Day 152: São Tomé and Príncipe and Cod Fish Feijoada

Good evening, Raffies!

From all the plans I had for my holiday at my mom's, so far I have been laying by the pool, enjoying the sun and doing absolutely nothing. It feels great to have summer temperature and sun everyday. This is something I definitely miss in the Netherlands.

Today we are going to have a nice lunch and tonight we are going to enjoy some nice Greek cuisine at a restaurant not far from here.

Lunch is a jump to Africa. We are going to São Tomé and Príncipe and enjoying some delicious cod fish feiojada. This dish is originally from Portugal, but stranded on the island during the colonial period. At the beginning, the recipe used black beans, but the islanders preferred white beans for it.
The variety of herbs and spices is skipped too, on São Tomé and Príncipe. Carrots might also be skipped, whilst pork and cabbage added. Another striking sign is the red palm oil instead of olive oil, which gives this dish singular flavour.
The recipe is simple and rather quick to prepare:

1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 tbsp red palm oil + some to taste
2 c white beans, boiled
200 g tomato puree
200 g vegetable stock
salt
pepper
500 g cod fish fillets

If you are using dried beans, soak them in water over night. Boil them until soft before starting with this recipe. You can also use fresh white beans or the canned ones. In both cases, you can skip the boiling.
Start by frying the onion and the carrots in the palm oil for a few minutes. Add the beans, tomato puree and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Let it simmer until the carrots are soft - approximately 20 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste and mix well. Now add the cod fillets on top and let it simmer for another 15 minutes, until the fish is done. When the fish falls apart when you poke it with a fork, it is done.
You can garnish with some fresh parsley and add a drizzle of red palm oil, if you want to be like a real Saotomean.

The flavour was great! The fish was tender and juicy, the beans soft and delicate and the palm oil gave this extra African feeling!

Love,

Raffi