This Portuguese Monkfish and Shrimp Rice — Arroz de tamboril com gambas — is a perfect fall dish. As the weather is slowly cooling and leaves are coloring, I long for warmer fare, but I’m not yet ready for meat stews and braises that bring comfort in colder months. So, I turned for inspiration to lighter fish stews and soups that I enjoyed on my visits to Lisbon and Porto.
Lisbon
Porto
Portuguese cookery is a melting pot that reflects the country’s history. Its peasant cooking uses locally available, seasonal, indigenous ingredients and pairs them with foreign ingredients brought by different rulers or discovered during global exploration. Centuries of rule by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moors and immigration of Sephardic Jews from the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition left their culinary influences. But the Age of Discovery, Portugal’s golden age, was most influential on Portuguese cooking.
Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos), Belem, to Henry the Navigator and other explorers
Portugal is a maritime nation. For centuries, Portuguese explorers and navigators circumnavigated the globe discovering and mapping new eastern and western sea routes from Europe to Asia. Although Portugal was too small to dominate and defend all the territories it discovered against other European powers, it disseminated new ingredients discovered by its explorers throughout the world with its vast seafaring reach.
This Monkfish and Shrimp Rice combines fresh, local seafood, a nativized rice (a legacy of the Moors) and piri piri, tomatoes and bell peppers (products of Portuguese exploration of the Americas).
Portugal’s fishing industry centered in the cold Atlantic iodine-rich waters along a 1,115 mile (1,794 km) coastline, produces fish and seafood with excellent taste and texture. Consequently, the country has Europe’s highest fish consumption per capita and is among the top four fish consumers in the world. Portuguese cooks prepare seafood in many ways – grilled, boiled, poached, fried, stewed, roasted, or steamed. But to paraphrase a Portuguese adage, anything can be turned into soup!
Bountiful fish at Lisbon’s Time-Out Market
The base for this Monkfish and Shrimp Rice is arroz de tamboril – monkfish rice. Tamboril is Portuguese for monkfish which is ubiquitous in the country’s cuisine. Monkfish is a meaty fish, often called “poor man’s lobster” because its fine, firm white flesh and delicate flavor are similar to lobster, widely used in Portuguese seafood soups and stews.
Monkfish at Lisbon market
This traditional, everyday dish of rice and monkfish is a typical meal in coastal towns throughout Portugal. Like many peasant dishes, Portuguese cooks readily adapt monkfish rice with additional ingredients, depending on budget. The monkfish version is the simplest and cheapest, but it can be enriched with shrimp — com gambas –as I did here, or with additional seafood such as clams, mussels, scallops, squid, crab claws or octopus to become a lavish seafood rice —arroz de marisco.
Monkfish and Shrimp Rice also reflects the country’s affection of rice inherited from the Moors who discovered Portugal’s unique environmental conditions for growing rice in the 7th century. Today, Portugal cultivates primarily two varieties of rice: Agulha, a long grain Indica rice, and Carolino, a native short grain variety similar to Spanish Bomba. It’s no surprise that Portuguese are the largest consumers of rice in Europe, savoring 33-35 pounds (15 – 16 kg) per capita a year, compared with the 9-11 pounds (4 – 5 kg) European average.
Portuguese seafood stews such as this Monkfish and Shrimp Rice are usually prepared as maladrinho, a term that translates as “naughty rice” which means a creamy and saucy rice. Carolino, the oldest rice in traditional Portuguese cuisine and the most consumed rice in Portugal, is an essential ingredient for this Monkfish and Shrimp Rice. It is a pearl-white, short grain variety, perfect for a seafood stew because its high starch amount absorbs the simmering liquid, completely incorporating its seasoning and flavors and creating a creaminess similar to risotto but considerably lighter in texture. Four to five parts of a flavorful stock are required for each part of Carolino rice to achieve that the special maladrinho sauciness.
Bell peppers and tomatoes, early imports from the Americas, onions, garlic, white wine, shrimp stock, olive oil flavored with bay leaves, parsley and coriander provide the basic flavors for the refogado — the braising liquid. But a sauce made from piri piri (which means “pepper pepper” in Swahili), a diminutive pepper, also known as African Bird’s-Eye, elevates this basic braise to new heights.
Piri piri, brought by Portuguese explorers from the Americas to Europe and later to Portugal’s African and other colonies, is often used in sauces or marinades with other mellowing ingredients such as onion, garlic, lemon and various herbs and spices. Piri piri is a hot pepper, almost as hot as a habanero, but a few tablespoons of piri piri sauce in this Monkfish and Shrimp Rice create a subtle heat, not an explosion, adding a light, fresh and fruity taste.
This Monkfish and Shrimp Rice exemplifies Portuguese cooking: simple, fresh, full of flavor and history. Carolino rice is the perfect ingredient for absorbing the essence of monkfish, shrimp, braising vegetables and spices. It is easy to see why this dish is popular in Portugal. It is full-bodied yet comforting.
Monkfish, Shrimp and Rice Stew — Arroz de tamboril com gambas
For the arroz:
1 pound (454 g) large raw shrimp with or without the heads
2 pounds (908 g) monkfish, cut into cubes (substitute with firm white-fleshed fish)
4 cups (946 ml) shrimp stock
1½ cups vinho verde*
½ cup (118 ml) olive oil
2 tablespoons piri piri sauce, purchased or homemade**
1½ cups Portuguese Carolino rice or substitute with Spanish Bomba***
Salt and pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
10 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves separated from stems and finely chopped; stems saved for shrimp stock
10 sprigs cilantro, leaves separated from stems and finely chopped; stems saved for shrimp stock
3 medium Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 medium to large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
For the shrimp stock:
Shrimp shells and heads, reserved from shelling shrimp
1 onion, chopped
Coriander and parsley stalks
1 tablespoon salt
4 cups (946 ml) water
Preparing shrimp stock: Peel and remove heads and shells from shrimp. Refrigerate cleaned shrimp for later use. Place shrimp heads and shells in medium saucepan. Add 4 cups of water, salt, chopped onion, coriander and parsley stalks. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside for a least 20 minutes. Strain when ready to use, discarding solids.
Preparing vegetables and rice: In a separate large saucepan, heat olive oil and gently fry the onions for 10 minutes. Add rice and sauté until ends become opaque and grains are thoroughly coated in oil. Add bell pepper, tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, 3 tablespoons each of chopped parsley and coriander for 15 minutes. Continue sautéing for another 3 minutes.
Then add garlic, piri piri sauce and vinho verde. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring often. (Stirring is important to prevent rice from sticking to the pan bottom and also to loosen starch on rice surface to create the characteristic maladrinho creaminess.) Adjust salt and pepper to taste and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Adding seafood: After the rice has cooked for 10 – 15 minutes and is partially cooked, add monkfish pieces. Monkfish will take approximately 5 minutes to cook. Then taste the rice and if it is slightly al dente, stir in shrimp and cook for a few minutes until the shrimp turn pink.
Serve immediately, ladling one or two scoops of rice and seafood into deep bowls. Garnish with remaining chopped parsley and cilantro. Serve with a bowl of piri piri sauce for added heat.
Serves 4.
*Vinho verde is a light, slightly effervescent, tart wine made from early-picked grapes in the Minho region of NW Portugal. The name means “green wine,” but translates as “young wine” usually released three to six months after grapes are harvested. Vinho Verde is not a grape variety, it is a DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) for the production of wine.
**Piri Piri Sauce
There are numerous recipes for piri piri sauce. Usually, fresh or dried piri piri peppers are combine with lemon, salt, oil, onion, garlic, vinegar and various herbs and spices. Piri piri sauce also can be used as a marinade for chicken. Dried piri piri peppers are available online from many purveyors.
Dried piri piri peppers
2 large red bell peppers, char grilled, coarsely chopped
1 large red onion, char grilled, coarsely
¼ cup (14 g) dried piri piri peppers, soaked in boiling water, drained and squeezed
½ cup (125 ml) lemon juice
¼ cup (59 ml) red wine vinegar
4 cloves garlic chopped
1½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ cup (10 g) chopped cilantro
¼ cup (8 g) chopped basil
2 bay leaves
Salt to taste
To finish sauce:
¼ cup (59 ml) lemon juice
zest of one lemon, finely minced
¼ cup (59 ml) red wine vinegar
½ cup (125 ml) extra virgin olive oil
Combine first ten ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process to form a smooth sauce.
Transfer the sauce to a medium saucepan, add the bay leaves and simmer slowly for 20-30 minutes.
Remove sauce from heat and cool to warm. Remove bay leaves then return the sauce to the food processor again.
To finish, add additional lemon juice, red wine vinegar and lemon zest. Purée for a few minutes until smooth. Slowly add olive oil in a thin stream as processor is running.
Makes about 1½ cups.
*** Carolino rice, or as a substitute Spanish Bomba, are available online from many sellers.
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