Last night I made a Cioppino for Caitlin's birthday. She's always had a passion for food and even as a 3 year old, appreciated a good piece of nigiri sushi. Now, at 26 she's become quite a good cook. So, it's always a pleasure to put a meal in front of Caitlin.
I thought cioppino would be fun, after all it is Dungeness crab season and a good one at that. But cioppino is not really a single concept. It invites experimentation and individualization. Basically it is just a fish stew and a variant can be found from just about every culture that develops near a body of water big enough to harbor fish (which is just about everywhere). Most people ascribe cioppino to San Francisco Italians; I grew up in an Italian home in New York and we never had anything called cioppino.
It turned out pretty well and I tend to be critical of my cooking. The broth was complex and as Lindsey observed, carried a rainbow of complimentary notes all happily sopped up with warm francese bread from Gayle's.
So here is the recipe - upside: really yummy, downside: a bit pricy (fish is getting ever more expensive) and takes a bit of time.
Tom's Cioppino
Ingredients:
1 1/2 onion diced,
1/2 carrot diced fine,
1 celery stalk diced,
1/4 fennel bulb diced,
4 clove garlic chopped fine,
1/2 sweet red pepper diced,
1/2 green pepper diced,
1/2 lemon,
basil,
peppercorn,
bay leaf,
parsely,
1 1/2 can canned San Marzano italian whole tomato - remove the tomatoes and chop fine adding to the stew before the juice,
1/2 c white wine (if you wouldn't drink it don't cook with it),
1 6oz(?) bottle clam juice,
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce,
24 clams,
1 lb medium-large prawn (about 20 count)
1 lb Mahi Mahi or any firm fish cut into 1" chunks
2 large cooked Dungeness crabs cleaned or uncleaned
Basic Idea - anyone who knows me realizes that I cook from the seat of my pants (not literally) and just go from a basic notion of what I want to do. Then things just sort of take on a life of their own. Recipes are difficult for me to follow (and write) because my brain is always tasting and coming up with its own ideas of taste and texture.
This is a fish stew so building the flavors from a good base is essential. I start the base with onion, green pepper, sweet red pepper, carrot, fennel, celery, salt, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Sauté everything slowly and well in a liberal amount of olive oil but don't caramelize the onions.
Add the garlic and continue cooking (but don't brown or (gasp!) burn the garlic) then the tomatoes. I think it is essential to use very high quality San Marzano canned tomatoes. They are imported from Italy and are deep red and rich. Of course you can use your own canned tomatoes but not many people do that and Dungeness season comes well after the best fresh tomatoes are to be had. Cheap canned tomatoes will not be the same and since you are going to blow a bunch of money on the fish, you really should spend the extra few dollars for excellent tomatoes since they constitute the fundamental note of the stew.
Cook the tomatoes with the onions & friends for a little bit before adding the tomato juices. Build the stew from here - white wine, clam juice, tai fish sauce. Cook about 3 hours slowly and lovingly with a bouquet garni of fresh basil, bay leaf, fresh parsley and black peppercorn. Fuss over it, periodically tasting to make sure you are on track.
You can probably stop here and refrigerate. I just turned the heat off and left the stew on the stove until about an hour before dinner.
Most of the rest is simply assembly. First, remove the shells and clean the prawns. Don't throw the prawn shell away - put them in a pan, cover with water (or light vegetable broth if you have some around) bring to a boil and simmer for a while. Add this light stock to the stew.
Clean the crabs and retain the tamale and juices adding them to the stew (unless you can't deal with that level of intimacy).
Cook the clams in a small amount of water and when they open remove them to the stew. Finally add to the stew the juices thrown by the cooked clams. (Some would just add the clams to the stew and let them cook there - I prefer to keep separate so I don't end up cooking dead clams (the ones that don't open). It probably does not matter at all - its just me).
Add mahi mahi or whatever firm fish you are using, then the shrimp and cook another 10 minutes, finally add crab . Sit covered in the pot to warm the crab.
Just before serving squeeze half a lemon over the stew, taste and adjust. I think this is really important - it gives the dish a light fresh taste. I'm half Sicilian and a recent trip to the mother land taught me how they incorporate lemons and limes into their dishes to bring out other flavors.
Remove the crab pieces to another bowl to make serving easy. Serve the broth in pasta bowls making sure to include fish, prawn and clam for every guest. Place crab on top. Serve with warm sourdough or francese bread.
(I highly recommend a finger bowl of warm water with a slice of lemon for each guest since there is a lot of finger work to be done with this dish).
This dish can hold up to just about any dry white wine or even a light red. Personally, my accompaniment was champagne but we also served a chardonnay.
