Caldeirada
| File:Caldeirada Paraense.jpg
Caldeirada
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Portugal |
| Details | |
| Type | Fish stew |
| Main ingredient(s) | Fish, potatoes |
Caldeirada is a Portuguese fish stew consisting of a wide variety of fish and potatoes, along with other ingredients.[1][2] A fishermen's stew, the dish has been described as "a grand and glorious fish muddle that varies from town to town and depends on what the fisherman have managed to catch."[3]
Caldeirada is similar to other types of fish stew, such as the French bouillabaisse, Greek kakavia, Spanish zarzuela, and Italian cacciucco.[4]
One cookbook states that the dish typically consists of "a fifty-fifty mix of lean and oily fish" along with shellfish such as clams and mussels, and often squid or octopus as well.[3] This recipe used two kinds of oily fish (such as mackerel, swordfish, or tuna) and two kinds of lean whitefish (such as cod, monkfish, hake, flounder, and haddock), plus shrimp, mussels in the shell, and squid.[3]
One cookbook gives as a typical assortment in a caldeirada conger eel, angel shark, sea bass or sea bream, red gurnard, sardines, ray, shrimp, and clams.[1] One cookbook recommends about 11 ounces of fish per person.[1] Other components of the dish include vegetables (such as potatoes, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and tomato purée or tomato paste); spices (such as salt and black pepper, bay leaf, coriander, parsley, sweet paprika, or oregano), and other ingredients (such as vermicelli, olive oil, port wine, white wine, and whisky or brandy).[1][3] Some recipes do not add salt to caldeirada, because the brininess of the shellfish already adds salt.[3]
Caldeirada is also known in Brazil (a former Portuguese colony), where it has been described as an aromatic chowder of river fish and coriander.[5]
Goan Caldine
In the former portuguese Estado da India, Goa this thick stew is called as Peixe/Fish Caldine,[6] there are a few instances where it is pronounced as Caldeen or Caldinho and still fewer instances where it is referred as Caldeirada. Goan Caldine differs from "Caldo" or soup/broth. It also is different from Pato/duck Cabidela, where poultry extremities/parts (wings, legs ) are braised in blood during cooking.[7] The Caldine is chiefly made with shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels, prawns) as well as fish (whole small fish or large fish steaks, e.g. pomfret steaks are highly popular) which were traditionally fried in coconut oil. The main ingredients in Goan Caldine Fish Curry or Goan Yellow Fish Curry, are thick Coconut milk which provides the aroma and sweet flavor for the thick stew, along with sofreir/refogado/sauted diced onions and few diced tomatoes. The most important spice is turmeric which provides the characteristic yellow color. Other spices include minced garlic, minced ginger, roasted black pepper seeds, roasted cumin seeds and roasted coriander seeds and roasted red chillies (Kashmir or peri-peri), that blends into a thick stew. Acidic blends of Goan palm vinegar and tamarind augments the taste. Goan Caldine Fish Curry is generally garnished with raw chopped cilantro leaves just prior to serving. Some other methods of preparation that are create sensory appealing foods include garnishing with green and red chillies which are slit vertically/lengthwise to resemble flowers. A variant preparation with eggs is called "Egg Caldine." Often whole eggs are cracked and gently stirred cautiously into the hot near boiling Caldine which immediately coagulates the surrounding egg albumin entrapping the egg yolk. Eggs are a substitute for protein as well as provides a variety and consumed during the four/five weeks of advent/lent season, catholic cultural practice of abstaining from meat consumption prior to Christmas/Easter season, with the dietary restrictions which was through out the season and is currently limited to Fridays now during advent and lent and includes Ash Wednesday. Non-Catholic Goans also prepare Caldine using only vegetables (mushrooms, cauliflower, and drumsticks[8][better source needed]), and these are also consumed by Catholics. During the June July monsoon season, when fresh fish is not available, this preparation when devoid of fish is called as "Sovrak." Goans rarely/seldom add potato to fish curry preparations. Most Goan original preparations are traditionally prepared without "batata" or potato and were omitted to exhibit aristocratic inclinations. The sliced/diced/cubed potatoes are used as extenders to leftover meat stews, which adds a distinct taste on the next day along with the warm over flavor. Often food conosour, recall the traditional food cooked in cozinha/kitchen using earthen clay pots and miss the extrinsic flavor of caju/cashew wood and leaves, coconut palm fronds and other fire woods which were the authentic methods of cooking which have significantly diminished toward the end of the 20th century.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ilí Lacerda, The Secrets of Portuguese Cookery (2009), p. 45.
- ↑ Maria Jose Sevilla, Life and Food in the Basque Country (New Amsterdam Books, 1998), p. 66.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Jean Anderson, Food of Portugal (HarperCollins, 1994), p. 112.
- ↑ William Black, Al Dente: The Adventures of a Gastronome in Italy (Transworld, 2004), p. 63.
- ↑ David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 469.
- ↑ http://www.goanfoodrecipes.com/2009/07/caldine-curry.html
- ↑ http://flavorsofbrazil.blogspot.com/2011/12/portugals-culinary-heritage-cabidela.html
- ↑ Moringa oleifera
