Guisado from Portugal

A typical dish from the Portuguese coast that combines fresh vegetables with a number of different breeds of Atlantic fish.

To serve eight:

2 Ks of fish, ( for example cod, haddock, lumpsucker, hake or pollack ), coarse sea salt, five tomatoes or 330g tinned tomatoes, 2 green peppers, 750g potatoes, 2 medium onions, 4 cloves of garlic, five tbsp. olive oil, four stems of parsley, 4 stems of coriander, 1 laurel leaf, 3 cloves, salt, white pepper and 100 ml of water.

Chop up the larger fish, leave the smaller ones whole. Sprinkle with sea salt and leave to rest for 60 min.

Skin and chop the tomatoes. Clean and coarsely chop the peppers. Peel and roughly chop the potatoes. Peel the onions and garlic, chop finely and fry in olive oil until soft. Remove the pan from the heat. Spread the peppers and tomatoes onto the onions and garlic, add the potatoes, finely chopped herbs and spices, season with salt and pepper, add the water and boil on a medium heat for ten minutes. Remove the coarse salt from the fish, season with white pepper, add to the stew and cook slowly over a small flame until done.

The cooking time depends on the size of the fish. Calculate approx. four minutes for each 1 cm thickness. Make sure the potatoes and the fish are both given the right amount of cooking time.