Christmas cioppino
Dec. 25th, 2015 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! And happy holidays, all.
It's hard to type this because I sliced open my thumb this morning with a plastic knife while trying to open a can of dog food for Talis. I'm such a winner.
But it must be done. My mom and I had bought some seafood with the intention of doing a seafood boil. However, I wasn't actually sure my mom would like it... it's pretty plain, and you're supposed to boil it with like Old Bay seasoning (which I didn't have), potatoes (which she can't eat) and corn (which I didn't have).
Then I had the brilliant idea to make cioppino instead. (If you've never had it before, it's a tomato-based fish stew.) See, there was this cioppino at Etta's that we loved, loved, LOVED, but they stopped making it. I've never made cioppino before, but in looking up recipes online, it didn't seem that hard. The only problem was that I had purchased ingredients for a different dish, so I was missing clams/mussels, but oh well.
Anyway, I am typing this up at midnight on Christmasbecause I'm waiting up for Santa, with a sore thumb, because it turned out excellently! And I must have the recipe here for posterity. It was actually REALLY easy, so I can definitely see myself making it again.
I used a combination of recipes from Giada, Rachael Ray, and ones from various recipes sites. I just wanted to get a "feel" for how to make it and what the common ingredients and "must dos" were.
Using fresh fennel in cioppino seemed a popular thing to do, but I didn't have any, and wasn't about to venture out to a grocery store on Dec. 24.
The seafood I had to work with was a firm white fish (basa filet -- only $2 for a good-size filet!), 1/2 pound of shrimp (head on, about $4), and 1/2 pound of scallops (8 of them, about $6). You really should have clams or mussels in cioppino, so that was a miss. Sliced squid rings and crab meat would also be good additions. Etta's version had, like, everything. Most recipes called for halibut, but you know, halibut is pricey while the basa is not. I was a little afraid the basa would be fishy, but it actually came out perfectly. The key with seafood is not to overcook it.
So onto the recipe!
Cioppino
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of oil (Rachael Ray describes this as three slow circles of oil into the pot)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 anchovy filets (I used the salt-packed kind)
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 28oz can of tomatoes (I used whole, because that's what I had, but crushed or diced would be fine also)
- 1 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)
- 14oz chicken stock (fish stock seemed the more popular/appropriate choice, but I didn't have any)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or thereabouts)
- 1/2 tsp dried tarragon (or thereabouts)
- 2/3 pound firm white fish
- 1/2 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined, if you like)
- 1/2 pound sea scallops
Method
1) In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil on medium. Add the red pepper flakes, anchovies, bay leaf and garlic. Crush the anchovies with your wooden spoon until they melt into the oil. (And make sure the oil isn't so hot that it burns the garlic.)
2) Add the onion and saute for a few minutes, then add the wine.
3) After a minute, add the chicken stock, tomatoes, thyme, and tarragon. If you're using whole tomatoes, crush it with your spoon as well as you can.
4) Reduce the heat so that the soup is simmering, then cover and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
5) Chop the fish into 1-inch chunks and season with salt and pepper. Peel and devein the shrimp, if they didn't come that way. (Since mine also had heads, I took the extra step of cutting them off, then scooping out the flavorful tomalley. I saw this on YouTube for a different recipe and thought it was genius.) Slice the scallops horizontally.
6) Add the fish. Be very careful about stirring at this point, especially if you are using a delicate fish; it might break up. Let it cook, covered, for about 5 minutes.
7) Add the shrimp and scallops and make sure they are submerged in the broth. Let this cook about 5-7 minutes more.
8) Ladle into bowls and serve with bread. Devour!!!
Etta's served their cioppino with grilled bread... we ate ours with toast, which is our non-fancy version of grilled bread. :P You definitely need a toasted bread of some kind to mop up the delicious broth.
When I do this again, I might use celery and/or fresh fennel, and maybe let the soup reduce down a little bit so that it's slightly thicker (or maybe even add a bit of a thickening agent). But really, it was already super delicious as it was. :D The multi-step additions of the seafood ensured that each was cooked perfectly. If using clams or mussels, those would go in first, before the fish. They'd cook about 5 minutes, which should give them enough time to open. If by the time you're ready to serve some of them have not opened, those should be discarded.
It's hard to type this because I sliced open my thumb this morning with a plastic knife while trying to open a can of dog food for Talis. I'm such a winner.
But it must be done. My mom and I had bought some seafood with the intention of doing a seafood boil. However, I wasn't actually sure my mom would like it... it's pretty plain, and you're supposed to boil it with like Old Bay seasoning (which I didn't have), potatoes (which she can't eat) and corn (which I didn't have).
Then I had the brilliant idea to make cioppino instead. (If you've never had it before, it's a tomato-based fish stew.) See, there was this cioppino at Etta's that we loved, loved, LOVED, but they stopped making it. I've never made cioppino before, but in looking up recipes online, it didn't seem that hard. The only problem was that I had purchased ingredients for a different dish, so I was missing clams/mussels, but oh well.
Anyway, I am typing this up at midnight on Christmas
I used a combination of recipes from Giada, Rachael Ray, and ones from various recipes sites. I just wanted to get a "feel" for how to make it and what the common ingredients and "must dos" were.
Using fresh fennel in cioppino seemed a popular thing to do, but I didn't have any, and wasn't about to venture out to a grocery store on Dec. 24.
The seafood I had to work with was a firm white fish (basa filet -- only $2 for a good-size filet!), 1/2 pound of shrimp (head on, about $4), and 1/2 pound of scallops (8 of them, about $6). You really should have clams or mussels in cioppino, so that was a miss. Sliced squid rings and crab meat would also be good additions. Etta's version had, like, everything. Most recipes called for halibut, but you know, halibut is pricey while the basa is not. I was a little afraid the basa would be fishy, but it actually came out perfectly. The key with seafood is not to overcook it.
So onto the recipe!
Cioppino
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of oil (Rachael Ray describes this as three slow circles of oil into the pot)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 anchovy filets (I used the salt-packed kind)
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 28oz can of tomatoes (I used whole, because that's what I had, but crushed or diced would be fine also)
- 1 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)
- 14oz chicken stock (fish stock seemed the more popular/appropriate choice, but I didn't have any)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or thereabouts)
- 1/2 tsp dried tarragon (or thereabouts)
- 2/3 pound firm white fish
- 1/2 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined, if you like)
- 1/2 pound sea scallops
Method
1) In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil on medium. Add the red pepper flakes, anchovies, bay leaf and garlic. Crush the anchovies with your wooden spoon until they melt into the oil. (And make sure the oil isn't so hot that it burns the garlic.)
2) Add the onion and saute for a few minutes, then add the wine.
3) After a minute, add the chicken stock, tomatoes, thyme, and tarragon. If you're using whole tomatoes, crush it with your spoon as well as you can.
4) Reduce the heat so that the soup is simmering, then cover and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
5) Chop the fish into 1-inch chunks and season with salt and pepper. Peel and devein the shrimp, if they didn't come that way. (Since mine also had heads, I took the extra step of cutting them off, then scooping out the flavorful tomalley. I saw this on YouTube for a different recipe and thought it was genius.) Slice the scallops horizontally.
6) Add the fish. Be very careful about stirring at this point, especially if you are using a delicate fish; it might break up. Let it cook, covered, for about 5 minutes.
7) Add the shrimp and scallops and make sure they are submerged in the broth. Let this cook about 5-7 minutes more.
8) Ladle into bowls and serve with bread. Devour!!!
Etta's served their cioppino with grilled bread... we ate ours with toast, which is our non-fancy version of grilled bread. :P You definitely need a toasted bread of some kind to mop up the delicious broth.
When I do this again, I might use celery and/or fresh fennel, and maybe let the soup reduce down a little bit so that it's slightly thicker (or maybe even add a bit of a thickening agent). But really, it was already super delicious as it was. :D The multi-step additions of the seafood ensured that each was cooked perfectly. If using clams or mussels, those would go in first, before the fish. They'd cook about 5 minutes, which should give them enough time to open. If by the time you're ready to serve some of them have not opened, those should be discarded.
