In this episode, test cook Becky Hays makes Julia a Brazilian classic: Moqueca (Brazilian Shrimp and Fish Stew).
Get the recipe for Moqueca:
Buy our winning food processor:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
50 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The energetic reaction of my favorite culinary thespian (Julia) notwithstanding, the ATK version of moqueca could use a little TLC. First, the recommended amount of lime juice is largely buried by the all the other ingredients. I would strongly recommend the addition of two lime leaves (fresh or frozen from any Asian food market) to the stewing tomato base. It makes all the difference in the world. I'd also stay away from adding a whole raw onion to the hot salsa. The (recommended) half teaspoon of sugar does nothing to cut through the raw bitterness. A caramelized onion would work far better or–if you want to split the difference like I did–use 5 whole scallions. I would also add a heaping teaspoon of garam masala or any other homemade or commercially/well-prepared seafood masala to the stewing tomatoes. It's not a particularly Brazilian touch, but it takes the dish to another level. FYI, I had moqueca at a very good restaurant in Fortaleza a number of years ago and, like most non-crustacean Brazilian food of the time, it was bland and unimaginative. The dish I prepared and enjoyed last night was infinitely better than the one I remember. Thanks, ATK, for the inspiration.
1st time cooking Moqueca I loved it!! Thank you! Boa Noite Chao Chao
It seems to be a nice and tasty fish stew. Not even close to be Moqueca though.
Have to at least make mention of the palm oil, even if you can’t find it, given how traditional it is.
Also, lime juice won’t harm the fish if you use it just before you put it in the stew, like 30 seconds before.
I made this tonite and it was delicious! I saw some reviewers complaining about no palm oil which I did not have. So I used 2 TBLS of coconut oil with a 1/4 tsp of turmeric. I used red pepper only as I do not like green pepper. For the vegetable mix in the food processor I did not use cilantro as I am part of the 30% who loathes it. Instead I used fresh parsley. I cooked the ingredients as directed in the video then added the seafood and set it aside. I keep on hand little packets of lime powder instead of trying to keep fresh limes which often spoil before I use them. I put two of them in with the seafood. For medical reasons I am unable to do spicy so did not do the pepper sauce at the end. I was not sure whether or not I would like this but it is a winner. It came together very quickly so would be fine for a weeknight meal, but entirely appropriate to serve for company. The video did help as far as showing how long to cook the different steps. The only change I will make next time is that for my personal taste I would have been happy with a half pound of fish and a half pound of shrimp. I felt it was a bit heavy with the seafood. Thank you for making it possible for me to explore a new International recipe!
"One of the emblems of Brazilian gastronomy, moqueca is a fish stew with a myriad of variations across the entire country." I get so annoyed with righteous people who get on their high horse saying a recipe is not authentic because it has an ingredient they are not familiar with or missing an ingredient they are accustomed to using. How many ways are there to make potato salad here in the United States. Can you say that any one of them is "authentic?" Get over it and enjoy the recipe or just move on!
Absolutely delicious and easy to prepare. Thanks.
I want to cook this!!!🤤😋🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
This is so delicious! Mom’s getting it for Mom’s day tonight!
I made this and it’s very lovely. I would not call it low-key. A lot of prep work is required. Your rice, your vegetables, all of those things you have to prep ahead of time – not to mention cutting and marinating the fish. So while it’s a great dish it is not an easy weeknight quick thing. Keep that in mind. Took me two hours at least from start to finish.
The Karen hair is kinda funny.
OMG this is not a moqueca! Maaaybe "ensopado". But it looks good.
Way to screw up a recipe. This woman took an authentic recipe, botched it and called Moqueca. This recipe is gross, please look up real moqueca. This not how we make it and I’m capixaba. My state and Bahias are the real moqueca inventors.
Wrong color and thickness
Sua receita está maravilhosa! Parabéns 👏👏👏 parece muito gostosa 😋😋😋😋❤️❤️❤️
Yes that is the captain's cut of cod! 🙂
No spices or jolopenos? An abomination.
okay, so many things are wrong about this:
1 – We don't add lime juice to the fish. Maybe some people do, but real cooks know that it precooks the fish and that's a big no-no.
2 – Cadê a porra do dendê? If you could find malagueta you could have also found dendê.
3 – Canned tomatoes de cu é rola. And olive oil too. We ain't making no pizza.
4 – Cilantro is too delicate to be cooked like that. You can use the stalks into the cooking process, but the leaves are a freakin garnish.
5 – That sauce is unnecessary. The pepper could have perfectly been added into the dutch oven as an ingredient, not as a side dish. No need for that fuss. At the end you just have more dishes to do by washing the food processor.
think of bringing a real brazilian into the show next time so you don't decontextualize Brazilian culture for the sake of entertaining seppos.
This is a fake moqueca! No lime and no dendê 😎 little taste like most food and coffee from USA.
we would NEVER use codfish or canned tomatoes for this dish! and where's the dendê oil?
Moqueca Baiana >>>>>>> Moqueca Capixaba
As a Brazilian, this recipe was an offense. I’m sorry.
This is not Moqueca with dende oil!
🐟 I can say that I've made the effort to make Moqueca. And it turned out terrific. For us the fish took longer to cook than the shrimp 🦐. That's easy to adjust for. I kept a medium boil going to cook everything thoughouly… heck it's seafood. Hot sauce and salt are your friends. Caution it's an addicting concoction.
Nice recipe and technique but missing the red palm oil! Strongly recommended for most authentic flavor!
More Becky…I love it when she's on. Always great recipes that look so good!
Simply delightful! I live on the Coast of South America so I had access to all of those goodies which were nice and fresh. Loved it! Thank you for an addition to my fish repertoire!
You missed the palm oil. Dendê
There are regional variations of this dish. In my region we don't use coconut milk. Well done. It looks great.
This might be SHELLFISH of me to say, but I love this recipe for its so-FISH-tication! Hahahahaha!
I don't see how this is any different from a south Indian fish curry, apart from the type of fish they used.
Does it have to be a Dutch oven? Can we use a common stainless steel pot?
Cant wait to try this I love seafood👍
👍🌹🌹🌹👍
Where is the palm tree oil (dende oil)?
I made this exactly as shown
. The fish & shrimp tecknicked was amazing & velvety.
Looks so delicious!! It really helps if you can add ingredients in the description box!
I’ve made this many times over the last couple of years , always a hit 👌
That isn't Brazilian mukeca. Sorry.. I know what I'm talking about it.
This is just a stew of Bahia not a moqueca. Real moqueca is from Espírito Santo and doesn’t have coconut milk.
I made it with one change. I made a shrimp stock and added 1 cup to the recipe before I added the coconut milk. It was delicious!
Omg I followed this recipe today and it is so delicious. My family and I had not only second helpings but 3rds! I've never made anything like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect, especially with the coconut milk, but it had such a tasty flavor I will definitely make it again
It is a very delicious recipe.
This dish is from Bahia state, a wonderful land that’s looks like Florida, but the difference is that we have coconut tree instead of palm trees, Bahia the land with happy people!!!! 🏝⛵️🏖🏕⛰
CADÊ O DENDÊ?????? No dendê, no moqueca! LOL
That looks scrumptious! I am trying this recipe this week.
Big infomercial energy here
Fez a moqueca tudo errado kkkkkkkkkk nunca vi bater os vegetais, na vdd né meche eles, só deixa cozinhando
Americas Test Kitchen olá sou o cantor e compositor Gato Amarelo e vim lhe desejar um maravilhoso dia junto com um pouco da minha arte: Música Eu poderia -Quantas vezes eu prendi o choro, esperando você me olhar,
eu cansei de ti avisar ,Que não tenho motivos pra ficar.
e vou aproveitar a oportunidade e lhe convidar para vim ouvir essa música
I made an even easier version of this that is amazingly DELICIOUS!!! Put the canned whole tomatoes in the food processor and then add about a half a cup of Korean kim chee (buy a jar in an Asian supermarket), some cilantro and then process until it's the consistency of salsa. Then in your Dutch oven saute whatever minced vegetables you like in the bottom of the pot in some olive oil. Once that's done pour in the tomato/kim chee mix and add the can of coconut milk, mix them together and bring the base to a full rolling boil. Once it's boiling add the shrimp and cod and turn off the heat to let the seafood cook with the lid on for 15 minutes. It's done!!!