Jamaican brown stew fish is a delicious fish dish that you will love to try.
This delicious main dish is crispy fried fish cooked down in a tasty brown sauce.
Brown stew fish is cooked much in the same way that Jamaican brown stew chicken is cooked.
Related Recipes:
Steamed Fish Recipe,
The fish is seasoned, fried to perfection then all the seasoning, water and the fried fried is slowly cooked until a nice fish gravy is made.
Frying The Fish
To fry the fish crispy, the fish must be dry and the frying must be smoking hot.
As wet fish takes longer to cook and most of the time it’s not cooked properly.
Frying oil that is not hot enough will also cause the above .
After washing the fish, drain away all the water and dry it with kitchen towel.
Whenever I am frying fish I always add scotch bonnet pepper, garlic and pimento berries to the oil.
This gives the a nice flavour.
Even if you don’t like spicy hot food you can still can use add the pepper to the frying oil, because the fish will only have a hint of spice.
How To Cook Brown Stew Fish
Step 1. Wash the fish in lime/lemon and vinegar wash.
Step 2. Pour away all the water and dry the fish.
Step 3. Seasoning the fish with salt and black pepper.
Step 4. Add enough cooking oil to a frying pan at high heat.
Step 5. Once the oil is smoking hot, add chopped garlic, a whole bonnet peppers and pimento berries.
Step 6. Add the fish and fry until both sides are golden brown.
Step 7. Remove the burned garlic, scotch pepper and pimento berries. Pour away the frying oil leaving about a tablespoon in the pan.
Step 8. Add chopped tomato, bell pepper, onion, crushed garlic, chopped scotch bonnet pepper, scallion, thyme and pimento berries. Sauté for three minutes.
Step 8. Add a cup water, the browning and ½ tsp salt, stir. Cover the pan and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the fried fish half way through.
Step. Simmer until sauce is reduce.
What To Serve It With
In Jamaica, we serve brown stew fish with rice, boiled ground provisions or fried dumpling.
On Sundays Brown stew fish is served with rice and peas with a side of fresh salad for Sunday dinner.
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Jamaican brown stew fish recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Snapper fish Each cut in half
- 1 Stalks scallion Chopped
- 1 Large tomato Diced
- 1 Bell pepper Chopped
- 2 Sprigs fresh thyme
- 5 Garlic cloves 2 Crushed & 3 chopped in big slices
- 1 Small onion Chopped
- 1 ½ Scotch bonnet pepper Keep one whole pepper and remove the seeds from the half and finely chopped
- 8 Pimento berries (allspice)
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black pepper
- ½ tsp Browning
- 1 Cup Water
- Grapeseed oil But any oil of your choice
Wash the fish
- 1 Lemon/lime
- 1 tsp Vinegar
Instructions
- Wash the fish with the lime/lemon and vinegar. Drain any excess water from the fish and dry the fish.
- Mix about ½ tsp of salt and ½ tsp of black pepper together and rub all over and into the fish.
- Pour enough cooking oil in a frying pan at high heat.
- Add the chopped garlic, the whole bonnet peppers and 5 pimento berries to the oil.
- Add the fish to the frying pan. Let the fish fry on both the sides until it gets a golden brown colour.
- When the fish is all fried, remove the pan from the fire. Remove the burned pepper, garlic and pimento berries.
- Pour way the oil leaving about a tablespoon in the pan. Return to the fire on low heat.
- Add the chopped tomato, bell pepper, onion, crushed garlic, chopped scotch bonnet pepper, scallion, thyme and the rest of the pimento berries. Sauté for about 3 ½ minutes.
- Add the water, the browning and ½ tsp salt, stir. Cover the pan and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Half way through add the fried fish. Cover both sides with the sauce.
I am about to make this meal for my Daughter who is a Ja-merican and had this meal in Nagos head (did I spell that correctly?) a few years ago and love and is always asking me to make it. I am planning to add Ketchup to sweeten it a little. Is that a good Idea?
Sorry for the late reply. Ketchup is use a lot by Jamaicans in gravy and recipes like the one above, to give it a little sweet taste. So adding it is very Jamaican. However, make sure to reduce the amount of tomato you use when you plan on using ketchup.