Tofo Beach, Inhambane, Southern Mozambique: Well it’s always great to be invited to ZanziBeach right on Tofo Beach. Especially on days when master creative in the kitchen and restaurant owner Rui, is working on a new dish.
Açorda de Camarão
Well prawns are prawns are prawns. Or are they?
Well the prawns that Rui and the team in the Zanzi kitchen produced this day were certainly different.
Without divulging the secret recipe to all…the healthy serving of prawns is served in a delicious stock infused prawn sauce. And comes with a raw egg right smack bang in the middle of it. Which cooks into the hot meal as it is stirred right in.
Rich and filling. Tasty and colourful.
Zanzi serves a handsome bowl for 400 Mets. Or does a three-person serving for 1000 Mets.
The beer is always cold down at Zanzi. And all the really good wines we get around here, are available. Some great Portuguese imported flavours. And the ever tasty South African styles. The smoothies and cocktail variations thereof will keep you refreshed and full of bounce.
The views of Tofo Beach right from your table are the best in town. And the Tofo Mercado is a short walk away. It’s a great spot to take your family, when on holiday, and treat them to some real Portuguese table fare.
Praia do Tofo in Inhambane, Southern Mozambique, is full of distractions. So as the holiday season wound down, and the full tide moved to the early morning, it was time to give it a go early again.
The swell was crashing over the ledge at Tofinho, but out back the water was crystal clear and warm looking. The south wind helped get my Mydo SS Spoon right over the backline, and soon I was settled into a nice pre-sun rhythm. A few days before, a really big fish had hit my spoon but didn’t hold on. Luckily, at this same point. I was really hoping for a smaller fish today. When the waves are this big, like 2 metres, it is nigh impossible to get down to the water’s edge, and retrieve your catch.
So when on my 20th cast, as the spoon splashed its way towards the rock ledge, in between waves, the kingfish smashed me real hard, I thought it was another big guy! Luckily it wasn’t. It was rather, a feisty and stubborn Brassy Trevally, which gave the run around for a few minutes.
When I got his head out of the water, a good 4 metres below, I launched him up into the air. The braid held. The rod held. And as he flew through the air right up next to me on the cliff, I dropped my rod and caught him! Pinning him to the rocks. Adrenalin pumping, I tried to release him. Unfortunately, the pressure to get him up those 4 metres was too much and his mouth was damaged badly on one side. So he came home to become fish soup.
Brassy Kingfish for fish soup
And this is how we do it…very simple recipe, that can be adjusted to suit your ingredients;
Once the fillets are nicely off the fish, skinned and ready for that meal – get rid of the guts and gills and break the carcass to fit in a nice big old pot. Boil. For long time. Like an hour at least.
In a nice big old pan, fire up the veggie side of things. Starting with onions, and tiny blocks of potato. 1cm3 each about. The onions need to brown proper, so lots of stirring is needed to stop the potatoes from sticking. Using as little oil as possible is the way to go. Then when the whole lot is proving too much to handle, chuck in the cubed tomatoes. Stir more like crazy. A few more minutes, and in goes the crushed garlic. As much as you can handle. At this stage you could also be spicing up with your favourite or available spicey ingredients.
Now the fry-up is all melting into itself, you can start taking it easier. By chucking in the water. Quite a lot, like two cups to start with. Chuck in an orange rind (really makes a difference). And a squeeze of lemon.
Coconut milk or water is great to add at this point. Milk also does the trick. Anything else you may have available, can go in now.
Back to the boiling fish. Get rid of the fish head and bones and fins and things, keeping back as much of the white meat as possible. Using a colander can help expedite this process.
Now mix the two together – just chuck the veggie fry straight into the pot of fish. Cook a while longer, on a low heat.
Pour the half glass of white wine in at the very end, just before you serve.
This post is sponsored by ZanziBeach Restaurant. Click here for more information.
Fish soup as served at ZanziBeach right in the beach at Praia do Tofo
And if you want to taste a real Portuguese made fish soup, try ZanziBeach, right on the beach at Tofo. Going for 150 Mets right now, this wholesome and nutritious meal will keep you paddling, casting or swimming all day. It’s got a real tomato tint to it. Specially prepared for the ocean-going fraternity of Tofo, there are also now Prego Rolls (180Mets), and Octopus Salad (250Mets).
A delicious and healthy smoothy/cocktail, rounds off a great after action eating experience.
