Provencal Fish Stew

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” ~ Maimonides

Fish Stew Provencal

As Christians enter the Lenten season, I can’t help but remember all those childhood Fridays during Lent. My mother had four non-meat meals that she cooked in an alternating pattern. One of them, macaroni and cheese, was the only dish that my siblings and I ate. The other three meals were salmon loaf, cod fish cakes and shrimp wiggle. Because we disliked those meals so much, we always tried to get an invite to a friend’s house on Friday. If that didn’t work out, our dog was our saving grace. We kept dropping bites for her to eat.

As I matured, I thankfully learned that fresh fish tastes completely different than dried fish or canned fish. The years that I spent living in New England certainly helped me to develop my palate.

This fish stew, by Mark Bittman, is a delicious blend of vegetables and seafood with a puttanesca-like blend of seasonings.

I adjusted the ingredients slightly because I wanted to use more fish in the recipe.
Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked or canned chick peas
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/3 cup nicoise olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoons capers
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 3 cups fish or vegetable stock
• Pinch of red chile flakes
• 1 pound medium sized shrimp
• 1 pound calamari, sliced
• ½ pound sea scallops

For the preparation, see the recipe in the New York Times.