Brackish-water mullet cooked into rice with coconut milk, sofrito of sweet pepper and spring onion, and shredded fish folded through. A Cartagena and Barranquilla favourite, eaten in quantity during Lent.
Arroz de lisa is a dish of the Caribbean coast's brackish lagoons, where mullet (lisa) spawn. Cooked with coconut milk and a sweet-pepper sofrito, it is closely tied to Cartagena and Barranquilla, where it is a Lent and Easter staple served with suero costeño and cabbage salad.
Each grain stained faintly gold by the coconut milk and achiote, the shredded mullet giving a clean river-fish sweetness, the sofrito of spring onion and sweet pepper threading through. Eaten with suero costeño, the rice is soft, fragrant and faintly rich without being heavy.
The mullet is first poached and deboned, then the rice is toasted in the oil of a sofrito built on spring onion, sweet pepper, garlic and achiote. The rice takes its liquid from coconut milk and the mullet's own poaching broth, so the fish flavour permeates every grain rather than sitting on top. Shredded fish is folded back in at the end.
Variations
Some cooks skip the coconut milk and use only the fish broth for a lighter, clearer version. A Barranquilla style adds capers and olives.
On the Palate
Where Arroz de Lisa sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
Poach 1 mullet (about 600g) in salted water with half an onion and 2 cloves garlic for 15 minutes; cool, then flake the flesh and discard bones.
- 25 min
Finely chop 4 spring onions, 1 green sweet pepper, 2 cloves garlic; sauté in 3 tbsp oil with 1 tsp achiote paste until soft.
- 34 min
Add 300g rice and toast for 2 minutes, stirring until grains turn translucent at the edges.
Watch outToast the rice in the achiote sofrito two minutes until the edges go translucent — this seals each grain so it drinks the mullet broth evenly instead of turning to porridge.
- 410 min
Pour in 200ml coconut milk plus enough of the mullet poaching broth to reach 600ml total liquid; add salt, cover and simmer 18 minutes.
- 55 min
Fold the flaked mullet through the rice off the heat; rest 5 minutes covered.
Watch outFold the flaked mullet in off the heat, then rest covered — stir it in while it's still cooking and the flakes break down and vanish into the rice.
- 63 min
Serve with suero costeño and shredded cabbage salad.
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