Moqueca Baiana

The Bahian coastal fish stew: firm white fish (typically cação, garoupa, or robalo) and sometimes prawns, gently simmered in a clay or terracotta pot with coconut milk, dendê (palm) oil, tomato, onion, sweet pepper, garlic, coriander, and lime juice. The northeastern Bahia version differs from the Espírito Santo moqueca capixaba by including the coconut milk and the dendê: both signatures of African heritage in Brazilian cooking. Served with white rice, farofa, and pirão (a porridge of cassava flour cooked in the moqueca broth). The signature is the rich coconut-and-dendê broth (the dendê adds an unmistakable saffron-orange colour and a distinctive earthy-fruity character), the firm white fish, the lime brightness, and the herbal coriander lift. The wine must handle coconut richness, dendê's distinctive vegetal-fruity weight, lime acidity, and delicate fish simultaneously.