Benin: Dahomey Fish Stew

A quick history lesson!

Benin was known as the Kingdom of Dahomey from the 1600s onwards, until the French took control of the area in 1892, when it became known as French Dahomey. In 1958, the area became self-governing, and called itself the Republic of Dahomey, and then two years later in 1960 they gained full independence and renamed themselves Benin.

Hence we have Dahomey fish stew. This was a very simple recipe: roll the fish in four and fry, remove from the pan, allow onions and tomatoes to simmer, then add the fish to warm through at the end. The recipe I was following called for peppers, but I wasn't sure which pepper they meant so I added half a red pepper (capsicum) diced up which I thought was the right thing to do as it bulked it up a bit more and gave it some more colour - and if there is anything this project needs more of, it's colour!

Coating the fish with flour

Frying it up

I actually didn't eat this the evening that I cooked it, as I had a late lunch of leftover garnaches from Belize, and wasn't hungry in the evening. So I ate this the following day, as my lunch. It worked well! The flavours were all quite mellow and a little plain, but otherwise tasty. I actually had some Belarusian carrot salad on the side with the fish which gave it a little more zing. Apparently you're supposed to serve Dahomey fish stew with rice but I'm glad that I didn't because I feel like I would have quite easily lost the flavours in the rice. Additionally, it was quite a dry stew, I found, so I don't know why the rice would have been necessary. Perhaps for bulk.

Again, this recipe called for palm oil, but I used regular vegetable oil instead. I'm still not convinced about the ethics of palm oil and more investigation is needed.

My recipe is an adapted version of this one here.

Dahomey Fish Stew
Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 firm-fleshed white fish fillets (I used cod)
• 1/4 cup flour
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper (capsicum), chopped
• 1/3 cup fish stock or water
• Red pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Cut the fish into two-inch sections. Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl, and roll the fish in the flour mixture to coat each side.
2. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Once hot, cook the fish in the oil, turning it until it is golden brown all over. Remove from the pan and set aside on a paper towel to drain the oil. 
3. In the same pan, fry the onions for about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and red pepper (capsicum), stir, and cook for about 6 minutes. 
4. Reduce heat to low, add fish stock or water, cover, and simmer for about 5-7 minutes. 
5. Return fish to the pan, add red pepper flakes if desired, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.