Cioppino - Fish soup

Recently I found this dish and I love it. It is a rich seafood and fish soup, reminiscent of the French "bouillabaisse" and the dear Catalan "suquet", a soup cooked by fishermen with a little bit of this and that (catch of the day). Cioppino comes from San Francisco, inspired from the Italian cuisine. The Italian fishermen started cooking it in his boats and later it became mainstream. Cioppino comes from the word "ciuppin", what means "chopped" and indeed, the ingredients are chopped in small pieces. I am going to propose some ingredients, but if you want to add, remove or replace any ingredient be my guest, remember, catch of the day! Be as creative as you want.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

* 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
* 1 chopped onion
* 2 minced cloves of garlic
* 1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley (please, no dried powdery stuff! :( )
* 1 can stewed tomatoes (14.25 oz)
* 1 cup of chicken broth
* 2 crushed bay leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
* 3/4 cup water
* 1 cup white wine
* 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 1 pound sea scallops chopped (or 1 pound bay scallops whole)
* 12 small clams
* 12 cleaned mussels
* 1 can lump crabmeat (or if not from can, 1 cup crabmeat)
* 1 pound of firm flesh fish ( I use ono, but you can use salmon, cod..)
* Salt
* Black pepper

- Suggestions: you can add baby lobster, whole crabs cut in quarters... also, the onion can be replaced by shallots.

Be a busy bee and prep everything, then you won't have to run like a chicken without head. :) In a large stockpot, melt the butter over low heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic and parsley. Cook slowly until the onion is soft and transparent.

Next, chop the  stewed tomatoes and add them to the pot with all the herbs, the chicken broth, water and wine. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 1/2 hour.

Time to add all the seafood and fish. Raise the heat, let it boil, lower heat, cover and back to simmer, about 10 minutes, until clams and mussels open.

Ready! Serve it with some rustic bread on the side to dunk in the delicious broth and some chilled white wine.


Preparation time: 1 hour

Calamares a la Romana (Calamari rings)

A delicious dish that brings me many memories of Sunday mornings in Barcelona, eating what we call "vermut". Usually we have lunch there around 2:00 pm and on Sundays, at noon, people go to bars to have some "tapas" and a beer, to fuel the appetite. One of our favorite tapas is calamares a la romana or calamari rings. 

Ingredients:

* 1 pound of squid rings, cleaned

* 1 cup of whole milk 

* 1 egg

* 1 cup of all purpose white flour

* 1 tablespoon cold carbonated water

* 1 lemon

* 1 teaspoon of baking powder

* Pinch of salt

* Olive oil

One hour before cooking the squids, soak the rings in the milk and let them in the fridge. Mix the flour, carbonated water and salt, add the beaten egg and finally mix the baking powder. Dry the squids with a paper towel and dip them in the batter. In a big pan heat the oil and when it is very hot, fry the squids over medium-high heat, just a few minutes to get a nice gold color and for the batter to rise. Place them on a paper towel to drain the excess of oil. Serve them with lemon wedges and a cold beer or soda to go along with them :) 

Preparation: 30 minutes (plus 1 hour of soaking in milk)

Stuffed squids (Calamares rellenos)

In Spain we love squids and cuttlefish and we have many recipes with those funny looking cephalopodi. If you want to save time, try to buy the squids already clean, if not here is how you clean them. Not for weak souls, this is going to sound like Serial Killing 101. First, grasp the head of the squid and firmly but gently, pull it. Don't pull too hard or you may break the ink sac. In your hand you will have the head of the squid with the tentacles and the ink sac. Cut the tentacles from the head and in the center you will see and feel the beak of the squid; just squeeze it and it will pop out. Rinse the tentacles and set them aside. Set the ink aside too, you can freeze it in a small Ziploc bag to use with other dishes, like Black Rice. Peel the outer skin with your hand, just pull it down like a sock. Feel inside the top of the squid and you will find a hard piece of cartilage, just pull it out. Then, rinse the body with cold water, especially inside, making sure it is clean. I will give two versions of the recipe, one with tuna and one with ground beef.  

Ingredients:

        To stuff with tuna

* 6 tiny squids or 4 medium ones

* 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

* 1 cup crushed tomato

* 1 can of tuna in water or in olive oil
* 1/2 cup of popcorn shrimps

* 1 boiled egg, minced

* 1 egg 
* 1/2 cup all purpose white flour

* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

* Pinch of salt

* Pinch of black pepper

* Olive oil

        To stuff with beef

* 6 tiny squids or 4 medium ones

* 1/2 medium onion, minced

* 1 cup crushed tomato

* 1/4 pound ground beef
* 1/4 pound ground pork
* 1 boiled egg, minced

* 1 egg 
* 1/2 cup all purpose white flour

* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

* Pinch of salt

* Pinch of black pepper

* Olive oil

Clean the squids. Heat the oil in a frying pan and once hot, over medium heat, sautee the onion. Once it gets color, add the tomato, sautee 3 minutes and add the tuna and shrimps (or the beef and the pork, depending on what version you are cooking) Cook the tuna and shrimps for 5 minutes (or if it is the ground beef and pork until they get color) and set aside. Add the boiled egg to the mixture and stuff the squids. Secure the opening with a toothpick. Beat the egg and in a separate dish mix the flour, baking powder, salt and black pepper. Dip the squids in egg, roll them in the flour mix and fry them in hot oil over medium heat, until the batter looks gold and crunchy. 

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Fish in Philadelphia: Samuels & Son

In my quest for sardines and langostinos, the owner of one of my favorite restaurants here in Voorhees, Pasta Pommodoro sent me to Samuels & Son Seafood Co., Inc in Philadelphia. Samuels is one of the best known fish dealers in the area, serving several states and some of the best restaurants in Philadelphia. Their warehouse is on Lawrence Street and off we went a rainy Saturday morning. They are wholesalers so the minimum purchase was 5 pounds.

The quality of their fish is amazing and they have so many different varieties and hard to find. The attention was great also. We bought Chilean sea bass, langostinos (prawns) and sardines imported from Portugal. Sadly they were out of ono (wahoo). If you have a freezer and you live in the area, I really recommend this place if you like quality for your fish and seafood. 3400 S. Lawrence Street, Philadelphia, PA, phone: 800 580 5810

Black rice (Arroz con calamares en su tinta, Arros negre)

As nasty as it may sound, a typical dish in Catalonia is Black Rice (rice with black ink). It does not taste like a chewed pen, the ink gives a wonderful color and flavor. The ideal thing would be to use real ink, but I am going to give here a more pedestrian version of the recipe, for low budgets and not a lot of shopping time. 


Ingredients:
* 2 cans of cuttle fish in their own ink Goya
* 1 cup of  rice
* 1/2 onion peeled and finely chopped
* 1/4 cup tomato puree (crushed tomatoes or from a can, without additives)
* 3 garlic gloves, peeled and finely chopped
* 2 boiled eggs
* 1 fish bouillon cube
* 2 Tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
* Splash olive oil
* Pinch of salt
* Pinch of black pepper


In a saucepan, heat about 2 cups of water and dissolve the fish bouillon cube. Keep the bouillon warm. 
Pour a little bit of olive oil in a pot, heat it, and then brown the garlic. When the garlic starts getting color, add the onion. Once again, when the onion starts getting soft and acquiring color, throw the tomato in the mix. This is called sofrito, the base of many Spanish dishes. Fry everything together for a few minutes and then add the two cans of cuttle fish (squids). Stir everything together about 5 minutes and add the rice. Again, stir for 5 minutes and then add about half of the fish bouillon. Sprinkle the salt and pepper and add the parsley. Over low heat, keep stirring the rice, making sure it does not stick to the bottom. The goal is to cook it until it gets soft. Keep on adding more bouillon as needed to achieve this goal. The rice needs to absorb all the liquid and the mix needs to thicken.  Before the liquid is all gone, add a grated egg. 
Serving suggestion: topped with a grated boiled egg.


Preparation time: about 1 hour