As is the case with many cultures, the Greeks eat a lot of stews. I believe it’s because before modern times pretty much everyone had a burner, or could create a fire to cook something in a pot, but roasting and baking involved equipment that most people didn’t have. When I was visiting Crete in 1977 people were still going to the village bakery on Sunday’s to roast and bake their food because they didn’t have ovens at home.
If you see “stifado” on a menu in Greece it could be beef, lamb, fish or chicken. And most likely it will have tomato sauce and herbs in it. I like to make my fish stifado with cod since cod is a firm fleshed fish. The great thing about fish stifado is that it cooks very quickly, the entire stew is cooked in around 15 minutes. The other great thing about stifado is it’s a one pot meal. Easy to clean up, easy to eat. And is always the case with a tomato sauce based dish, it will taste better the next day.
Think of this recipe as a pattern and change ingredients to accommodate your preferences. If you have new potatoes instead of Yukon’s in the house use them, yellow onion instead of white, use that. Or if you have leeks growing in your yard use then instead of onion. Add fennel if you want in addition to or instead of zucchini, or add bell peppers, use dill if you don’t like oregano, and clam juice instead of chicken stock if you like a strong fish broth. Have a jar of preserved lemons in the back of your fridge, or green olives instead of Kalamata’s? Throw them in! It’s an opportunity to use up whatever you have in the house.
1/4 C olive oil
4 medium Yukon gold tomatoes, cut into thick slices
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 white onion, peeled and chopped
1 large zucchini, cut in half lengthwise, sliced into 1/4-inch slices
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 1/2 t smoked paprika
1 t dried oregano
1-14.5oz. can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
2/3 C chicken broth
1 1/2 pound cod filets
1/4 C pitted kalamata olives
2 T chopped Italian parsley
Instructions
Place the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over a high heat.
When the oil is hot add the potato slices in a single layer and cook 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn the potato slices and brown the other side. Once the potatoes have been browned on both sides, remove them from the pan. They aren’t cooked through at this point, they’ll cook longer with the stew.
Add the onion, zucchini, and garlic and sauté several minutes until vegetables have softened. Add the potatoes back to the pot, add the smoked paprika and oregano and sauté a minute longer. Add the crushed tomatoes and chicken broth, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover and simmer 5 minutes.
Place the cod filets into the pot and with a wooden spoon, gently push into the simmering stew. Cover and cook for two minutes. Turn the heat off and let the stew sit an additional two minutes. Fish overcooks very easy, this way the heat of the stew will gently finish cooking the fish.
Add the olives and parsley and serve.
Serves 4
