Moqueca Baiana

Bahia, Brazil (Afro-Brazilian culinary tradition; African dendê palm brought by enslaved Africans)

Moqueca Baiana is Bahia's most celebrated fish stew — fresh fish and shellfish cooked in coconut milk with dendê palm oil, tomatoes, onions, garlic, coriander, and sweet peppers, served in the traditional clay pot (panela de barro) that it cooks and is served in. Dendê oil — extracted from the African oil palm brought to Brazil during the slave trade — provides the deep, distinctive orange colour and its singular flavour: simultaneously fruity, earthy, and bold. Moqueca Baiana differs from the Capixaba version (from Espírito Santo, which uses annatto instead of dendê and no coconut milk) in ways that generate passionate regional debate. The fish must be fresh — salt cod or frozen fish produce an inferior result — and the stew is finished in 20–25 minutes, a fast preparation that preserves the fish's freshness.

• The coconut milk fish stew structure connects directly to Thai tom kha, Singaporean fish head curry, and Sri Lankan ambul thiyal; the dendê palm oil connects uniquely to West African palm nut soup, reflecting Bahia's African culinary heritage.

White rice is the canonical accompaniment; pirão (a gravy-like sauce made from fish stock and manioc flour) is the traditional Brazilian accompaniment; cold Antarctica lager alongside.