Chraime (Sephardic Fish Dish)

Chraime

Chraime is a delicious Sephardic recipe comprised of white fish prepared with a tangy and spicy tomato sauce highlighted with smoked paprika and fresh cilantro on top. Chraime is traditionally prepared by Sephardic Jews (such as Moroccan Jews and Israeli Jews of North African origin) for Friday night Shabbat dinner, and for Rosh Hashanah and Passover. In some ways, it is the Sephardic culinary answer to the traditional Ashkenazi Gefilte Fish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 lb skinless fish fillets (firm fish such as halibut, red snapper, cod)
  • 2 large tomatoes, cored and diced
  • 1 green chile or jalapeño, minced (more or less depending on how spicy you would like the dish)
  • 1 roasted red pepper, diced (you can buy a jar of already roasted red peppers or char one in the broiler, remove the skin, veins and seeds and dice)
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • juice from 1/2 lemon
  • 1-1/2 cups of water
  • handful of cilantro, rough chopped
  • salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat cumin and paprika in a hot heavy-bottomed pan for a minute until you can smell their aroma.
  2. Add olive oil to pan and turn heat to medium-low.
  3. Sauté onions until they are translucent.
  4. Add garlic and sauté for about a minute.
  5. Add tomatoes, hot pepper, roasted red pepper, lemon juice and water to pan. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for 5 minutes.
  6. Add fish, cover pan and cook for 5-8 minutes or until fish is opaque.
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Turn off heat, add fresh cilantro and serve.

Notes

Tip: You can make the entire dish 1 or 2 days ahead except the fish and then reheat the cooked ingredients and add fresh fish.

17 Comments

Ruth

Corrections:
Chraime is traditional Libyan dish!!!
It is spicy and very tasty made with fish, tomato paste, garlic, lemon and spices only!!! Definitely no cilantro!
It is served on Shabbat dinner and holidays, and traditionally, due to the fact that it is spicy NOT on Rosh Hashanah!

Randy Zippert

My father always put a hard boil egg in his matzah ball soup. I carry on his tradition.

Ann Reva Jacobson

I do believe this is the best web site I ever found. A joy that binds heritage with history, food, diaspora, culture … Now a must for me. Thanks.

Cristina Boiles

Lovely recipes that have travel all over the world , I for sure can recognized some of them, love it thank you I will be visiting your site>

Robin Kirsch

Thank you so very much for posting this wonderful web site. Can’t wait to prepare some of these recipes.

Judith Wahnon

I love this site! A good source for learning about my Jewish ancestry. Thank you!

Raimundo Arnaldo Viana Moreno

Breaking Matzo, saudações.
Será possível disponibilizar um botão para habilitar o português?

Pamela Melehi

WRONG
Chraime IS a North African dish. And YES it can and is eaten on Rosh Hashana provided symbolic foods for the festival are sweetened….

Noemi Camerini

SimplyLOVED to find you! Liked to learn more and more.
I’m an italian jew. Do you have some of our typical recipes?

Breaking Matzo

Please do share some of your recipes! We would love to hear about them!

Lori

Agree. I even-try to look for Persian Jewish traditional Rosh HaShanah recipes. If anyone has any please share. Often they cook with fruits raw and dried in their food like pomegranate seeds, the juice, apricots and other dried fruits
And in their rice too.

Gaby

I usually make my stuffed veal roast with apple,raisins & apricots ground veal & ,with Manashevitz wine& onions ,
And it is always a winner

Bennet Campoverde

here is a twist for your hard boiled egg in matzah ball soup tradition; bring the the broth to a light rolling boil and kill a raw egg in it for a poached egg instead… Remove from heat when done to the desired level of cooked (poached egg) then add chopped raw green onions / scallions and grated tomato and cover for several minutes and serve. This is a traditional Colombian breakfast soup from the andean highland regions east of the Magdalena River (the main fluvial artery of that country). It is known as “Changua”. Jews in Bogota’ replaced the traditional hard biscuit that goes in it with matzah balls and it is a favorite during passover. Both Sefardi and Ashkenazi there enjoy it just the same.

Bennet Campoverde

For that ‘Jewish Changua’ from Colombia, I failed to include “add chopped cilantro with the chopped scallions and grated tomato… “

Bennet Campoverde

Jews in Bogota’, Colombia, South America, for passover do something similar, but with the difference that they adapt a popular local breakfast soup called ‘Changua’, which traditionally is made by poaching an egg in chicken broth with a little boiled milk added, dipping a toast biscuit in the broth and then adding fresh raw chopped scallions, cilantro and grated tomato. Before serving, they let it stand for several minutes to absorb the fragrance of the fresh chopped veggies. Weather you are Sefardi or Ashkenazi in Bogota’, during the week of Pesaj, rest assured that the biscuit is replaced by matzah balls. My mother sure loved breaking some matzos in the soup and me too.

STAR WAHNON

Wrong! North African, specifically Moroccan. Libya might have a similar dish. It is a traditional Sefardí dish served on Rosh Hashana.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.