Ingredients

• 6 medium onions
• chopped
• 8 cloves of garlic
• crushed
• 2 large green peppers
• sliced
• 75ml/2½fl oz olive oil
• 60g/2¼oz chopped flatleaf parsley
• a good pinch of saffron
• 450g/16oz potatoes
• diced
• 2 or 3 bay leaves
• 12 peppercorns
• 4 large juicy ripe tomatoes
• chopped
• 75ml/2½fl oz tomato paste
• 500ml/17½fl oz dry white wine
• 250ml/8¾fl oz water
• 450g/1lb squid
• cleaned
• 25 clams or cockles
• 900g/2lb oily fish like mackerel
• swordfish or tuna
• 900g/2lb white fish like sea bass
• monkfish
• hake or haddock
• 225g/8oz good large raw prawns
• 24 mussels
• freshly ground black pepper
• 30g chopped fresh coriander

Directions

• Slowly sweat off the onion
• garlic and green peppers in the olive oil for about 10 minutes. After sweating
• cover to stew very gently for about 15 minutes
• stirring occasionally. This breaks down the green pepper to a more palatable form.
• Add the parsley
• saffron
• potatoes
• bay leaves
• peppercorns
• tomatoes
• tomato paste
• wine and water. Cover and simmer for ten minutes.
• Add the squid and clams or cockles and simmer for another ten minutes.
• Add the fish
• prawns and mussels in layers. Don't stir this as you'll want the fish to cook in the broth.
• Sprinkle with a heavy dose of the black pepper
• cover and cook for about ten minutes or until the fish is cooked through and the mussels and clams or cockles are open. Discard any that don't open.
• Ladle the stew gently into vat-sized bowls and sprinkle with the chopped coriander.
• Serve with bread. We also like to provide some piri piri as a dipping sauce alongside some olive oil laced with a little truffle oil to dip your bread into.