Movie Night and Dinner Too!: Bridesmaids

As soon as I heard about Bridesmaids, I knew it would make for a great movie night.

(movie images found here)

I invited Janette so that my two local bridesmaids would be in attendance, and my mom even came down for the affair. Granted, my mom's visit was mostly to pick up the grand-dog so they could watch her while I spent a long weekend with Eric in Oklahoma for graduation and his winging ceremony (yay!!!).

Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph star as best friends Annie and Lillian (the bride), with a cameo by Tim Heidecker (who plays the groom), and a great new face--Chris O'Dowd--as Officer Nathan Rhodes. Jon Hamm is in it, but truthfully, he plays such a sucky character it's hard for me to remember he was in it. It's funny, it's touching, and it's over the top. We enjoyed it for sure. Who knows, maybe we'll all jam out to Annie Lennox/Walking on Broken Glass after our ceremony?!

Movie Rating

Plot: 4.75 stars

Cinematography: 4 stars

Acting: 4.875 stars

Average: 4.5+ stars

A Brazilian meal seemed most fitting since the scene showing the aftermath of the Brazilian meal in the movie is EPIC. Luckily our food didn't have the same effects!

I personally was less than pleased with the dish, mostly because I came across more than a few bones and practically nothing makes me more irritated while eating than finding fish bones in my food. It didn't help that hunting down the red snapper was a bit of a challenge in the first place and made the meal slightly pricey. I do, however, think it was the best fish for the stew as it held together really well and had a good texture and flavor.

Moqueca (Brazilian Fish Stew)

Slightly adapted from this recipe

Serves 6 to 8

INGREDIENTS

For the Piri Piri:

1 TB + 1/2 cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic, smashed

4 cayenne chile peppers, stemmed, ribs and seeds removed, roughly chopped

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

For the stew:

2 1/2 pounds red snapper, cut into 2-inch pieces (or sub with grouper, red fish, flounder, striped bass, escolar or any other white fleshed fish)

1 cup roughly chopped onion, plus 1 cup julienned onion

2 cups roughly chopped tomatoes, plus 2 tomatoes sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

2 cloves garlic, plus 1 TB minced garlic

5 TB chopped fresh cilantro leaves

3 TB fresh-squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Piri Piri (recipe included)

1 (14.5 oz) can coconut milk

salt

steamed white rice (for serving)

DIRECTIONS

Start with the Piri Piri. Heat a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 TB of the olive oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and peppers to the pan. Saute, stirring often, until the edges of the garlic start to turn brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the lemon juice to the pan and remove from the heat.

Place the contents of the saute pan in a blender and add the salt. Puree the peppers and garlic in the blender until mostly smooth. Drizzle the remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil through the feed tube of the lid of the blender. Let cool before using, and store unused portion in an airtight container in the fridge.

Next, make the marinade for the fish by blending together the chopped onion, chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 TB cilantro, 1 tsp salt, and lime juice. Put the fish in a large plastic Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Once fish has marinated, heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan, and once hot, add the julienned onions to the pan and saute, stirring often until translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic to the pan and saute an additional 30 seconds. Pour the fish and marinade into the saute pan and add the remaining teaspoon of salt, the Piri Piri, and the coconut milk and stir to combine. Once the liquid comes to a boil, dot the top of the pan with the sliced tomatoes and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the flesh starts to flake, about 10 minutes.

Remove the cover from the pan and sprinkle the remaining 4 TB of cilantro over the fish. Serve accompanied by steamed white rice.