Caldo de peixe, the Angolan cure for hangovers

Caldo de peixe, the Angolan hangover cure.

We already gave you some tips and tricks to get rid of your hangover. But every country has its own traditional dishes to make the process go faster. We like to give you a taste of the international anti-hangover cuisine. In this episode we have a recipe from the African continent again. From Angola to be precise and it’s called caldo de peixe, or just caldo which is Portuguese for soup or broth.

When people think of Angola these are usually no happy thoughts since the recent history of this African country is quite bloody. After the independence from Portugal in 1975 a civil war destroyed many lives until 2002. Still Angola has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, but things are looking up for the West-Africans. Angola has plenty of natural resources and a rapidly growing economy. In the meantime Angolans have quite the drinking culture and a large variety of drinks, most of them homemade.

For example there is capatica, which is a spirit made from bananas. As well as caporoto (maize), cazior caxipembe (potato and casava), kimbombo (corn), maluva (palm tree juice) and valende (sugarcane or fuits). Also popular are the homemade whiskey, vodka and mead from honey. If you are not really into the hard stuff, you can try mongozo, which is a traditional homemade beer, brewed from palm nuts. The locals already made mongozo before Europeans ever set foot in Angola.

With all these drinks around it’s no wonder one might suffer from an occasional headache in the morning. A solid cure for that is caldo de peixe, which is Portuguese for fish soup. Although in most Angolan stands it’s on the menu simply as caldo. Some typical African ingredients make the dish quite different from the Portuguese fish soups. Usually the predator barracuda is used, but since it might be hard to get your hands on that in some parts of the world, you can also use other large saltwater fish. Just make sure you have boneless pieces of meat. Here’s how to make it…

Ingredients:
1 kilo of barracuda (or other large fish meat)
palm oil
salt (to taste)
1 onion
2 peeled tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic
3 bay leaf
1 sprig of sage
1 large piri piri pepper
1/2 kilo cassava
1/2 kilo sweet potatoes

Preparation:
Use 3 cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves and some salt to spice up the fish and let it rest for a bit. Then put the sliced onion, remaining garlic coves, bayleaf, pepper, tomatoes (cut up) and sage in a large pot with some palm oil. Bring the whole thing to a simmer and add the chopped potatoes, cassava and enough water to cover everything completely. Bring the whole thing to a boil and when everything is almost cooked, add the fish to the pot.
When the fish is also properly cooked the caldo is ready for serving. If available you can do this with some banana bread on the side. Enjoy!

Micky Bumbar

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