Ingredients
Fish
- 3whole fish of about 700 g each, such as cacusso, corvina or bream, scaled and gutted
- juice of 4 limes
- 8garlic cloves, crushed with 2 tsp salt
- 2 tspblack pepper
- 4 tbspred palm oil, for basting
Palm-oil beans
- 1quantity feijao de oleo de palma, made with 400 g dried beans
- 150 mlred palm oil
The accompaniments
- 800 gcassava, peeled, cored and boiled 25 min in salted water
- 4ripe plantains, sliced on the diagonal and fried in palm oil
- 600 gsweet potato, boiled or roasted
- 3onions, sliced into rings
- juice of 2 limes and 1 tsp salt, for the onions
- 4tomatoes, sliced
- 150 ggindungo sauce
Directions
- Score the fish three times a side down to the bone, rub with the garlic and salt paste and the pepper, then pour over the lime juice and leave 25 minutes.
- Steep the onion rings in lime juice and salt in a bowl; they need at least 30 minutes to soften into the sharp raw salad that cuts the palm oil.
- Make the palm-oil beans, or reheat them gently with an extra spoon of palm oil so they are loose and glossy rather than stiff.
- Boil the cassava in salted water 25 minutes, until a knife goes through easily, and pull out the woody central cord from each piece.
- Boil or roast the sweet potato until tender, and keep everything warm; a mufete is a table of many hot dishes served at once.
- Light a charcoal fire and let it burn to grey embers with no flame, then oil the grill bars well.
- Wipe the marinade off the fish so it does not steam, brush with palm oil and grill 8–9 minutes on the first side without moving it, until the skin crisps and releases.
- Turn once, baste with more palm oil, and grill 7–8 minutes more, until the flesh at the backbone is opaque and the dorsal fin pulls free.
- Fry the plantain slices in hot palm oil, 2 minutes a side, until deep gold and caramelised at the edges, and drain them.
- Lay everything out together: fish in the centre, beans, cassava, sweet potato and plantain around it, with the soused onion, sliced tomato and gindungo, and let each person build their own plate.
Technique
- Mufete is not one dish but an assembly, the Luanda weekend meal eaten at the water’s edge on the Ilha and at Mussulo. Leave out the palm-oil beans or the soused onion and it stops being a mufete.
- The soused onion is the balancing element. Raw lime and salt cut through the richness of palm oil in the beans, the plantain and the fish, and Angolan cooks make it first so it has time to soften.
- Grill on embers, never flame. Palm oil drips and flares, and a flared fire leaves the fish sooty outside and underdone at the bone.
- Everything except the grilling can be done ahead, which is how a household serves six or ten people at once from one fire.
Substitutions
- No charcoal: cook the fish on a rack under a fierce grill, 9 minutes a side, and fry the plantain in a pan as usual. You lose the smoke but keep the shape of the meal.
- Cassava can be replaced by boiled potato or by funge, and any firm whole fish of about 700 g will stand in for cacusso.
Variations
- Mufete de cacusso, made with freshwater tilapia, the classic Luanda choice.
- Mufete de corvina, with sea bass, more common in Benguela.
- A version that adds boiled green banana and grilled prawns to the spread.
History
Grilled fish with beans in palm oil, boiled cassava and plantain, eaten on Luanda’s Mussulo island as the classic Sunday outing meal.
Frequently asked questions
What is Mufete?
Mufete is a main from Angola: luanda grill feast of whole fish, palm-oil beans, plantain and cassava. Grilled fish with beans in palm oil, boiled cassava and plantain, eaten on Luanda’s Mussulo island as the classic Sunday outing meal.
How long does Mufete take to make?
Mufete takes 50 min of preparation and 1 hr, plus the beans of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Mufete?
Yes, within limits. No charcoal: cook the fish on a rack under a fierce grill, 9 minutes a side, and fry the plantain in a pan as usual. You lose the smoke but keep the shape of the meal. Cassava can be replaced by boiled potato or by funge, and any firm whole fish of about 700 g will stand in for cacusso.
What is the most important thing to get right in Mufete?
Make the palm-oil beans, or reheat them gently with an extra spoon of palm oil so they are loose and glossy rather than stiff.
