Fish and seafood in the world's kitchens
Dishes where the protein is fish or shellfish, with no meat.
Coastal kitchens build everything around fish: curing, drying, smoking and simmering in coconut milk differ more from one another than the ways of cooking meat do, and each follows whatever is caught nearby.
Fish has a narrow window of doneness, and the times in these recipes are stated more precisely than in the meat ones. Where overcooking ruins a dish beyond saving, that is written into the step rather than left to a note.
50 dishes
- Ackee and saltfishJamaica
Jamaica's national dish: ackee fruit, which looks and behaves like scrambled egg, with soaked salt cod.
45 min · Easy · Breakfast
- Attiéké with fishIvory Coast
Steamed fermented cassava couscous with grilled fish and a sharp onion salad.
55 min · Easy · Main course
- Bacalhau à brásPortugal
Salt cod with matchstick potatoes and egg that binds everything without becoming an omelette.
55 min · Medium · Main course
- Banku with tilapiaGhana
Fermented maize and cassava dough worked smooth, with grilled fish and a hot pepper sauce.
75 min · Medium · Main course
- Black risottoCroatia
Risotto with cuttlefish and its own ink. The ink goes in at the end, or it turns bitter.
75 min · Medium · Main course
- BouillabaisseFrance
The Marseille fish soup of several species, with saffron and a rouille sauce.
120 min · Takes practice · Soup
- Cantonese steamed fishChina
A whole fish steamed with ginger and spring onion, finished with smoking oil and soy.
35 min · Medium · Main course
- Causa limeñaPeru
Layers of yellow potato purée with lime and ají, filled with chicken or tuna.
75 min · Easy · Salad
- CevichePeru
Raw fish in lime juice with onion and ají. It marinates for minutes, not hours — longer and it is cooked through.
20 min · Easy · Main course
- ChawanmushiJapan
A savoury egg custard set on dashi and steamed, with a prawn and mushrooms inside.
40 min · Medium · Snack
- Chilli crabSingapore
Crab in a thick tomato-chilli sauce bound with egg, mopped up with fried mantou buns.
55 min · Medium · Main course
- Conch soupHonduras
Conch soup in coconut milk with cassava and plantain. The Garifuna cooking of the Caribbean coast.
95 min · Medium · Soup
- Ecuadorian cevicheEcuador
Prawns in a tomato and lime broth, served cold with popcorn and plantain crisps.
50 min · Easy · Salad
- EncebolladoEcuador
A tuna soup with cassava and pickled onion. Ecuadorians eat it for breakfast and treat it as a hangover cure.
60 min · Easy · Soup
- FanescaEcuador
The Holy Week soup of twelve grains and pulses with salt cod.
210 min · Takes practice · Soup
- Fish amokCambodia
Fish in a coconut curry, steamed in a cup folded from banana leaf.
60 min · Medium · Main course
- Fish and chipsUnited Kingdom
Cod in beer batter with twice-fried chips. The batter lives on cold and on the gas in the beer.
60 min · Medium · Main course
- GarudhiyaMaldives
A clear broth of fresh tuna, cooked in water with salt and almost nothing else.
45 min · Easy · Soup
- GravlaksNorway
Salmon cured for two days under a weight with salt, sugar and dill. No heat and no smoke.
20 min · Easy · Snack
- Grilled barramundiAustralia
A whole fish on the grate with lemon myrtle and lime, part in foil and part over direct heat.
55 min · Easy · Main course
- Grilled capitaineMali
Nile perch grilled whole over coals, with a yet onion sauce and fried plantain.
105 min · Medium · Main course
- HalászléHungary
A fiery red fisherman's soup on paprika, made from river fish in a cauldron.
110 min · Medium · Soup
- Katong laksaSingapore
Rice noodles in a coconut broth with prawns, cut short and eaten with a spoon only.
105 min · Takes practice · Soup
- Lampuki pieMalta
The Maltese pie of dorado with spinach, olives and cauliflower.
130 min · Takes practice · Main course
- Liboke de poissonDR Congo
Spiced fish wrapped in a banana leaf and baked in embers.
65 min · Easy · Main course
- LohikeittoFinland
Finnish salmon soup with potato and cream, a heap of dill and a knob of butter in the bowl.
60 min · Easy · Soup
- MachboosUnited Arab Emirates
Rice with prawns or chicken on the bizar spice mix with dried lime. The staple of the Gulf.
75 min · Medium · Main course
- Mas huniMaldives
Tuna worked with coconut, onion and lime, with hot roshi flatbread. The Maldivian breakfast.
35 min · Easy · Breakfast
- MasgoufIraq
River fish butterflied and cooked standing beside an open fire. A Baghdad dish from the banks of the Tigris.
105 min · Medium · Main course
- MatapaMozambique
Cassava leaves pounded with peanuts and coconut milk, with prawns. Mozambique's national dish.
115 min · Medium · Main course
- Mchuzi wa samakiTanzania
Tanzanian fish curry on coconut milk with tamarind and curry powder.
60 min · Easy · Main course
- Miso soupJapan
A soup of dashi and miso that takes ten minutes. Miso must never boil: boiling takes out both the aroma and the point of it.
20 min · Easy · Soup
- MohingaMyanmar
Rice noodles in a thick fish broth built on banana stem. Breakfast, and Myanmar's unofficial national dish.
120 min · Medium · Soup
- Moqueca baianaBrazil
Fish stewed in coconut milk with dendê palm oil, in a clay pot.
65 min · Easy · Main course
- Moules marinièresBelgian cuisine
Mussels steamed in white wine with celery and onion. Five minutes under a lid, no longer.
40 min · Easy · Main course
- MurabyanKuwait
Kuwaiti rice with prawns in a broth of their own shells, with dill and dried lime.
85 min · Medium · Main course
- New England clam chowderUnited States
A thick clam soup with cream, potato and bacon. No tomato — that is a matter of principle.
55 min · Easy · Soup
- Num banh chokCambodia
Cold rice noodles under a fish and coconut curry with a mountain of raw vegetables and herbs.
85 min · Medium · Main course
- Ohrid troutNorth Macedonia
Trout baked whole with lemon and herbs, from Lake Ohrid.
50 min · Easy · Main course
- PlokkfiskurIceland
Flaked boiled fish mashed with potato in a white sauce. Icelandic home cooking made from leftovers.
55 min · Easy · Main course
- Pulpo a feiraSpain
Boiled octopus on a wooden board with paprika, coarse salt and olive oil.
75 min · Medium · Snack
- Sardinhas assadasPortugal
Whole sardines salted coarsely and grilled over coals, served on a slice of bread.
55 min · Easy · Main course
- Shorshe ilishBangladesh
Hilsa in a ground mustard sauce, cooked by steaming. The great fish of Bengal.
50 min · Medium · Main course
- SmørrebrødDenmark
An open sandwich on rye with butter. The order of the layers and the thickness of the butter both matter.
25 min · Easy · Snack
- Sri Lankan fish currySri Lanka
Fish in a coconut curry soured with goraka and built on roasted curry powder.
65 min · Medium · Main course
- TempuraJapan
Vegetables and prawns in an ice-cold lumpy batter. Whisking it smooth is exactly what must not happen.
45 min · Medium · Main course
- ThieboudienneSenegal
Rice cooked in the tomato broth from the fish, with herb-stuffed fish and vegetables. Senegal's national dish.
140 min · Takes practice · Main course
- Toast SkagenSweden
Prawns in a dill mayonnaise on fried bread, with roe on top.
30 min · Easy · Snack
- Tom yum goongThailand
A hot and sour prawn soup where the balance is set at the end: fish sauce, lime and sugar go in to taste rather than by the recipe.
35 min · Medium · Soup
- Whitebait frittersNew Zealand
Whitebait bound with egg and fried as a thin cake, with lemon and nothing else.
30 min · Easy · Snack