Awesome Easy Cioppino (Seafood Stew) And Baked Crappie

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got home safely, especially if you got caught up in the snow.

Beverly and her sister, Pat, did not grow up in a seafood/fish eating family and to this day they only eat a limited variety of fried items, except salmon for Bev, so while they were in Marco I cooked fish for Cindy and me including a dish I really like but rarely eat - Cioppino.

This seafood stew is basically seafood boiled in a tomato broth so it doesn’t fit my girls desires but it works well for Cindy, good buddy Joe, and me.  I used the recipe for Easy Cioppino (Seafood Stew) from “Damn Delicious."  The site says this about the dish - “The BEST ever seafood stew, loaded with clams, mussels, cod, shrimp and scallops. So cozy, so hearty, so easy.”  The recipe is for four servings which I followed for the broth but I just used enough seafood for three servings.

We began the meal with a half dozen raw oysters and a couple of clams but I forgot the pics.

Then we waited a while and ate our salad.  Then we waited again before diving into the cioppino.

Easy Cioppino

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium sweet onion, diced

1 small fennel bulb, cored and diced (1/2 tsp seeds)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¾ cup dry white wine

1 (28-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes

2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups clam juice

1 bay leaf

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

9 little middle neck clams, scrubbed

9 mussels, scrubbed and debearded

½ pound cod, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

9 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

6 large sea scallops

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves  (I forgot them)

Instructions:

Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and fennel. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 8 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Stir in wine, diced tomatoes, vegetable stock, clam juice and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended, about 15 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

I made the full broth amount in the early afternoon then brought it too a boil when it was time to cook the seafood for three servings - so I had extra broth.

Stir in clams and mussels. Reduce heat to low; cover, with a tight-fitting lid, and cook until the clams and mussels are just beginning to open, about 3-4 minutes.

Stir in cod or halibut, shrimp and scallops. Reduce heat and simmer until cod or halibut, shrimp and scallops are just cooked through and clams and mussels have opened completely, about 3-4 minutes. Discard any unopened clams.

Divide the seafood among three bowls and ladle in some broth.

The Verdict:

We all thought it was awesome and it would be hard to refute the authors clim -“The BEST ever seafood stew..."  Joe said it may be the best thing he ever ate.  The only thing missing was some crusty bread to dunk in the broth but I’m watching my carbs and the pic would have been even better with a crab claw in the bowl.

And the good news is that I had enough of everything but cod to have it again a couple of days later.

Baked Crappie

A couple of days earlier I had made individual baked crappie boats.  I just added four crappie filets to the sprayed dishes and seasoned them with salt and lemon pepper.  Then I dotted them with butter and added a thin layer of Italian bread crumbs and grated Parmesan and a couple tbsp of white wine to the dish bottom.  I baked them at 400F for 12 minutes for a simple and tasty dish that we sided with some green beans.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/26/24 event date