Can I Use Fresh Tuna In The Fear Free Fish Stew?

Our answer

Nigella's Fear-Free Fish Stew (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT has a warmly spiced tomato sauce that can be cooked in advance and reheated. Chunks of fish are gently cooked in the sauce as they are simmered for 3-5 minutes then the pan is taken off thre stove and the fish continues to poach in the residual heat.

Nigella suggests in the introduction that you can use any fairly meaty fish, though our preference would be to use a firm white fish, such as cod, haddock, hake, coley, monkfish or halibut. Prawns (shrimp) are another good option if used in a mixture with other white fish. The white fish and prawns tend to be a fairly blank canvas and soak up the flavour of the sauce well. Our concern with oily fish, particularly tuna, is that they can have a much more pronounced flavour that can clash slightly with the sauce. Salmon is probably the least assertive of the oily fish group and would probably work in the stew. However, Tuna has a much stronger flavour and it also tends to break up very easily into small, thin flakes once cooked. So we would prefer to avoid using tuna in the stew. We would also suggest using fish from sustainable fisheries, if at all possible.