Recipe: Cioppino

Cioppino is one of the most popular seafood stews that you can order at piers and fish markets. Originating in San Francisco, it features what is usually the catch of the day. The ingredients will vary depending on where you order it and what's being caught, but it's always a treat to have. When I was in San Francisco a few years ago, I was able to order a bowl at Fisherman's Wharf and I've recreated a version of it at home. Please give this a try!

Ingredients:
1 Large Onion
2-3 Stalks of Celery
1 Large Shallot
6 Cloves Garlic
2 Cups White Wine
Hot Chili Flakes
1 Large Can (35 oz) Tomatoes
Seafood Stock
Seafood
Parsley

For 1 Large Pot, Cioppino for 2 at restaurants can cost $30-45 dollars. Making this at home will lessen that cost to about $10 a person, depending on what seafood you add in.

DO:
-Want more Italian influence? Toss in a bay leaf or some oregano. It will add some earthy flavors to the stew. I opted this part out of my own stews because I prefer the fresh sweetness of all the seafood.
-Chopped, pureed, or whole tomatoes all work for this recipe!
-Serve with some delicious garlic bread!
-Mix and match your seafood!
-Add a slight sour tang to your soup with lemon juice, or sneak in a few capers!
-If using shrimp, save your shells and make a wonderful shrimp stock to bolster your flavor profiles! I just made a post earlier this week about making your own shrimp stock.
-If you want to mellow the sharp tomato flavor of the stock, simmer your vegetable base mixture for longer before adding your seafood!
-Prepare mise en place!

DON'T:
-Overcook your seafood.
-Over salt the stew. When cooking seafood, always account for the natural salt factor that comes in a lot of seafood.

The Seafood:
Try using a variety! I'm partial to using:
-Clams
-Mussels
-Squid
-Shrimp
-Scallops
-Fish (any white fish will do: Tilapia, swai basa, cod, etc)

Classic Cioppino must have dungeness crab too! I'm personally a bit lazy to work for all that delicious crab meat, but you might not be! Be sure to steam/cook your crabs beforehand. I promise you it will be amazing.

To clean your seafood, scrub your mussels and clams to get rid of debris on their shells. If freshly bought, soak your clams and mussels in a mixture of water, a few tsp of salt, and 1 cup of flour, corn starch, or corn meal. This makes the shellfish pump out the debris in their gut. Fresh seafood is always the best, but I never look down on using frozen seafood. In fact, some frozen seafood is more fresh than what you can buy at your local market! They're usually frozen shortly after being caught. Finally, remember to remove the sand vein from shrimp, crack your crab claws, and give everything a rinse!

And don't skimp out! It's primarily a seafood stew for a reason. You're mostly eating all the seafood that you put in!

The Vegetable Base:
Start by chopping your celery, onion, shallots and garlic. Saute your vegetables directly in your pot with olive oil, salt, pepper, and hot chili flakes. Once translucent, add your white wine (I like using chardonnay). Shortly after, you can add your tomatoes and seafood stock into the pot. You can just use plain water in a pinch (but why would you?). When your pot comes to a boil, you're just about ready to serve.

One of the best things about making Cioppino is that once you have reached this step, you can turn off the heat and wait until your guests arrive. You prepare everything ahead of time and still have time to take care of other things!

When ready to serve:
Make sure your pot is at a medium boil and add your seafood into the pot. Everything can go in at the same time, but you might want to save the fish for last (fish is prone is crumble and fall apart in this stew). Try adding in the fish halfway through boiling and place them on top of all of your ingredients, making sure they're still submerged in the stew. Bring your pot back up to a boil, and in about 10 minutes, your Ciopinno is ready to serve! Be sure to discard any unopened shellfish (if you're wondering, yes they taste funky. Don't pry them open).

Remember to taste for seasoning and do some final adjustments. Sprinkle in chopped parsley, ladle into a bowl, and enjoy one of the most amazing fish stews in the world. The sweet juices of all the seafood combining with your vegetable and tomato base makes for an absolutely gorgeous soup. The hint of spice from the chili is a great undertone to balance the fresh flavors, so do try to keep it in the recipe!

Seafood, Eat Food Diet!

Technique: Making Your Own Shrimp Stock

Shrimp shells are notorious for being extremely sweet and fragrant, releasing lots of flavor when cooked. It is why the shell is left on entirely in certain recipes that call for stir frying. But what can we do with shrimp shells when they're not called for in a dish? We make shrimp stock!

One of the goals of this blog is to promote quality home cooking. Sometimes, that means saving and freezing your shrimp shells in a zip-lock bag for the future. Don't discard those shells, chicken bones, or even whole carcasses (rotisserie chicken for example, makes for a great stock)! A great shrimp stock can be added to any simple seafood dish and the returns are exponential.

Ingredients:
Shrimp Shells
Carrots
Celery
Onion
Garlic

DO:
-You can make as little or as much as you want every time. The stock takes only 30-60 minutes to prepare, and can improve any seafood dish immensely!
-Try adding in whole black peppercorns!
-Use shrimp stock in combination of other cooked seafood! The sweet flavors released from clams, mussels, scallops and all the other types of seafood all complement each other. By adding shrimp stock, you bolster the flavor profiles by creating a wonderful base.
-Fan of Korean cooking? Try changing out the carrots and celery for radish, shiitake mushrooms, and konbu seaweed! The stock would make for any great korean soup or stew, such as Soondubu Jigae.
-Try using this for a base for any seafood styled hotpot! Change out the carrots and celery again and use corn, shiitake mushrooms, green onion, and many other ingredients!

DON'T:
-Freeze the shrimp stock after making it. The flavors don't hold too well after being frozen, unlike chicken or pork bone stock.
-Season with too much salt! You will be seasoning your actual dish and using this stock to enhance the flavors. Think of low sodium chicken broth.
-Add too many different or too much herbs. Chances are, you're adding them to your final dish also. Don't commit double jeopardy!

The Stock:
Olive oil and shrimp shells go into the pot, cook until fragrant on medium-high heat. Add your carrot, celery, onion, and garlic whole (no chopping needed for any of the vegetables) and fill with enough water to cover. The proportions will change depending on how much you need to make. For reference, the picture shown on this blog shows the shells of 1 pound of shrimp, 1 large carrot, 3 stalks for celery, 1 large onion, and 4 cloves of garlic produced the perfect amount of stock to use in the Cioppino I was making that day.

The stock is done when the vegetables become soft and start to give away. You don't have to simmer it until the vegetables dissolve, but 1 hour should do the trick. You can do this while you're preparing mise en place for your other ingredients and dishes!

How To Use Shrimp Stock:
-Making Seafood Pasta! Add in 1-2 cups after sauteing your vegetables, along with your white wine before adding in your seafood. After cooking, transfer your undercooked pasta (by 1-2 minutes) into your seafood sauce, and allow the pasta to finish cooking. The pasta will absorb all the flavors of the sauce, and will become absolutely amazing.
-Making Cioppino! More to come on this, I've got a recipe coming your way soon!
-Making Seafood Soup! Great for any tomato based seafood soup. The orange shrimp color will complement the red tomato color.
-Endless possibilities, just use shrimp stock where any recipe requests for seafood stock!

Seafood, eat food diet for sure!

Technique: Steakhouse-Style Lobster Tails

Ever wonder how steakhouses serve such amazing lobster that looks as delicious as it tastes? Well, it's an incredibly easy technique and all you need is a pair of scissors.

DO:

-Prepare an herb butter to spread on top!

-Remove the sand vein!

-Be gentle!

DON'T:

-Forget about it in the oven. You will regret it.

The Technique:

Start by snipping off all of the tiny lobster legs and clean up the general appearance of the entire tail. This must be done to separate the flesh from the shell. Take your pair of scissors and cut straight down the top half of the shell until you reach the last segment before the tail. Take your fingers an carefully separate the meat from the shell and gently pull the flesh out to sit on top of the shell, as if the meat is resting on the shell (piggybacking). Do not remove the flesh completely, it should still be attached at the tail end. Remember to clean the sand vein (intestine) out by removing it.

And that's it! You're done! Now how do we cook it?

Start by preparing an herb butter. Microwave some butter to soften it and mix in your choice of herbs. Some suggestions are garlic, parsley, shallots, olive oil, onions, and or paprika. Don't forget salt and pepper and do try as many different flavor combinations as you would like.

Preheat your oven by turning on the top broiler and moving one of your baking racks to the highest (or second highest) position. You want the lobster to be about 2-3 inches away from the top broiler flames. Spread your herb butter mixture on the lobster tail and broil for exactly 7 minutes.

And there we have it. Perfectly cooked lobster tails that look gorgeous. And to dispell the myth of price, if you can find a way into Costco each tail will run for about $6-7 each.