Beckerz Bites - Recipe: Cioppino (Seafood Stew)

Me again…your favorite Realtor and lover of all foods and it is Friday which means it is time for Fun Food Friday. Teresa and I always try to have a seafood dish at least once a week. It could be a good grilled Salmon or Tilapia, a Grouper sandwich (yes Costco recently had some Grouper in stock) shrimp or maybe some crab cakes. This week we decided to make a Cioppino. For those of you who are not familiar with Cioppino it is basically a seafood stew made with a spicy tomato-based broth.

Cioppino can be made with any seafood but is typically a firm fish (like salmon, cod or tilapia) shrimp, scallops, mussels and various vegies like onion, peppers, celery and diced tomatoes. I always like to look at different recipes online to get different ideas of what to use and kind of steal ideas from each one to create my own flavor profile and here is what I came up with.

Shopping List:

2 salmon filets
10 XL shrimp peeled and deveined
1 doz Little Neck or Cherrystone clams (I used both)
2 doz mussels cleaned and debearded (I used 2 lbs which was more than 2 doz)
Cooked lobster claw meat which I was able to find at Costco
1 med-large onion diced
1 fennel bulb diced
1 diced red pepper
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used whole San Marzano and diced them myself)
4 cups seafood stock (made with lobster base, shrimp and lobster shells)
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 t cracked red pepper flakes
1 t fennel seed
1 T kosher salt and 1 t bl pepper
1 ½ c dry white wine
¼ c Olive oil

How To:

STEP 1: Using a Dutch oven or soup pot, put in ¼ c olive oil and heat at medium heat. Add diced onion and fennel bulb and sauté until tender (approx. 10 minutes) Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes and fennel seed and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add Tomatoes, seafood stock, wine, 1 T kosher salt, and 1 t pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes.

STEP 2: Add the seafood starting with the mussels and clams then add the shrimp and set the fish filets on the top. Cover and cook approx. 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked and mussels and clams have fully opened. Set lobster claw meat into the broth and set aside covered for 3-5 minutes to let the flavors blend together.

Place your desired amount of clams and mussels into a med bowl and ladle in your desired amount of broth. Place fish filet, shrimp and lobster claw on top and serve with a good crusty garlic bread and enjoy.