Aegean kakavia (Beautiful fish stew)
What's great about this recipe is that you can use whatever fish you like. Sea bass, wrasse, pickerel, pollock, bream and red mullet all work well. You could even use lobster if you have it and feel like splashing out! Just talk to your fishmonger and get him to recommend a few of his freshest fish. Greek fishermen make this out at sea, using whatever they've hauled into their boat that day, and cooking it in seawater. That's how I learnt to make this. Because their water is ready salted they don't need any seasoning at all to achieve a perfectly delicious stew. Genius! Try to use a mixture of fish, so you get all sorts of different flavours and colours in this wonderful stew.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
What these numbers assume — 15 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Fish | 1 tbsp (18ml) | 6 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Dill | 5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 sticks celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 beef tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 500 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 3-4cm chunks
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 litre organic vegetable stock
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 700 g fresh fish fillets, from
- , ask your fishmonger, scaled and pin-boned
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 small bunch fresh dill, roughly chopped
- greek extra virgin olive oil
- 1 loaf rustic bread, to serve