arduous to prepare, replace it with sweet potatoes or yams.

  • carrot 4 carrots, sliced medium
  • konkoe 1 konkoé (smoked catfish)or other smoked fish of about 600 g
  • palm-oil 250 ml red palm (or vegetable) oil
  • tomatoes 3 tomatoes, finely chopped
  • potatoes 2 potatoes, diced small
  • aubergine 2 medium-sized aubergines, peeled
  • yam 2 yams, diced medium
  • onions 2 onions, finely chopped
  • garlic 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • basil 5 basil leaves

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
CATFISH
MYANMAR

Inle fish steamed in
banana leaves bg

aainnlayy ngarrhtamainnnaa, အင်းလေးငါးထမင်းနယ်

Southeast Asia is home to the Mekong giant catfish, a critically endangered species in the wild. This 3-metre-long fish, to quote one American Scientist piece from 2004, “grows as fast as a bull and looks a bit like a refrigerator”. While official protection has been insufficient to stamp out poaching, the last few years have seen stepped-up efforts, particularly in Viet Nam, to limit illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Viet Nam is one of the world’s aquaculture powerhouses: it supplies ninety percent of all catfish imports into the United States of America.

Farmed basa (Pangasius bocourti), commonly sold as “pangasius”, is consumed in myriad ways across Southeast Asia. So is the “walking” or Philippine catfish (Clarias batrachus) . In Thailand, the famed cookery teacher and writer Srisamorn Kongpun makes spicy stir-fried catfish (pad prik khing pla-dook foo) by crumbling the fish and sprinkling it into hot oil, then pressing it together in the pan to form a sheet, and further cooking this sheet on both sides: the method ensures that the fish is crispy within and without. Our own recipe comes from neighbouring Myanmar. In it, the catfish – sourced from Lake Inle, rich in endemic species – is steamed and smothered in fragrant lemongrass, coriander and ginger.

  • catfish-fillet 330 g catfish fillets (or other white fish)
  • onions 10 medium spring onions
  • garlic 4 cloves garlic
  • lemongrass 2 sticks lemongrass
  • ginger 5 cm fresh ginger
  • coriender handful coriander

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
CATFISH
Nigeria

Catfish egusi soup bg

Unless you get to cook this umami-rich recipe in its homeland, you may need to visit a specialist grocery shop or root around online for much of what goes into the pot. Some of the ingredients – the smoked fish, red palm oil and fermented locust beans – sit on the western African culinary continuum; others are more specifically Nigerian. The beans, known as dadawa (or iru in Yoruba), are a punchy, fermented taste enhancer analogous to miso, Marmite or Vegemite, yet also evocative of shrimp paste. Ground crayfish, another local condiment, further brings out these fishy notes. The fluted pumpkin leaves (ugu) bristle with vitamin C and iron, on top of their pleasingly green tinge and bitter sapidity. The eponymous egusi, finally, refers to a nutty-flavoured melon or gourd seed, used as a protein-rich thickener.

Egusi soup is traditionally eaten with “swallow” – Nigerian dough balls made with either yam or cassava flour – but rice is an established alternative. Or you may sacrifice geographic accuracy and enjoy your egusi with chunks of crusty baguette.

  • konkoe 300 g smoked catfish
  • palm-oil 200 ml red palm oil
  • egusi 300 g ground egusi (melon seeds)
  • ugu 1 handful ugu (fluted pumpkin leaf), chopped
  • dadawa-locust 1 tbsp dadawa (locust beans)
  • stock-cube 1 stock cube
  • onions 2 medium-sized onions, chopped
  • red-chilli 1 habanero or other chilli pepper, deseeded (use only part or omit if desired)

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
CATFISH
Zimbabwe

Fried curried catfish bg

Fish consumption is still low in Zimbabwe. Livestock forms the basis of subsistence farming here; commercial agriculture is dominated by land crops such as tobacco. But the potential is great: the waters of the Zambezi River system, which include Lake Kariba, the world’s largest man-made reservoir, are fish-rich and lend themselves well to aquaculture. FAO’s efforts are mostly aimed at upgrading Zimbabwe’s tilapia sector, seen as the most promising in nutritional and commercial terms. Meanwhile, local species of catfish – particularly the vundu (Heterobranchus longifilis) and sharptooth (Clarias gariepinus) – are generously sized, meaty and popular. A farmed hybrid of these, the Hetero-clarias, is also gaining ground. As elsewhere, use any catfish you like for this no-fuss recipe: basa/pangasius would be easy to source. Take the quantities listed here as a suggestion: this is tasty but largely empirical culinary territory, with calibration anything but prescriptive.

  • catfish-fillet 1 single fish of 1 kg or so, cleaned
  • tomatoes 3 large tomatoes (or 4 smaller ones), chopped
  • garlic 3 large cloves garlic for the marinade and another 2 for sautéing
  • onions 2 small onions, chopped
  • curry 1 generous splash curry powder

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
COD
Norway

Christmas cod bg

Juletorsk

Norway is an A-list fisheries and aquaculture power. In 2021, it exported nearly USD 14 billion of fish and seafood products – a second place in aggregate terms, but a towering world record at more than USD 2 500 per capita. On one level, this correlates with the country’s general wealth, economic performance and sound environmental stewardship. But it also reflects historic choices shaped by physical and human geography. Norway has one of the world’s longest coastlines; a craggy, mountainous terrain, with little space for agriculture; and a sparsely distributed people to whom navigation was, for centuries on end, inseparable from life.

Norwegians have therefore fished cod for countless generations – since long before they even began to think of themselves as Norwegians. In northern Norway in particular, cod is a staple on Christmas eve – for those who’ll have fish rather than meat, that is, as the two traditions coexist. Our recipe is (kindly and consensually) pilfered from the Norwegian Seafood Council, a public body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, headquartered in the northern city of Tromsø: it blends a certain Arctic trimness with Norway’s culture of festive domesticity.

Married with the spices baked into the cod, the sauce bathes the dish in memories of mulled wine: go for a light-bodied red. You may choose to ignore the sauce if you’re not a drinker – though bear in mind that almost all alcohol will have been boiled out of it.

  • catfish-fillet 4 fresh cod fillets (around 150 g each), skin on
  • orange 1 ½ tsp grated orange peel
  • ginger 1 ½ tsp grated ginger
  • anise 1 piece star anise
  • garlic 2 cloves garlic, halved
  • clove 1 clove
  • salt 1 tbsp salt
  • peppercorns 3 grains black peppercorn, crushed
  • bay leaf 1 bay leaf

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
COD
Saint Lucia

Green fig
and saltfish bg

Saint Lucia sits like a teardrop along the Lesser Antilles chain. The residents of this lush island are overwhelmingly descendants of slaves – officially English-speaking, but with French Creole elements flowing through the culture and speech. Colonial Saint Lucia changed hands for the last time in the early years of the nineteenth century. Having reclaimed the island from France, the British reinstated slavery, abolished less than a decade before in the wake of the French Revolution. Boilers that produced molasses still dot the Saint Lucian landscape, rusty mementoes of the brutal sugar plantation days.

With the cod trade booming in the 1700s, here as elsewhere in the region, salt cod became the default food fed to slaves. Mark Kurlansky notes in his book that salt, by drawing the moisture out of the fish, reduces its weight by four-fifths: this slashed transportation costs. And although Caribbean islands only absorbed the cheapest cuts and cures, cod’s high protein content kept the slaves working the fields from first to last light.

Slavery did eventually end in the 1830s. But the tradition of eating salt cod – known here as saltfish – endured. “Fig” may be misleading to non-Caribbean audiences: it refers to banana, Saint Lucia’s main crop and export. This recipe is the island’s national dish.

  • Cod 600–800 g salt cod
  • garlic 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • onions 1 onion, finely sliced
  • bunch-parsley ½ bunch parsley
  • green-bananas 3–4 green bananas, sliced
  • chives ½ bunch chives
  • peppers 2–3 pickled peppers, sliced
  • thyme 1 tbsp thyme

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
COD
Suriname

Bakkeljauw bg

Like its northern island neighbours, Suriname spent more than two centuries as a slave colony – of the Netherlands in this instance, which has bequeathed the modern nation its official language. In Suriname too, salt cod was a slave’s staple and remains a culinary trope. But in this country where Afro-Caribbean influences meld with those of South America’s native communities – not to mention more recent Indian, Chinese and Near Eastern elements – cassava (yuca) joins the fish on the plate. Alternatively, you may find the fish served in a broodje, a Dutch-style sandwich. The word bakkeljauw itself attests to Suriname’s fusion of cultural and linguistic inputs: it is, of course, a Dutch rendition of the Portuguese bacalhau. As in our (not dissimilar) Saint Lucian recipe – and unlike in Mediterranean countries, where the salt cod is usually soaked for two or three days in cold water before cooking – the Surinamese way is to boil the salt out of the dried fish, and then fry it.

To make the cassava chips, cut into your tubers lengthwise and peel off the bark, then chop them into chunky chip shapes. Rinse them well, bring to the boil a saucepan of salted water, and boil the cassava fries in it till soft, but not disintegrating. Throw out the water, brush the cassava chunks with olive oil, and roast them in the oven at 220° C until golden, turning them over halfway through. (Reduce the temperature a little if you have a fan-assisted oven.)

  • Cod 300–400 g salt cod
  • onion-chopped 1 large or 2 small onions, finely chopped
  • celery 2 celery stalks
  • garlic 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • olive-oil 2 tbsp olive oil
  • tomato 1 large tomato, diced
  • red-chilli 1 chilli pepper, deseeded (or not, depending on taste) and minced
  • tomato-paste 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • lemon-juice Juice of 1 lime
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
EEL
NORTH MACEDONIA

Eel à la Struga bg

Jagula na strushki nachin, Јагула на струшки начин

Red-roofed Struga, on the banks of Lake Ohrid, was once known as Enchalon, the ancient Greek word for “eel”. The town’s symbolic relationship to the fish remains close: in 2010, the sculptor Sergei Cingulovski honoured the eel by creating a semi-submerged wood installation, snaking along the lake shore for nearly 200 metres. But it’s only in the last few years that efforts have begun to create eel passes and restore historic migration routes: starting in the late 1960s, damming of the River Drim, which connects Lake Ohrid to the Adriatic, had severed the fish’s ultimate access to the Sargasso Sea.

  • eel 1 eel, up to 1 kg, skinned and cleaned
  • tomato-sauce 100 ml tomato sauce (use bottled Italian passata or similar)
  • garlic or 2 heads garlic, depending on size
  • vinegar 10 ml vinegar
  • bunch-parsley 1 bunch parsley
  • bay-leaves 10 bay leaves
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
FLYING FISH
Barbados

Cou-cou and flying fish bg

If Barbados has relinquished its status as a monarchy by becoming the world’s youngest republic in 2021, other aspects of nationhood, such as the attachment to flying fish, appear more entrenched. The animal features large on Barbadian – or, more colloquially, Bajan – passports, on silver dollar coins and in the collective psyche. But climate change and increasingly frequent invasions of the brown sargassum weed are driving flying fish further and further out from the island nation’s shores. As a result, hauls are fewer and more meagre, and the fish, once a poor Bajan’s staple, ever more costly. (Amberjack, known here as amber fish, is emerging as an alternative.) Through its CC4FISH project – short for Climate Change Adaptation in the Eastern Caribbean Fisheries Sector – ,FAO is working with the Barbadian government to lessen the blow to fisherfolk from warming seas. Satellite data and high-tech sensors are meanwhile being rolled out to give early warnings of incoming sargassum.

Cou-cou is a mix of cornmeal (or sometimes breadfruit) and okra. The cornmeal should be available prepackaged from Caribbean food stores – if not, use polenta from Italian or Balkan delis, or from large supermarkets in many countries. US grits will also do. In combination with flying fish, cou-cou is the dish closest to Bajan hearts. Some punchier versions involve adding lime juice, allspice and Scotch bonnets to the sauce.

  • Cod 300 g flying fish or large sardine or haddock fillets
  • onion-chopped 1 pack powdered cornmeal (or polenta or grits)
  • ocra 250 g okra (fresh or prepacked)
  • celery 100 g celery, chopped
  • onion 1 onion
  • thyme Thyme (several sprigs)
  • peppers 75 g bell peppers, preferably of different colours, chopped
  • tomato-sauce 2 tbsp tomato paste

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
GROUPER
the Bahamas

South   Andros berl fish bg

The Bahamas may number just 400 000 people, but the span of its islands gives it a diversity of culinary traditions associated with much larger countries – and a similar degree of terroir awareness. Technically composed of three islands but forming a single territorial unit, Andros is big on space, low on residents, and altogether quite special. Its ecosystem includes one of the world’s longest reefs.

Logically enough in this grouper-friendly environment, “berl” (boil) fish hails from here – a sticky, soupy stew that uses the pieces of fish you might usually discard: in them lies its deliciousness. By the same logic of geographic precision, Bahamians will insist that their onions come from the island of Exuma, reputed for its peppery alliums. You will not get those outside the Bahamas, but you may be able to approximate the flavour by adding freshly crushed black peppercorns.

The fish itself, traditionally grouper, can be substituted with snapper, sea bass or cod: just make sure it’s a decent size. (You can save the fillets for another recipe.) Berl fish would be served in the Bahamas with johnny bread, a sweet-savoury cornmeal bake that’s halfway to a biscuit, or else – the faster and easier option – with grits or polenta.

  • grouper 1.5 kg grouper (or other quality white fish) head, fin and tail, all cut up
  • onion 1 large onion
  • lime 2 large limes
  • peppes 1 deseeded chilli pepper for a mildly spicy dish, or anything up to 5 “finger” peppers for a scorching Caribbean Scoville count, chopped
  • bacon 3 strips salt pork or bacon, cut into 2.5cm pieces
  • potatoes 2 large potatoes, not too starchy, cut into large chunks
  • butter 4 tbsp unsalted butter
  • flour 800 g flour
  • eggs 4 eggs
  • milk 250 ml semi-skimmed milk
  • olive-oil 30 ml vegetable oil
  • sugar 90 g sugar
  • butter 60 g unsalted butter + 30 g melted butter
  • salt 1 tsp salt

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Method bg

FOR THE JOHNNY BREAD
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
GROUPER
SENEGAL

Thieboudienne bg

Thieboudienne, which you may find spelled in a variety of ways – it’s pronounced tchebou-DJEN – stands for “fish and rice” in Wolof. – It is to Senegal what couscous is to the countries of the Maghreb. On the face of it, this national dish is a straightforward mix of protein, vegetables and starch. But it’s a work of many steps; it comes with a stack of lateral ingredients; and such is its sense of festive informality, and so deeply exuberant its flavours, that you’ll want to live inside it.

Thieboudienne is historically associated with Saint-Louis, in northern Senegal. A political and economic centre in colonial times, the city has long ceded pre-eminence on all fronts to Dakar. But it remains much loved for its UNESCO-listed architecture and languid ocean feel. Its fisherfolk, though, are being squeezed by dwindling stocks and rising sea levels. You’ll often find thieboudienne made with chicken or beef these days, either under the influence of couscous, or just because there’s less fish and more meat to go around than in the old days. Our recipe, as per this book’s remit, sticks to the original. The type of fish is not prescriptive – but it should be a white ocean fish.

You’ll also need a handful of dried bissap blanc (white hibiscus flowers), which can be sourced online or from West African grocery shops; and a piece of guedj, a smoked salted fish used as a condiment: substitute other strong cured fish, or even a couple of anchovies. Finally, a full traditional rendition of thieboudienne would include yet, a dried, fermented sea snail added for pungency, but this you can omit or replace. There are, in fact, as many versions of thieboudienne as there are spellings. Some feature aubergine; ours doesn’t, but is otherwise fairly complex. Certain seasonings are split into two, with one half cooked longer than the other for added layering of flavour. Feel free to simplify things depending on availability – that of ingredients, and your own.

  • fish 2 fish (grouper or other)of around 500 g each, heads off, cleaned
  • jasmine-rice 1 ½ kg jasmine rice
  • cabage-carrot-turnips 2 turnips, 2 carrots, 1 medium white cabbage, chopped large
  • manioc 1 piece manioc, about 10 cm, pre-soaked and peeled, sliced thickly
  • tomatoes 1 handful cherry tomatoe
  • onion-and-scallion 3 onions sliced lengthwise, 3 spring onions (scallions)
  • squash 1 small squash, pumpkin, gourd, marrow or similar
  • gARLIC 3 garlic cloves
  • ocra 1 handful okras
  • hibiscus 1 bundle dried white hibiscus (tied)
  • strong-dried-fish 1 piece strong dried fish for seasoning (or 2–3 cured anchovies)
  • fermented-sea-snail 1 piece fermented sea snail (optional – substitute 1 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce or 1 tsp miso paste if desired)
  • red-chilli 1 tbsp or less powdered chilli, to taste
  • salt-pepper 300 g double tomato concentrate
  • tamarind 100 ml soaked tamarind flesh
  • schrimp-paste 1 tsp shrimp paste from a jar (optional)

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
HERRING
the NETHERLANDS

Soused herring bg

maatjesharing

Soused herring is closely associated with Vlaggetjesdag (Flag Day) in mid-June, when tens of thousands of people mob the fish stands of Scheveningen, The Hague’s beach suburb. There are residual religious overtones to the festival, but it mostly involves herring-themed revelry. Participants chomp on their fish in the least refined way possible, by holding it up by the tail, high above their heads, and lowering it into their mouths, studded with bits of raw onion.

Maatjesharing is literally “maiden herring”. The fish must be young, caught between late May and early June, when it’s just starting to put on some fat after a winter diet of scarce plankton pickings. (The first catch of the season is auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity.) At this stage of development, the herring is free of milt or roe, and its taste less pronounced. The fish is first “gibbed” – a gutting method perfected in the Low Countries in the Middle Ages. The gills and some of the innards are removed, but not the liver or pancreas: these go on releasing enzymes that round off the flavour. “Sousing” refers to a mild brining cure that hovers between savoury and sweet: it can consist of salt, vinegar and sugar, or else the vinegar could be replaced with cider, or even, on occasion, with tea.

Our recipe is a modified version of what you might get on Vlaggetjesdag, but you may vary things to taste – by adding capers, for example, and sour cream or mayonnaise. Prepare this a day or two in advance.

  • herring 4 young herring fillets (double the quantities if serving as a main course)
  • apple 1 green apple, Granny Smith or similar
  • onion-white 1 white onion
  • sugar 1 tsp sugar
  • white-wine 100 cl white wine, or cider, or diluted lemon juice (you can also combine all three; some recipes suggest a splash of vodka)
  • salt 1 generous pinch salt
  • bay leaf 1 bay leaf
  • peppercorns 5-6 crushed peppercorns

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
MACKEREL
JAPAN

Cured mackerel bg

Shime saba, しめ鯖

With some 400 000 tonnes in 2020, Japan is one of the world’s top mackerel producers, supplying both regional and African markets. Domestic demand too remains strong, absorbing around a third of the output.

Fittingly in a culture that prizes the visuals of food, sashimi pieces sold at counters in Japan are sometimes referred to as hikarimono, or shiny things. This elegantly spare recipe, while not using raw fish, requires no heat cooking; it preserves the skin of the fish to create a burst of iridescence on the plate. Cured mackerel would normally form part of a wider dining experience. Serve it as an appetizer, perhaps. Or, if you intend to make this a single-course meal, adjust the quantities to suit.

The variety used here is the “big-eyed” chub Pacific mackerel, measuring around 30 centimetres or a bit more in length. Rice vinegar is available from many supermarkets or speciality Asian food stores: you may substitute apple cider vinegar to replicate its mild flavour. Kelp is a thick, ropelike seaweed. One of the main ingredients in dashi, the savoury broth that acts as the base note of Japanese gastronomy, kelp is usually sold desiccated: by this stage, it resembles a leather strap or piece of tree bark. Replace the kelp with other seaweed if unavailable, or omit it if you must. Its absence will render your marinade less complex – and, incidentally, less rich in vitamins K and B9, which are good for your blood – but your dish won’t suffer irredeemably.

  • mackerel 1 whole mackerel (look for a large, plump fish or 2 fillets
  • sugar 200 g sugar + another 3-4 tbsp
  • vinegar Up to 400 ml rice vinegar
  • salt 200 g salt
  • kelp 2 pieces dried kelp, roughly the size of the fish

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
MACKEREL
the REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Braised mackerel
with radish bg

Godeung-eo jorim,  고등어조림

Mackerel tops surveys as the Republic of Korea’s favourite fish. It is also a mascot of Busan, the country’s second city. Every October, the southern metropolis dedicates a dazzling beach festival to it.

You will likely skip the fireworks when you cook this recipe at home, but your taste buds will be in a festive mood: it has none of the sobriety of the previous dish. Rather than showcase the main ingredient through muted intervention, it floods it with colours and flavours: this approach to godeung-eo – as the chub mackerel is known here – is brash, spicy and exuberantly aromatic.

This recipe also (marginally) uses kelp – though as in the Japanese dish, you can substitute another strong seaweed. The use of persimmon is a modern twist on the classic recourse to sugar: the fruit is rich in antioxidants, and in vitamins A and C. If no persimmon juice is available, make do with mango juice, adding a dash of lemon to dial up the astringency.The radish referenced here is the sturdy, white-and-pale-green daikon (or, to the Koreans, mu), common in most Asian food stores. If none can be had, try turnip instead.

  • daikon-radish ½ a daikon radish or so, peeled and sliced
  • mackerell 1 large whole mackerel, on the bone (head and tail discarded) and chopped into 4 to 6 pieces
  • ginger A 5-cm section of fresh ginger + 1 tbsp chopped ginger
  • Finger 1 finger-long piece of dried kelp
  • anchovies 10–15 dried anchovies
  • onion 1 white onion
  • green-onion 2 green onions, cut into 5-cm sections + 1 tbsp chopped green onion
  • shoyu-sauce Soy sauce and sesame seeds for seasoning
  • garlic 1–2 tsp chopped garlic
  • red-chilli 1 chilli pepper – or more if you like it very spicy
  • white-wine 1 tbsp cooking wine, or plain wine, or diluted vinegar

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
MACKEREL
Burkina Faso

Mackerel with
moringa leaves bg

Maquereau aux feuilles de moringa

Way down from Japan or the Republic of Korea in the prosperity league tables, Burkina Faso is landlocked, with a poor record of food security and nutrition. Diets are largely based on agricultural staple crops; beef is the main source of animal protein. Yet here too, urbanization is driving a taste for fish: grill shacks serving the stuff attract large numbers of Burkinabès.

As aquaculture makes modest inroads into the country’s arid landscapes, more fish, especially tilapia, is starting to come from domestic sources. Still, the horse mackerel used in this recipe would be imported frozen from Senegal or another of the region’s coastal states – or, as is ever more the case in Africa, from Japan.

Moringa (Moringa oleifeira) is a plant chock-full of vitamins A and C, calcium and potassium. Its reputation as a malnutrition-buster explains its popularity in South Asia and much of Africa – and increasingly in the west, where it’s more commonly sold as a health supplement. The leaves are often described as tasting earthily sharp: from a western perspective, their flavour falls somewhere between rocket (arugula) and spinach. They are often, though not necessarily, ground up before being added to dishes; in this case, powdered matcha green tea would make a good substitute. If you prefer a grainier, less processed texture – again, assuming moringa is unavailable – use kale, or a mix of kale and spinach, adding some arugula for a tart, bitter kick. Throw in the arugula at the very end, allowing it to just wilt from the warmth of the dish: do not cook it, or it will turn to inedible mulch.

This recipe, which combines frying and stewing, ingeniously uses two fish. One is served whole, the other flaked and sweated with the other ingredients to form a hearty sauce.

  • meckerell 2 horse mackerel
  • parsley-chives 4 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
  • red-onions 3 onions, chopped
  • moringa 1 large handful moringa leaves (see above for substitutes)
  • tomatos 4 tomatoes
  • garlic Garlic to taste
  • olive-oil Olive oil
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
MACKEREL
Eritrea

Mackerel
stir-fry stew bg

Tibsi, ጥብሲ

In this take on the spicy dish known in Tigrinya, the main language of Eritrea, as tibsi, fish replaces the more common beef. Tibsi is itself a faster – but no less rewarding – spin on the long-simmered tsebhi, much enjoyed across the Horn of Africa.

Eritrean statistics are published sporadically and can be hard to come by; FAO has no reports of commercial aquaculture being practised in the country. Conversely, its position along the Red Sea – Eritrea is largely a coastal state – gives the nation ample access to waters rich in mackerel, tuna, grouper, snapper, sardines and anchovies.

In its purest version, this recipe requires spiced clarified butter, which is obtained by boiling, and then straining, the butter with chopped onions and ground garlic, turmeric, basil, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, fenugreek, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. The result is as entrancing as it sounds, and gives Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisines their distinctive aromatic warmth. You’re welcome to have a go, or else use plain butter or oil as a frying base and add a reduced combination of spices during the cooking process. The berberè mix, on the other hand, is hard to do without: get it from a specialist shop, or make your own by grinding together chilli, coriander seeds, allspice, nigella and (again) fenugreek.

Bear in mind, all that being said, that in Eritrea tibsi is viewed as close to fast food: many of the ingredients would be ready to hand. Elsewhere, you could find yourself sourcing and grinding an array of condiments not once but twice, as well as fiddling with the butter. The staple injera bread, a spongy sourdough pancake, is mouthwatering but takes 2–3 days to ferment. Instructions on how to make it are given below – though unless time is no object, it’s clearly more convenient to buy it or replace it with couscous. Altogether, you may decide to cut a number of corners in approaching this recipe. Take heart: even approximating the outcome will be highly satisfying.

  • meckerell 1 mackerel, weighing about ½ kg, cleaned and cut into largish bite-sized chunks
  • tomato 1 large tomato, finely diced
  • garlic 2 tsp finely minced garlic
  • onion-chopped 1 onion, chopped
  • butter Spiced clarified butter (see above) or, failing that, butter or vegetable oil
  • berbere 2 tsp berbere (see above for making your own if unavailable)
  • peppercorns 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp cumin seeds and 1 whole nutmeg (omit if using spiced butter)
  • sesame-oil 1 dash sesame oil
  • salt 1 pinch salt

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Method bg

For the injera bread

Injera is made with teff flour, obtained from an ancient grain. It is gluten-free and rich in protein and minerals, and has become popular with endurance athletes beyond Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it is the default bread. Outside the region, you should be able to find the flour in health and organic stores. You will need equal quantities of flour and water, about 4 cups each, plus a pinch of salt.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
MAHIMAHI
the Dominican Republic

Samaná-style
coconut fish bg

Pescado con coco estile Samaná

The Dominican Republic hauled in nearly 500 tonnes of mahimahi (dorado) in 2018, a small proportion of which was shipped to the United States of America. The entire catch, that said, brought in a relatively modest USD 700 000. Starting in 2021, FAO began working with fisherfolk in the south of the country to improve the cold chain, open up new markets and plug artisanal mahimahi fisheries into the tourist industry.

Dominicanos still eat relatively little fish, but do so with tropical verve. Samaná, on the country’s northeastern coast, is an enticingly lush peninsula of wild beaches, rainforests and coconut plantations. The area, in fact, claims to feature the highest concentration of coconut palms in the world – and the local cuisine seems to bear out that metric. Samaná-style coconut fish, the area’s trademark recipe, is not a complex dish. But it shines with the unpretentious perfection of a lazy lunch at the water’s edge. You may add, if you wish, achiote, the Caribbean condiment that gives the sauce both an attractive red colour and a spicy, telluric warmth – or, failing this, smoked paprika. If mahimahi is unavailable, swordfish or grouper, or another firm, characterful white fish will do. Accompany your pescado with cold lager or – if you prefer wine – a chalky dry white.

  • mahimahi-fillet 4 fillets mahimahi or other firm white fish
  • onion 1 red onion, julienned
  • peppers 1 capsicum, julienned
  • tomatos 2 tomatoes, peeled and cubed (You can easily peel them if you leave them in boiled water for a few minutes.)
  • garlic 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • olive-oil Olive oil
  • tomato-paste 30 ml (2 tbsp) tomato paste
  • oregano 1 pinch oregano

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
POMFRET
CHILE

Pomfret in
margarita sauce bg

Reineta en salsa margarita

Despite having one of the world’s longest coastlines (the country is, in effect, one extended coastline), Chileans eat relatively little fish - well below the world average at 12 kilograms a head or so, and certainly much less than they do beef and other meats. Most of what Chile catches, it sends abroad. Salmon alone makes up almost half of the nation’s food exports and takes second place of all exports behind copper. For all of its external popularity, however, salmon faces strong competition in its home market from hake and pomfret. And, as if to belie the paucity of national seafood consumption, this recipe piles on the species: joining the pomfret are clams, mussels, oysters and prawns. (Some of the shellfish may be omitted, but dropping all of it would ruin the layered delight of the dish. The pomfret, on the other hand, can be replaced with other oceanic white fish.) Salsa margarita, a Chilean speciality, combines the seafood juices with flour, butter and milk – creating, in effect, a marine béchamel. Note that in Chile, crustaceans and bivalves are often sold shelled and prepacked, and even precooked.

  • pomfret-fillets 4 pomfret fillets
  • mussels 200 g mussels, shelled
  • shrimp 200 g prawns, fully shelled, heads off
  • butter 100 ml butter
  • milk 240 ml milk
  • onion-white 1 onion, sliced lengthwise from stem to root
  • flour 20 g flour

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
PIRARUCU
BRAZIL

Amazonian fish stew bg

Moqueca amazônica

Moqueca harks back to the mu’keka, an Angolan dish that may be compared to a ragoût or fricassée. This lineage – moqueca is closely associated with Salvador de Bahia, the Brazilian metropolis whose residents are mostly of African descent – likely accounts for some similarity with the seafood gumbo of Louisiana. Distinctly Afro-Brazilian is the use of dendê, the red palm oil that gives a soulful warmth to much Bahian cuisine. If you have access to sustainably sourced Brazilian dendê, do use it; if not, olive oil will do. For the fish, we suggest adding one part haddock, possibly smoked, to ten parts pirarucu/cod. This turns the haddock, in effect, into a solid fish condiment – for fish.

  • haddock 60 g haddock, smoked or not, diced
  • coconut-milk 150 ml coconut milk
  • tomatos 1 large tin (400 g) peeled tomatoes
  • pirarucu 600 g pirarucu or cod fillets, cut into 5-cm chunks
  • shallot 3 shallots, presoftened in salted boiling water
  • chilli-pepper 1 chilli pepper, deseeded or not, depending on taste
  • parsley a cpmbined handful chopped parsley, dill, coriander, and chives, FINGER-LONG PIECE OF DRIED KELP
  • onion 1 white onion, finely chopped
  • nutmeg A pinch of grated nutmeg

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
TAMBAQUI
Guyana

Tambaqui tuma pot bg

Our tambaqui recipe taps into the Indigenous tradition: tuma refers to the cooking of meat or fish in kadakura, the Guyanese name for cassava water. North American readers may know cassava as yuca or Brazilian arrowroot; French speakers will recognize it as manioc. It is, in many developing countries, a reliable source of carbohydrates. It’s also easy enough to obtain these days, even in regions where it isn’t native. But the need to soak the cassava to eliminate toxicity (it contains traces of cyanide), then grate it and strain it to extract the water – Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples would use a flexible cylindrical basket called a matapi for this – means you’re better off attempting the tuma when you have a) time and energy to spare, and b) enough mouths to feed to make it worth it. True to this logic, our recipe lists quantities for eight: adjust everything up or down to match your headcount.

You’ll have noticed that this book takes a make-your-own approach, on the principle that a store-bought jar of mayonnaise, say, is unlikely to taste as good or be as nutritious as the stuff you whip up at home. But given the level of dedication implicit in the tuma, especially when cooking it outside the region, you may as well buy some ready-made cassava water if you find it: there’ll be no stigma attached.

  • tambaqui 1 tambaqui or sea bass around 2.5 kg, cleaned and without the head, sliced in half lengthwise
  • garlic 1 head garlic (or about 6 cloves), finely chopped
  • cassava-root Up to 5 kg of cassava root, or 2 litres ready-made cassava water
  • onions 2 onions, finely chopped
  • celery 150 g chopped celery, spring onions, basil and thyme
  • salt 2 tbsp salt
  • wiri-wiri 8 whole Guyanese wiri wiri peppers (or other chillies) and 2 of the same, cut (Reduce the quantity if you prefer your food less spicy.)

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
SURUBI
Paraguay

Fish casserole bg

Chupín de pescado

In Paraguay – but also in Argentina and Uruguay – chupín is derived from the Genovese ciuppin a dish that is half-soup and half-stew, made with fish and leftover bread. Italy’s regions abound in rustic recipes that put stale bread to good use, such as the Tuscan (and more widely central Italian) panzanella or pappa al pomodoro. Some of these were carried over to South America – in this instance, by Ligurian emigrants. The Paraguayan version uses potatoes.

Paraguay cheese (queso Paraguay) is a soft to semisoft curdled milk cheese. Equivalents should be easy to source in most countries, whether domestically produced or – as is most likely in parts of Asia – imported.

  • monkfish-fillet 4 monkfish fillets (in replacement of surubí) of around 200 g each
  • tomatos 4 tomatoes, diced
  • potatoes 4 medium-sized potatoes, thickly sliced
  • garlic 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • cream 400 g cream
  • cheese 400 g Paraguay or other curdled milk cheese, finely cubed
  • butter 1 large knob of butter

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
SALMON
Sweden

Lemon-baked salmon with vegetables and boiled potatoes bg

citronbakad lax med grönsaker och kokt potatis

Despite dampened investor enthusiasm for the technology, funding was secured in 2021 to build Sweden’s first land-based salmon farm. Currently, all farmed salmon eaten in Sweden is imported from neighbouring Norway – though Swedes also consume some salmon from capture. The fish appears in many guises: poached or sugar-cured, in dill and mustard sauces, or as laxpudding – in a gratin, crusty and golden on top, soft and creamy below.

Our recipe features an example of husmanskost, or traditional home-cooking. This is a fish-spuds-greens-and-dairy combo, a simple enough dish, but one where the skill consists (as it often does) of not overcooking either salmon or vegetables. Until you get the hang of it, it’s best to ensure that you have a food thermometer. The internal temperature of the fish should not go above 45° C – or else the albumin, a protein found in liquid form inside the flesh, will congeal. This accounts for the blobs of white gunk on the surface of cooked salmon which, if your experience of office canteens and other mass catering mirrors ours, will have sent you scrambling for a different lunch option. If you’d rather not fiddle with a thermometer, take a leaf from the book of lox and brine your salmon before cooking: the process helps concentrate flavour and seal in moisture.

  • potatoes 600 g potatoes
  • salmon-steaks 4 salmon steaks
  • sugar-pees 200 g sugar peas
  • broccoli 100 g BROCCOLI
  • onions 2 onions, chopped
  • lemon 1 lemon
  • butter 250 g butter
  • fish-stock 100 ml fish stock
  • cream 100 ml cream
  • white-wine 100 ml dry white wine
  • salt Salt

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
SEABASS
ITALY

Seabass in a potato
and courgette crust bg

Spigola in crosta di patate e zucchine

One classic way to prepare spigola in Italy is all’acqua pazza (with “crazy water”). Paternity for this dish, which used seawater back when salt was a pricey ingredient, is disputed between the fisherfolk of Naples and the islanders of Ponza. It involves baking the seabass in salted water and wine, with cherry tomatoes, crushed garlic and parsley. The cooked fish is brought whole to the table and shredded onto individual plates, with a ladleful of the savoury broth poured on top.

At the more recherché end, La Cucina italiana, Italy’s culinary magazine of record, suggests a seabass raspberry confit. To serve four, heat up peanut or another neutral cooking oil to exactly 60 degrees in a saucepan, then turn off the flame. Cut four seabass fillets into three slices each. Salt the pieces of fish and place them in the warm oil for 20 minutes, ensuring they’re completely covered. Separately, whizz 100 grams of raspberries in a blender with four tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of apple vinegar and a pinch of salt. Remove the seabass fillets from the oil, drain them on kitchen paper, and dress them with mixed leaves and piped drops of raspberry sauce. Toss more fresh raspberries over the dish, and serve with a grind of fresh pepper.

Our own recipe keeps things a little more rustic. The fact is, outside of more adventurous restaurants, a side of roast potatoes is rarely absent when you order fish in Italy. This iteration places the spuds under the fish and the courgettes on top, a burst of comfort food (admittedly with a playful touch) enlivened by earthy oregano. As the courgette will obscure the fish, make sure your fillets are thoroughly deboned: use tweezers if necessary. Jazz up the finished dish with a sprinkle of bottarga, the dried fish roe condiment, if you have any handy.

Since our recipe provides both starch and vegetable content, no accompaniment is needed, strictly speaking. But you might want to look in the direction of bitter leaves. A bowl of chicory, sautéed with chilli and garlic, works well. The classic Italian tipple to have with spigola is a light Ligurian Vermentino. Or you could offset the simplicity of what is, in effect, a fish pie with a classy glass of fizz from Trentino or Piedmont.

  • seabass-fillet 4 seabass fillets
  • potato 1 large potato, peeled
  • courgettes 2 courgettes (zucchini)
  • breadcrumbs 150 g breadcrumbs
  • olive-oil Olive oil
  • oregano Dried oregano
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
LOBSTER
the UNITED STATES of america

Lobster pasta
with grated
tomato sauce bg

The overwhelming majority of lobsters consumed in the United States of America – and that’s a great many – are harvested off the state of Maine. In 2021, the haul hit a record value of over USD 700 million, as consumer demand rebounded after the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. By weight, the catch held more or less steady at around 45 000 tonnes – but that in itself is five times as much as fisherfolk were bringing in 40 years ago. The warming waters off the northeastern seaboard are thought to have been propitious for lobsters (although there are fears a cliff edge could be near). The thinning out of cod, lobster’s main predator, may further explain the bonanza of recent decades.

Our lobster recipe comes courtesy of Carla Lalli Music, a US television chef and cookery writer. In her book Where Cooking Begins, she draws on her Italian heritage to create dishes that are stylishly uncomplicated. While there may be a touch of dexterity involved in shelling the lobster, the greater challenge here is arguably not to overboil the pasta – something that almost invariably, and not without some justification, Italians think pretty much everyone else is guilty of.

We’ve adapted Lalli Music’s recipe to reuse the lobster’s steaming water to cook the spaghetti, for added flavour. If you like a touch of spice, we also suggest enlivening the sauce with peperoncino chilli – or, if meat is no object, with a fiery smear of nduja, the Calabrian hot salami paste.

  • lobster 1 live lobster
  • spaghetti 250 g dry spaghetti or linguine
  • tomatoes 3 large beefsteak tomatoes
  • garlic 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • basil 1 handful torn basil leaves
  • butter 1 knob butter (optional)
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
MUSSELS
Belgium

Mussels bg

Moules à la belge / Mosselen op z’n belgisch

Moules-frites (mussels and chips) may well be the most reductive shorthand for Belgian-ness. This doesn’t make it any less delicious or evocative – of briny gales at Ostend or Zeebrugge, of piers and carousels, of a heartwarmingly tacky fry-up kiosk on a foggy Saturday night. So intimate is Belgium’s identification with the dish – the average citizen consumes 4 kilograms per year, twenty times the global average; on National Day in July, giant outdoor moules-frites dinners are laid in cities across the country – that hardly anyone cares to remember where everyone’s favourite mussels come from, namely across the border, in the Dutch province of Zealand. Je suis parti vers ma destinée
Mais voilà qu’une odeur de bière
De frites et de moules marinière
M’attire dans un estaminet…
“I set off to meet my calling
When a sudden whiff of beer
Of fries and of moules marinière
To a tavern sent me crawling,”
sang the punk chansonnier Arno, who was raised a Fleming in Ostend but lived his artistic life in French. In federalized, bilingual Belgium, moules-frites are a cross-community value, whether the mussels are braised in ale, in a curry sauce or – as in our recipe – with wine, garden vegetables and herbs. For the frites, you will no doubt have your own twist on the basic process. Remember also that in Belgium, a slather of mayonnaise comes close to a legal requirement. We tell you how to make it here.

  • carrots 2 carrots
  • mussels 1 kg mussels, cleaned
  • onion 1 onion
  • olive-oil Olive oil for cooking
  • leeks 2 leeks
  • garlic 2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • herbs 1 bouquet garni (bundle of aromatic herbs): parsley, bay leaf (laurel) and thyme, tied together with a piece of string
  • water 1 glass water
  • white-wine 1 glass dry white wine
  • salt-pepper Salt and pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
MUSSELS
New Zealand

Green-lipped
mussel fritters bg

New Zealand is the land of kaimoana – the Maori word for seafood, integral to the Indigenous culture of this historically seafaring nation. One friend recalls a childhood indulgence in mātaitai or shellfish gathering, as she’d chase tuatua clams, which squirt water in self-defence and burrow away at astonishing speed, or else the palm-sized toheroa, with their meaty, protruding tongues and gamey flavour. Toheroa are now almost extinct and strictly protected. Poaching them is subject to blistering fines, in a move echoing (belatedly from a conservation perspective) ancestral practices that combined ritual and stock-management concerns: in traditional Maori harvesting, no shellfish could be opened while people were in the water; only one species could be gathered at a time; and during certain periods, no picking could take place at all.

Even so, New Zealand is still, overall, replete with bivalves. The country counts more than 20 types of mussels, including the endemic green-lipped variety (Perna canaliculus). These are large mussels, easily twice the size found elsewhere, rimmed with a green so vivid as to be almost fluorescent. Cultured in large quantities since the 1970s, they’re New Zealand’s top seafood export, shipped under the “Greenshell” trademark as far as the United States of America, Spain and the Republic of Korea. Their nutritional value – they’re full of protein, low in fat and brimming with omega-3 acids, vitamin B12 and selenium – also sees them processed into food supplements.

Mussel fritters are a popular dish with Maori and Pākehā (European) New Zealanders alike. To the extent that they’re egg-and-milk pancakes with savoury ingredients baked in, they channel both American brunch classics and Japanese okonomiyaki waffles. You can use either Greenshells or your nearest available variety for our recipe: they’ll be chopped up, so their pretty lips will be immaterial in this case.

  • Mussels 1.5 kg green-lipped mussels
  • Eggs 2 eggs, separated
  • Flour 50 g self-raising flour
  • Milk 50 ml milk
  • Parsley 1 large handful parsley, finely chopped
  • Salt and Pepper Salt and pepper
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oil for frying

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
CONCH
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

Vincentian conch soup bg

Lambie souse

Queen conch is far from all-you-can-eat stuff. Overfishing led Florida to ban commercial and recreational harvesting in the mid-1980s. The 1990s saw CITES, the convention that regulates trade in endangered species, list the animal; the body has occasionally shut down production in some countries, pending the adoption of sustainable management plans. Culturing of conch – for education and tourism more than commercial purposes – has only been practised at one farm in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Devastated by the hurricanes of 2017, that facility has closed indefinitely.

Caribbean nations these days have a host of controls in place: these involve bans on immature conch, period closures and geographic restrictions. The archipelago of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines numbers some 45 licensed conch – also called “lambie” – fishers, operating from long open boats between May and August (when the season for lobster, another main source of income, is closed).

The haul, brought up by divers, makes up two-thirds of the country’s fisheries exports. Diving, however, is hazardous work, and FAO has been looking to develop safer capture techniques around the Caribbean. No easy task, this: in fishing subcultures, diving remains powerfully connoted as a masculine exploit.

Our Saint Vincentian recipe is flavoured with chadon beni, French Creole for chardon béni, or “holy thistle”. Sometimes known as culantro, this is a cousin of coriander, but sturdier and more potent. Outside the region, just use coriander and dial up the quantity – a handful will do perfectly. The lambie souse is best made in a pressure cooker.

  • Conch 800–900 g conch meat
  • Onion 1 onion, chopped
  • Cucumber 1 cucumber, chopped
  • Parsley 1 tbsp chopped parsley
  • Chopped celery 1 tbsp chopped celery
  • Chadon beni 1 tbsp chadon beni or 1 bunch coriander
  • Squeeze lime 1 squeeze lime
  • Salt and Pepper Salt, pepper and (optional) hot pepper

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
PRAWNS
China

Stir-fry prawns with
Longjing tea leaves bg

LONGJING XIAREN, 龙井虾仁

From a small player in the late 1970s, China has catapulted into the world’s top league of freshwater prawn producers. But even this level of growth has been outpaced by internal demand. Urbanization and rising incomes have sent domestic consumption of prawns soaring. As much as half of the Chinese market (of combined wild and cultured, marine and freshwater species) is now supplied by imports from Ecuador, another rising prawn power; a further quarter comes from India.

Our recipe marries China’s enthusiasm for freshwater prawns – historically a southern delicacy of more limited currency – with the prestige of Longjing tea. This pale-leafed, mildly astringent, roasted green tea is harvested around the West Lake, the famed setting for the city of Hangzhou. Its fragrance is often described as evocative of chestnuts: you may also find it sold under the Dragon Well name. Legend connects this prawn dish to a visit to Hangzhou by the eighteenth-century Qianlong Emperor, said to have been travelling in disguise: a local innkeeper, we’re told, serendipitously mistook the Longjing leaves for green onions while feeding the sovereign.

Chinese cooks are fond of “velveting” their prawns by dousing them, as we do here, in egg whites, cornflour and salt. The process provides a pleasing touch of crunch; it also insulates the prawns from the searing wok heat and keeps them moist.

Shaoxing wine is used for depth of flavour. If you’ve ever cooked Chinese food, you’ll likely have it in your pantry already. If not, it’ll be readily available wherever you are in the world.

  • longjing 1 tbsp Longjing (Dragon Well) tea leaves
  • prawns 400 g sea or river prawns, not too large and preferably fresh, fully shelled, heads off (and deveined if desired)
  • eggs 2 egg whites
  • cooking oil 2 tbsp vegetable cooking oil
  • shaoxing-cooking-wine 60 cl Shaoxing cooking wine
  • flour 2 tbsp cornflour

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
CRAB
PERU

Parihuela bg

From Peru, one of the world’s fishing heavyweights and gastronomic powerhouses, comes another all-in-one: the spicy parihuela seafood soup, which combines fish and crustaceans – not just crab, but mussels and clams and prawns and sea snails. That, however, is what you might call a parihuela royale – fit for a banquet, maybe, but hardly the kind of thing you’d whip up for a dinner with friends. It’s also the case that the list of ingredients speaks to the peculiar bounty of Peru’s coastline: elsewhere, securing all the species might prove both a logistical headache and a blow to the wallet.

Ultimately, once you have a fish, a crab and a handful of clams, everything else is an optional luxury. We recommend that you kill the crab first, by splitting it in half: as well as being the more humane route, this will ensure that the internal crab juices leach out during cooking and further flavour the stock. On how to purge the clams, see “Mussels and clams”.

There is, admittedly, a further difficulty involved in this dish, in that it uses the distinctly Peruvian ingredient chicha de jora. This is a refreshing, marginally alcoholic (1 percent to 3 percent) drink obtained from fermented corn. Chicherías are found in Peruvian cities, but also, less formally, in the Andean villages of the south – often simple holes in the wall, advertising themselves by means of a bamboo pole that sticks out over the road, with a roll of colourful fabric or plastic bags wrapped around its end. If there is no Peruvian bodega where you live, and no chicha can be sourced online, try replacing it with apple cider: you may need to reduce it a little beforehand, as chicha is thicker. In Türkiye and parts of the southern Balkans, boza – the fermented barley drink, vaguely fizzy and low in alcohol – would make an exciting alternative.

  • Fish fillets 4 fish fillets(cod, halibut, seabass or another white fish of your choice), plus the head or other cut-offs for stock
  • Crabs 2 medium-sized crabs, cleaned and split down the middle
  • Chilli pepper 1 red and 1 yellow chilli pepper, to taste, deseeded and chopped
  • Mussels 1 handful of crabs or mussels, or both, cleaned but whole (see p. xxx)
  • Snails 1 dozen prawns or snails (optional). If using shrimp, cut off the heads and save them.
  • Chicha de jora 200 ml chicha de jora or reduced apple cider
  • Onion 1 onion, chopped fine
  • Ginger 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
  • Garlic 2 cloves garlic, chopped large
  • Coriander 1 bunch coriander (cilantro) for garnishing
* (Peruvians use ají panca, a sweet, mildly spicy product; substitute with chipotle powder or paste if needed, perhaps mixing it with a little sugar, or with smoked paprika.)

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
SNAPPER
MEXICO

Snapper tacos bg

Tacos de huachinango

Mexico supplies almost two-thirds of the fish fillets sold in the United States of America. Domestic consumers are also well served: the country hosts the world’s largest seafood market after Tsukiji in Japan. Complete with food stands and shops selling cookware, La Nueva Viga drains much of the Gulf of Mexico catch. But geared as it is towards the dense population basin around Mexico City, the market is unique by world standards in its deep inland location. Transportation costs mean Mexican fishing crews need to spend longer periods at sea to keep economically afloat. Some of the catch is directly exported north of the border.

Every day, but especially during big religious festivals such as Lent, La Nueva Viga fills with tens of thousands of shoppers. Piles of red snappers, filleted or whole, greet the eye from the stalls here. Both red snapper from the Gulf and its close Pacific cousin, Lutjanus peru, are known in Mexico as huachinango; the word is derived from the Náhuatl for “red flesh”. Indeed, rather than the Gulf, the recipe featured here is from Baja California on the Pacific side, which supplies a tenth of the country’s haul of pescado y mariscos.

Fish aside, this dish calls for either sour cream or mayonnaise (or, why not, both). If you go for the latter, it’s much more rewarding to forgo the store-bought stuff and make your own. Away from this recipe, you can further customize your mayonnaise with chilli as an alternative to ketchup; with minced garlic for a sharp Mediterranean aioli; or else with chopped anchovies, capers and canned tuna – the dressing for the Italian 1980s classic vitello tonnato.

  • Snapper fillets 2 snapper fillets
  • Avocado 1 large avocado (or 2 small)
  • Tomato 1 large tomato (or 2 small), minced
  • Cucumbers 2 cucumbers, sliced
  • Green chilli peppers 1 or 2 green chilli peppers, deseeded, finely chopped
  • head cabbage 1 head cabbage, shredded
  • Limes 2 limes (juiced)
  • Sour cream 1 pot sour cream (around 250 ml)
  • Salt and pepper Salt and pepper for seasoning
  • Olive oil Olive oil for frying

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
SNAPPER
Saint Kitts and Nevis

Fish mélange bg

The two-island country of Saint Kitts and Nevis forms an exclamation mark on the map of the Caribbean. The cuisine too – rooted in West African traditions and overlaid with British, French and South Asian influences – is vibrant, brash, straight-up. On the meat side, goat comes paired with breadfruit and green papaya.

Fish and shellfish are often grilled and laced with coconut, or, as here, served en papillote (i.e. in a parcel) with unfussy but colourful vegetables and mash. It is, in short, spunky comfort food to wash down with a brew rather than savour with fine wine – perhaps, if you can lay your hands on it, with a bottle or two of the local Carib lager.

  • Red snapper 1 smallish red snapper, cleaned
  • Butter 1 large knob salted butter
  • Vegetables Vegetables: okra, sweet corn off the cob, peas and diced carrot
  • Onion ½ onion, sliced fine + 2 scallions (green onions) cut lengthwise or in 2-cm pieces
  • Salt and pepper Salt, pepper and a sprig of thyme for seasoning

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
TROUT
ARMENIA

Baked Sevan trout bg

ishkhan, իշխան

Sitting at the junction of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Türkiye, the world’s two leading trout producers, Armenia is home to its own highly prized species, ishkhan (Salmo ischchan). The fish, endemic to the waters of Lake Sevan, a historically much-tormented ecosystem, is endangered; two subspecies are already extinct. In the late 1970s, commercial exploitation of wild-caught ishkhan was banned by the then-Soviet authorities, and the lake area declared a national park. If you’re having ishkhan in Armenia, it should be certifiably farmed. Elsewhere, any other kind of trout will make a perfect substitute.

The use of pomegranate here is an elegant, unmistakably Caucasian touch. It’s worth securing the fresh fruit, fairly widespread these days, or else buying the bottled seeds.

  • Trout 1 whole trout, 1 kg or so, cleaned
  • Tomato paste 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • Sour cream 2 tbsp sour cream
  • Pomegranate Half a pomegranate or the bottled equivalent of fresh seeds
  • Paprika 1 tbsp paprika
  • salt salt

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
TROUT
COSTA RICA

Trout in tomato sauce bg

trucha en salsa de tomate

Wedged between the Atlantic and the Pacific, Costa Rica, with its coastal delights, is rarely associated with freshwater pursuits. But the cold streams of the interior host populations of trout that attract a large number of fly-fishers. Aquaculture is also well developed, and while rainbow trout comes a distant third in the rankings – tilapia heavily dominates the sector – production has doubled in a decade. The trout in our recipe is set off by a profusion of herbs, making this a zesty counterpoint to the heartiness of our Kyrgyz offering.

  • Trout 2 trout fillets
  • Garlic 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • Tomatoes 3 tomatoes
  • Salt and pepper Salt, 1 tsp crushed black pepper and ½ tsp crushed cumin seeds
  • Oregano 5 sprigs oregano, fresh or dried
  • Olive oil Olive oil for frying
  • Basil 3 leaves fresh basil

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
TROUT
Kyrgyzstan

Fish manty bg

balyktan zhasalgan manti, балыктан жасалган манты

Kyrgyzstan is described as the country furthest away from any ocean. By way of natural compensation, its river system is stupendous: tens of thousands of waterways, mostly fed by glaciers, run through Kyrgyz mountains. The lakes number close to 2 000. Issyk-Kul, by far the largest of these, saw the introduction of ishkhan trout from Lake Sevan in Armenia in 1930: so well did the fish take to its new environment that it reportedly grew, in some cases, to five times its original size. Trout, in other words, is at home in Kyrgyzstan, and the country is an emerging destination for sports fishing. Fish production, however, fell precipitously after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the trough point of 2009, FAO’s technical assistance has helped the sector bounce back: by 2021, there’d been a fourteenfold jump in output.

In our Kyrgyz recipe, the trout is finely chopped and married to potatoes and onions. This, satisfying as it is, may not be the most unexpected of pairings. But the charm of the dish lies in the manty, the famed Turkic dumplings which encase the mixture. In Kyrgyzstan, as elsewhere in central Asia, a smear of lamb fat (known in Kyrgyz as kurdyuk) might be added to each manty: you won’t taste it, but it will make for a luxurious mouthfeel. Do that, by all means, or else use butter – or indeed, nothing at all if these things aren’t part of your diet. On the other hand, you may wish to chop parsley or dill into the stuffing for a fresher kick.

In the region, the dumplings are steamed in a special dish called a mantyshnitsa, but a bamboo steamer of the kind used for dim sum will do just as well.

OR
  • Rainbow trout 1 rainbow trout, up to 1 kg, cleaned, skinned and thoroughly deboned
  • Large potato 1 large potato or 2 smaller ones
  • Parsley or dill Parsley or dill (optional)
  • Onions 2 onions
  • Pepper salt, red Aleppo pepper and black pepper to taste
  • White flour 500 g white flour
  • Egg 1 egg
  • Salt Salt to taste

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
TUNA
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Fish stew bg

qelyeh MAAHI, ماهی قلیه

With its traditional cuisine leaning heavily towards meat (lamb in particular), the Islamic Republic of Iran holds a middling rank in the fish consumption leagues. Even so, per capita intake has been growing steadily, and the country is turning into a fisheries powerhouse. The blessing of an extensive double shoreline – along the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south, and the Caspian Sea in the north – has a lot to do with this bonanza. The industry employs more than 200 000 people; fish production doubled between the mid-2000s and the mid-2010s. But much of the credit also goes to a booming aquaculture sector, which at the time of writing had topped a million tonnes.

This recipe draws on the gastronomic culture of Bushehr: the southern province, a coastal strip facing Kuwait across the Gulf, is known for its seafood cuisine. Qelyeh Maahi calls for tuna or mackerel, depending on the versions and the degree of refinement sought. Other fish may do, though none too bland or flaky. You’ll want a dense texture to withstand the long simmer, plus enough intrinsic flavour to carry off the spicing.

Tamarind is rich in vitamins B1 and B3 and in potassium. It should be easy enough to find these days, either whole in its hard shell, or else peeled and pressed into bricks. The pulp needs loosening in water; syrupy and tangy, it will lend your stew a delightfully tart note. All told, the finished dish should make you feel you’ve alighted at the gastronomic midpoint between India and the Balkans. Which is, of course, exactly where Bushehr lies on the map.

If no tamarind can be found, grab some plump dates instead and mash them with lime juice. Strain this mixture as you would the tamarind.

  • Small tuna 2 thick tuna steaks(around 350–400 g) (You may want to cut these further into halves.)
  • Tamarind 50 g tamarind
  • Onion 1 small onion, or half a large one, chopped
  • Garlic 2–3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • Coriander 1 bunch coriander (cilantro), chopped
  • Saffron Optional: a pinch or two of saffron, added right at the end
  • Fenugreek 1 tbsp to 25 g fresh fenugreek leaves, chopped – or seeds if unavailable
  • Salt, black pepper, turmeric, coriander seeds and chilli flakes A combined fistful of salt, black pepper, turmeric, coriander seeds and chilli flakes

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
TUNA
OMAN

Lemon fish soup bg

MA’ SOURA, معصورة

Oman’s spectacular coastline cleaves the Gulf. Despite increasing wealth, the country retains some of the slower, artisanal modes of its rustic past. The national fishing fleet consists overwhelmingly of traditional boats; industrial vessels supply just a fraction of the catch.

Fish production has been rising year on year, with a fair share of exports going to Asian markets. This dynamism ties in with broader GDP growth. But there’s another, less upbeat and more incidental factor: Oman has reported to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission that bigger hauls also correlate with a “slowdown in fishing pressure” across the border, in conflict-ridden Yemen.

Oman’s location astride trade routes accounts for the Indian, Persian, African and eastern Mediterranean influences on its cuisine. Yet a frugal Bedouin heritage also means that tasty simplicity, rather than showy opulence, is the norm. In our example, the fish is grilled, then shredded into a hearty, acidic, spicy soup. The recipe uses a whole Red Sea tuna: it’s meant to feed a large family and, true to this convivial informality, lists no prescriptive quantities. As most readers, fisherfolk aside, are unlikely to have a whole tuna at their disposal, now’s the time to use those cheaper tuna cuts, or – again – go for mackerel instead.

Lemon gives this dish the sourness that is a hallmark of regional cuisine. Dried za’atar leaves can be found in Near Eastern food stores or speciality spice shops: substitute oregano, thyme, marjoram or (even better) a mixture of all three if za’atar proves elusive.

  • Rice Rice
  • Small tuna 1 small tuna, or tuna cuts*
  • Tomato Tomato, chopped
  • Parsley Parsley, finely chopped
  • Green onion Green onion (scallion) – the green part only, finely chopped
  • Za’atar Za’atar
  • Cumin powder Cumin powder
  • Squeezed lemon Squeezed lemon or lime juice
* The recipe recommends cooking the fish on the bone, which augments the flavour, so in the absence of a whole tuna, consider using mackerel.

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
TUNA
Ecuador

Cebiche Jipijapa bg

Despite a comparatively modest length of coastline, Ecuador is the top tuna-fishing power in the eastern Pacific: it pulls in over a third of the regional haul. Much of the processing and canning function is concentrated in the province of Manabí, with the port city of Manta seen as the nation’s tuna capital.

While it has yet to achieve the heights of recognition enjoyed by Peruvian cuisine, Ecuador’s riffs off a similar mix of Indigenous, western and modern Japanese traditions. While Peru’s gastronomy has more international visibility, contemporary takes on the national fare flourish in Quito and Guayaquil as they do in Lima. Root vegetables and varieties of corn unknown elsewhere fuel this sense of adventurous rediscovery. In Ecuador as in Peru, and especially in coastal areas, cebiche (the b spelling is preferred locally) cuts across the folk-urban divide. The technique of “cooking” raw fish in a cold citrus marinade is the same; it’s the stuff around the fish that tends to vary. Ecuadorean iterations are generally soupier – with more of the marinade retained or spooned over – and less spicy. In Ecuador, tomatoes (and even ketchup) are commonly added, where more purist versions tend to dominate in Peru. And while in Peru, the dish is frequently served with corn or spuds, Ecuadoreans will often pair it with green plantains.

This version, peculiar to the town of Jipijapa in Manabí province, uses bonito – a more affordable fish that hovers biologically at the edges of the tuna family: it is virtually indistinguishable from skipjack. Bonito is popular around the world, from the Black Sea to the Pacific. In Japan, where it’s known as katsuo, bonito is fermented, dried and flaked to make the condiment katsuobushi: looking rather like pencil shavings and scattered over warm food, the flakes dance prettily in the air before settling into a smoky, rose-coloured mess.

In Ecuadorean cebiche Jipijapa, the bonito is accompanied by mantequilla de maní (peanut butter). As per this book’s rule of thumb, you can use the store-bought stuff or, more heroically, make your own. The recipe is included below.

Patacones are plantain chips. For some of you reading this, securing the plantains may be the toughest job here. If you can’t get them, don’t be tempted to replace them with sugary bananas: opt for some quality ready-made chips instead, such as blue corn or root vegetables. But if you do get plantains, slice them up as you would a banana, salt them a little, dust them with flour and fry them in vegetable oil till golden and still fairly soft. Drain off the excess oil, then place the slices between two sheets of kitchen paper, and use a spatula or the bottom of a jar to flatten them into thin discs. Refry the slices of plantain till crisp, drain them again, and you’re done.

  • Tuna 1 kg bonito, diced, lean and clean pieces only
  • Limes 1 dozen limes(Ecuadoreans would use a citrus variety called limón sutil, but limes will do perfectly.)
  • Large Tomato 1 large tomato, or 2 small ones, and some tomato concentrate
  • Onion 1 onion, chopped
  • Avocado 1 avocado, diced
  • Fresh coriander Fresh coriander (cilantro)
  • Olive oil Olive oil
  • Mustard Mustard
  • Coarse sea salt Coarse sea salt

Method bg

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4