Sandra Rocha Evanoff
Poulsbo, Washington USA
Universal Kitchen: Group 2
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Codfish Moqueca Baiana
The Story Behind the Dish
Moqueca Baiana is a fish stew, made with fish and shrimp. It's from Bahia in northern Brazil. It's one the most popular dishes in the country and can be prepared in many different ways. Here in the USA, I use halibut or codfish. It's very colorful like Brazil.
Moqueca Baiana reminds me of my childhood in Bahia when my mother bought the fish at the farmers market and we would go to the river behind our home to clean the fish. The origin of the moqueca, still uncertain if it were the Portuguese, that brought to Brazil, and had a fusion with African cuisine with their ingredients, such as palm oil, coconut milk, and spices, or came from the indigenous who were in Brazil, when the Portuguese arrived. Fish was one of the main dishes from the indigenous. What I know, no matter where you come from, we all love moqueca. I am from Bahia and we love moqueca.
What you’ll need!
We will need a big open pan (large skillet pan, a medium fried pan for the farofa or pirao, and small deep pan for the rice, wood spoons, knives). If you do not eat fish or shrimp we can make the moqueca with veggies, or we can make it with plantain banana with the same ingredients, jackfruits or whatever veggies you want!
The ingredients for 4 people recipe:
1 1/2 pound of Cod fish or halibut (cuted in thick about 1 inch) (Any fish better with white types)
1 pound fresh shrimp peeled
1 lime, juiced
1 pinch salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons palm oil (without is okay)
3 large tomatoes
1/2 onion, chopped very small
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups coconut milk
1 tablespoon of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of coriander
red crushed pepper
Palm oil farofa.
We normally serve the moqueca with white rice, and farofa, or pirao. Farofa is made with yucca flour (called farinha). Pirao ( which is a yuca cream, almost a grits) has the same ingredients.
1/4 onion
yucca flower or "farinha"
salt a taste
black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of palm oil
red crush pepper
1 1/2 cup of jasmine rice (1 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 tablespoon of fresh onion chopped, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, salt and water to cook).
About Sandra Rocha Evanoff
My name is Sandra Rocha Evanoff. I was born in the Bahia region of northern Brazil. I was introduced to the kitchen at a young age while assisting my mother in the small bed and breakfast she operated. I learned about fresh foods from my father who operated a fruit market. Here began my exposure to healthy eating as we prepared foods we had grown ourselves.
When I moved to Seattle, in 2008, I started donating my dinner as an auction item to support my community. The dinner called Brasil Comes to You. Every year I donated one to three dinners. It's been 13 years since I donated this dinner. In 2018, I received a call that someone wanted to hire for a dinner for 25 people. So, I accepted the challenge and in the same year we opened Brasil Comes to You. I think I would like to share this journey, how community service has changed my life, and how Social Gastronomy, which started because I wanted to help the community, turned into a small business. We still help our community with a portion of our income. We still donate our dinner + cooking fresh and healthy food for people who are living in shelters in our community.
We believe the magic of food helps connect people, build relationships, inspire change, and bring the community together. Eating fresh, and healthy is our ultimate goal.