Calulu de peixe

São Tomé's layered fish stew, smoked and fresh fish built up with okra, aubergine and forest leaves and finished with red palm oil

Origin: São Tomé & Príncipe

From the journey of Oil Palm.

Calulu is the national dish of São Tomé and Príncipe and it is assembled rather than stirred. Smoked fish goes in first, then fresh fish, then okra, aubergine, and a quantity of leaves, each in its own layer, and the pot is left largely alone so the layers hold. Red palm oil goes over the top towards the end and runs down through the whole thing. The islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese landed in the 1470s, and what was built there next set a pattern for the Atlantic world: São Tomé became the first place to run sugar on enslaved African labour at plantation scale, and the model was exported wholesale to Brazil and the Caribbean. The cooking that emerged is genuinely creole rather than transplanted, and calulu shows it exactly. The technique of layering and long slow cooking is Portuguese; the palm oil, the okra, and the leaves are African; the fish is whatever the Gulf of Guinea provides. Angola makes a calulu too and the two are cousins rather than the same dish: the Angolan version leans on dried fish and is often built on meat, whilst the Santomean is a fish dish above all and uses a wider range of leaves, including the local ossame. Both are eaten with angu, the maize or cassava porridge, and on the islands with breadfruit. The islands returned to plantation agriculture under cocoa in the nineteenth century, and by 1913 São Tomé was briefly the largest cocoa producer in the world, worked under a contract labour system that a British campaign of the period argued amounted to slavery renamed.

Ingredients

400 g smoked fish, in large pieces
600 g firm white fish, in thick steaks
250 g okra, topped and left whole
2 aubergines, in thick chunks
300 g sweet potato leaves, spinach, or chard, roughly torn
150 ml red palm oil
3 onions, thickly sliced
6 garlic cloves, sliced
4 tomatoes, sliced
3 malagueta chillies, whole
3 bay leaves
1 small bunch parsley or coriander, chopped
2 limes, one juiced and one in wedges
2 tsp salt, or to taste
600 ml water

Method

Soak the smoked fish in warm water for twenty minutes, then drain and pick out any large bones. Season the fresh fish with salt and the juice of one lime.
Take a wide heavy pot and build the dish in layers rather than mixing it. Start with a layer of sliced onion, garlic, and tomato across the base.
Lay the smoked fish over that, then another layer of onion and tomato.
Add the aubergine and the whole okra in a layer, then the bay leaves and whole chillies.
Pile the leaves on top and pour in the water down the side of the pot rather than over the layers.
Cover and cook over a low heat for forty-five minutes. Do not stir. Shake the pot occasionally if you are worried about catching.
Lay the fresh fish on top of the leaves, cover again, and cook for a further fifteen minutes until it flakes.
Pour the palm oil evenly over the surface and cook uncovered for a final ten minutes so it warms through and runs down into the layers.
Scatter over the parsley. Serve straight from the pot with angu, rice, or breadfruit, and lime wedges.

Notes

Resisting the spoon is the whole discipline: calulu is served with the layers more or less intact, and stirring turns it into a generic fish stew. The palm oil goes on at the end rather than being cooked in, which keeps its colour and its smell. Okra left whole and added in a single layer stays firm; cut and stirred it will thicken the liquid, which is not wanted here. Any firm white fish works, and the smoked component is not optional, as it supplies most of the depth.

The Gastrographer

Name: Calulu de peixe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: São Tomé & Príncipe
Ingredients: 400 g smoked fish, in large pieces; 600 g firm white fish, in thick steaks; 250 g okra, topped and left whole; 2 aubergines, in thick chunks; 300 g sweet potato leaves, spinach, or chard, roughly torn; 150 ml red palm oil; 3 onions, thickly sliced; 6 garlic cloves, sliced; 4 tomatoes, sliced; 3 malagueta chillies, whole; 3 bay leaves; 1 small bunch parsley or coriander, chopped; 2 limes, one juiced and one in wedges; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 600 ml water

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control