Swordfish Stew

I’ve been continuing with my attempts to eat healthily (which means low in saturated fat and low in carbs) and consequently fish has become standard fare at our dinner table. Regular readers of my blog know that I love Swordfish and every time I can get my hands on some fresh Swordfish, I buy it. Knowing my love for it, last week our local fish vendor kept aside about two pounds of some beautiful Swordfish for me. Usually I grill the fish but since it was a cold and rainy day, I resorted to making a stew with it and I served it on a bed of couscous. To enhance the flavor of the stew, I added my usual Mediterranean flavors – capers, olives, feta cheese and parsley. The dish was delicious but I do have to confess that the picture doesn’t do it justice…for one, I took the picture at night and the lighting was inadequate and also soupy dishes don’t always picture well. Despite the poor picture, I do highly recommend this recipe…it’s easy to make and tastes amazingly good!

Ingredients:

1. 1.5-2 lbs of fresh swordfish
2. One medium red onion
3. 4-5 cloves of garlic
4. 15-20 small grape tomatoes
5. One small bulb of fennel
6. 2 tablespoons of olive oil
7. A bunch of parsley
8. 4-5 small sweet bell peppers (or one large one)
9. 3 tablespoons of marinara sauce
10. 3-4 ounces of cubed feta cheese (I used some from Whole Foods that was preserved with olives in olive oil)
11. Salt and pepper to taste
12. 15-20 pitted olives
13. 1 tablespoon of honey
14. 2 tablespoons of capers
15. The zest of one lemon

Directions:

1. Start heating up the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot on low heat.
2. Peel and thinly slice the onion and put the chopped onion in the pot and stir.

3. Also peel the garlic cloves and slice them. Add to the pot and stir. Let these cook for 3-4 minutes over low heat.

4. In the meantime, take the seeds out of the peppers and slice the flesh of the sweet peppers.
5. Slice the bulb of fennel.

6. Add the sliced pepper and fennel to the pot and stir. Let them cook for 5-6 minutes.
7. Halve the grape tomatoes and add to the pot and stir.

8. Add the zest of one lemon to the pot and stir.

9. Using a sharp knife, remove the skin and cut the fish in about 1.5-2 inch cubes.
10. Add the cubed fish to the pot and stir. Add salt and pepper (don’t add too much salt because the olives, feta and capers all have salt in them).

11. Add the capers to the pot.

12. Now add the tomato marinara sauce and honey and stir. Also add half a cup of water and stir everything together. Cover and cook for 7-8 minutes.

13. Remove the cover, add the olives and stir.

14. Also add the cubed feta and chopped parsley.
15. Serve the stew while it is still hot, over a bed of couscous (I added fresh pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley to the couscous).

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