East Timor / Timor-Leste : Codfish Kalderada

Located in South East Asia Timor-Leste has a unique & interesting food history, combining local ingredients & food traditions with multiple culinary influences from Portugal, Indonesia, China & India. The food of Timore-Leste is further influenced by  its global location & geography which combine to produce an unpredictable climate & fresh water shortages.  As such Timor has experienced food security issues in the past, especially during the ‘Hungry Season’, between November & February. The Timorese people have traditionally responded to these challenges with resilience & self sufficiency through their own food production.

We cooked

CODFISH KALDERADA

Which we served with

White rice & crusty bread

This meal was a delicious & rich one pot fish stew which gave us a taste of how people might cook & eat in Timor. Learning about the food security challenges in Timor helped us to see why the main meal in Timor might be cooked in one pot.

CODFISH KALDERADA

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

·      1 brown onion, finely sliced in rings

·      1 red onion finely sliced in rings

·      4 garlic cloves, crushed

·      1 red capsicum, roughly chopped

·      1 green capsicum deseeded & roughly chopped

·      8 medium size potatoes, sliced thick

·      4 carrots peeled & sliced thick

·      2 tomatoes, skinned &, finely chopped

·      600 gm fresh cod, cut in chunks

·      250 gm green prawns - peeled

·      salt and pepper to taste

·      1 tsp paprika

·      2 bay leaves

·      I stick lemongrass cut in half lengthways

·      1 tsp Tumeric

·      1 tbs brown sugar

·      1 piece of ginger; thumb size, chopped

·      2 whole chilli

·      2 tbs olive oil

·      6 cloves

·      I cup white vinegar

·      I bottle beer

METHOD:

1.     Mix the vinegar, tumeric, paprika, crushed garlic & chopped ginger together

2.     Pour the olive oil into a large pot then layer the ingredients in as follows

3.      1/3 of the potatoes

4.     ½ the carrots

5.     ½ the onions

6.      ½ the fish & ½ the lemongrass

7.     ½ the tomatoes, one bay leaf one chilli

8.     ½ the  green and red capsicum

9.     ½ the prawns

10.  dress with ½ the vinegar mix & the cloves

11.  chopped tomato

12.  Repeat this process 

13.  Now add a  top  layer of  the last 1/3 of the potatoes.

14.  Pour the beer over the layers and put the lid on. 

15.  Now slowly bring the pot to the boil & turn back to a low/medium heat so the ingredients slowly cook for about 45 mins.
Serve with white rice  & crusty white bread

Adapted from recipes & information found at various web sources including:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/71382/portuguese-traditional-fishermans-stew---caldeirada-de-peixe.html

http://rasta-east.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/typical-food-east-timor.html