Mojica de Pintado

Mojica de pintado comes from the Pantanal, the vast seasonally flooded plain straddling Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where the rivers run thick with fish and cassava is the staple starch. The dish grew out of the riverine cooking of indigenous and caboclo communities, who built meals around the day's catch and the manioc they grew. The name mojica is of indigenous origin and is popularly read as river fish cooked with cassava, an apt description even if the etymology is not firmly documented. Pintado, one of the noblest fish of these waters, is the classic choice; the dish is now a fixture of regional restaurants and festas.

A bowl of pale, golden-flecked broth thick enough to coat the spoon, the cassava giving it a smooth, faintly grainy body. Chunks of pintado sit in it firm and white, the fish clean and mild with almost no small bones — one reason it is so prized. Tomato and pepper brighten the richness, and a few drops of fiery cheiro pimenta are the traditional finish. It is hearty river food, served hot with white rice and cassava flour on the side to thicken it further at the table.

Cassava does the thickening: added in chunks, the softer pieces break down as they cook and shed starch into the broth, gelatinizing it into a creamy body without any flour or dairy — this is what separates mojica from a thin fish soup. The fish goes in later and is simmered only until it flakes, so the pieces stay whole instead of dissolving. Pintado's firm, low-bone flesh holds up well to stewing. Unlike the coastal moqueca it is sometimes confused with, there is no coconut milk or dendê palm oil here; the creaminess is starch, and the flavor base is the freshwater fish, tomato, and aromatics alone.