Spicy Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous

Stew in the summer! Are you crazy? No, just lazy. We made this in February and I'm just now posting about it. This spicy (or not, depends on your taste or what you forget) stewed fish recipe is quick and adaptable, which is good because I wanted to use food that was already in the house and when I went to the store to buy ingredients I forgot the shrimp. So now there's no shrimp. But it's not called spicy stewed shrimp now is it? Oh, it's called spicy...and I don't have a hot chili, well fine*, I'll substitute a nice red bell pepper and call my dish Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous. Mmmmm good. Don't worry I added some special olives and pickled lemons to make up for my forgetfulness.

The pepper* and the lemons. Let me tell you about these lemons. I bought them in an international grocery in St. Louis near the Crown Candy Kitchen. CCK is awesome, so awesome and sugar overloading that it made me forget the name of the lemon store. I love these lemons and they make almost every dish better, but alas I can't find them here and as you can see the jar is almost empty!

Recipe Time: Spicy Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous
adapted from Cooking Light January/February 2010
which was adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver
serves 4

1 Cup uncooked couscous
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 Cups fat-free chicken broth
20 oz uncooked white fish, cut into large pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp diced garlic
1 bell pepper, diced (*okay, it should be 1 fresh hot chili, thinly sliced)
14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen green peas
6 large olives stuffed with feta
1/4 medium-sized pickled lemon

1. Place couscous in a medium bowl or sauce pan (basically anything with a lid); add 2 Tbs lemon juice, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper. 
2. Pour boiling chicken stock over couscous; cover and let stand for at least 5 minutes. 
3. Fluff couscous with fork before serving.
4. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper over fish. 
5. In a large skillet, warm 2 Tbs oil over medium heat. 
6. Add remaning lemon juice, cumin powder, cinnamon, garlic, and *bell pepper. Cook for 2 minutes.
7. Then layer the fish and tomatoes. Cook for 5 min.
8. Add peas and cook for 5 more min.
9. Serve the stew over couscous, garnish with pickled lemons and olives.

Spicy Anchovies and Fried Plantains

Spicy anchovies (or sprats as they are called by the coworker who provided this recipe) with a mix of wild and jasmine rice and a side of fried plantains. Because the Little Apple "bleeds purple" the rice magically turned a light violet hue in the rice cooker (though I suspect it was the wild and jasmine rice getting a little too familiar with each other). Anchovies are umami.

All of the fishy ingredients, in no particular order: various types of cherry-size homegrown tomatoes, vegetable oil, red onion, jalapeno, dried and frozen anchovies (with heads removed), garlic, rampe, curry leaves, red pepper flakes, turmeric, and cinnamon.

Dried rampe and curry leaves were provided by aforementioned coworker, but check your local international market or spice seller. The rampe are like bay leaves in that you should remove them after cooking. Rampe is also called pandan, it is nice in sweet dishes too. Turmeric and cinnamon add more sweetness. The recipe called for 2 Tbs of crushed dried chili (which I assumed was red pepper flakes because that's what I had available) but you can see that there is only 1 Tbs on the plate.

Just about time to plate. On a side note, I regret not wearing gloves to cut the jalapeno. And I had to tie a towel around my face to retain some semblance of breathing after putting the spices and veggies in the hot oil.

Plantains!! Not your old bananas that you refuse to make me banana bread with. This stage of ripeness worked well for shallow pan frying slices.

Mmmm. Can we just take moment to look longingly at these plantains. I just ate them and yet....mmmmm


Recipe Time: Spicy Anchovies
this is pretty much the recipe as given, with some clarification

250grams Sprat (anchovies)
1 red onion, diced fine
3 cloves of garlic chopped
4 tablespoons oil
Turmeric ¼  tsp
Cinnamon ¼  tsp
Rampe (unknown amount, gaahhh)
Curry leaves (again, unknown!)
1 small jalapeno, diced fine
2 Tbs of crushed dried chili
Salt to taste

1. Add 4-5 Tbs of vegetable oil and fry the sprats until they turn slightly brown and crispy. (If the oil dries out add more oil). If the sprats are fried too much they will taste bitter.
2. Then add rest of the incredients and stir until the onions are cooked. Don’t over cook the onion. If you like, add a small sliced tomato at the end.
3. These are all rough measurements. So you may need to add more chili.

A special treat for you. Anchovies before cooking and before I ripped their heads off. Arghbraaiins!