Christmas Dinner in my family is always a huge Prime Rib Roast served with Aunt Marie’s Cheese Grits, Green Beans and Popovers. With that big heavy dinner on the horizon Christmas Eve is always something light, and nothing is better on a cold winter night than a bowl of Portuguese Fish Stew. It’s loaded with roasted veggies and seafood in a light spicy broth. A big piece of crusty garlic bread to go with it and your all set.
The beauty of this dish is that you can use almost any kind of fish or seafood. I really like fresh clams and mussels in mine but when I went to the store to make this they didn’t have any. So, I scoured the seafood department and bought what they had. This time I used crab legs, shrimp, scallops and a nice piece of cod. Really, anything you can find in your locality will work so don’t think you have to use the seafood I used to make this dish.
This dish calls Spanish Chorizo and it’s different than Mexican Chroizo. It’s a hard precooked sausage more along the lines of Pepperoni or Salami but with a different flavor. In fact if you can’t find Spanish Chorizo you could use Pepperoni instead, but you want to buy a whole piece of it not the pre-sliced kind. The pre-sliced is sliced too thin and it won’t give you the right consistency.
The other thing I do with this recipe that is a bit different is I roast the veggies in the oven. This gives them great flavor and texture. The potatoes hold together and don’t fall apart in the liquid. When I’m ready to serve I simply spoon a serving of the veggies in the bottom of a shallow bowl and ladle the stew on top.
Portuguese Fish Stew is the perfect quick and easy Christmas Eve dinner that looks and tastes fancy enough for the occasion.
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