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Brazil · White Catfish

Ceará-Style Fish and Vegetable Stew

Peixada Cearense

A Sunday dish from Brazil’s northeast coast: fish steaks poached with potatoes, carrots, chayote, cabbage and boiled eggs in a tomato and cilantro broth. The broth then becomes the pirão served alongside.

  • Prep 30 min
  • Cook 40 min
  • Serves 6
  • Level Medium
Photo: Just a Brazilian man from Brazil · CC BY 2.0
Served with: Brazilian Fish-Broth Porridge ↓En Español

Ingredients

Tap each item as you gather it.

For the fish

For the stew

Method

Step by step, the way it is done on the island.

  1. Marinate. Season the fish with lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper and refrigerate 30 minutes.
  2. Start the broth. In a wide pot warm the olive oil, add half the onion, tomato, pepper and cilantro with the colorau and cook 5 minutes. Add the water, potatoes and carrots and simmer 10 minutes.
  3. Add the vegetables. Add the chayote, cabbage and plantain and simmer 5 minutes more.
  4. Add the fish. Lay the fish on top, cover with the rest of the onion, tomato, pepper and cilantro, cover and simmer gently 15 minutes until cooked through. Add the eggs for the last 5 minutes.
  5. Serve. Lift the fish, vegetables and eggs onto a platter. Use 3 cups of the hot broth to make the pirão and serve everything together with white rice and hot pepper sauce.

On the side

The side dish that belongs with it, full recipe included.

Brazil

Brazilian Fish-Broth Porridge

Pirão

Hot fish broth thickened with cassava flour into a silky, savory porridge. Along the Brazilian coast it is served with moqueca and peixada so nothing from the fish goes to waste.

  • Prep 10 min
  • Cook 40 min
  • Serves 4–6
  • Level Easy

You need

  • 1–1½ lb (450–700 g) fish heads and frames, gills removed
  • 6 cups water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup (130 g) fine cassava flour (farinha de mandioca fina)

How to make it

  1. Make the broth. Simmer the fish heads and frames in the water with a pinch of salt for 25 minutes. Strain, saving 4 cups of broth. Pick off any meat to add back.
  2. Season. In a pot, cook the onion in the olive oil 4 minutes, add the garlic and tomato and cook 3 minutes more. Add the broth, salt and cilantro and bring to a boil.
  3. Thicken. Lower the heat and rain in the cassava flour, whisking constantly so no lumps form. Cook 5–8 minutes, stirring, until thick and glossy like soft polenta.
  4. Serve. Stir in the picked fish meat and serve hot with fish stew and rice.

Photo: Just a Brazilian man from Brazil · CC BY 2.0

More ways to cook White Catfish

Same fish, a different corner of the sea.

Utuado, Puerto RicoPuerto Rican Stewed Catfish
Maracaibo, VenezuelaGriddled Catfish with Guasacaca
Pinar del Río, CubaCuban Breaded Catfish