West Coast Cioppino Recipes

Steps:

• Tomato Sauce Base:
• Heat a large saucepan and add olive oil and anchovies. Stir anchovies into hot oil to dissolve. Add onions, celery and carrots and begin to cook until they begin to brown. Add basil leaves, garlic and chili flakes and sweat to release their aromas. Add sachet and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 45 minutes until vegetables are tender enough to easily crush with a fork. Remove sachet and pass sauce through a fine food mill. Reserve for Cioppino Base.
• Cioppino Base:
• Combine wines and saffron. Reduce wine by half. Add fish stock and tomato sauce, bring to a simmer to combine flavors. Check seasoning. Adjust if necessary.
• Spot Prawns:
• Place Cioppino Base.in a large straight-sided pot. Heat to just below a simmer. Add fish, clams, mussels, crab and shrimp tails to pot. Cover and steam/poach briefly to cook and heat through each item. Clams and mussels should be now open; fish and shrimp should turn opaque. Add calamari for the last minute of cooking. Discard any clams or mussels that do not have beautiful plump meats.
• Main Dish:
• Heat about 6 inches of oil to 365 degrees F. Clean back apron of shrimp head and clean inside tail end of head. Dredge shrimp heads in potato starch lightly and fry 3 minutes until very crisp and golden. Drain briefly, split in 2 and season with salt and pepper. Hold warm for service.
• Spicy Shrimp Rouille:
• Soak bread cubes in fish broth and place all ingredients except oil in blender. Puree ingredients into a paste. Pour in the oil slowly, while blending, to make a thick fluffy mayonnaise sauce.
• Rustic Crostini:
• Rub bread with cut garlic clove and brush with melted butter and olive oil. Sprinkle with
• parsley, salt and pepper and toast to golden brown in oven or toaster oven.
• Cioppino Assembly:
• Ladle Cioppino sauce into hot serving dishes. Arrange fish items on each dish from the back of the dish to the front. Lean crostini against 2 pieces of sea bass. Arrange 3 split fried shrimp heads against crostini and face forward and upright. Add 1 mussel shell and mussel meats, and 1 clam shell and clam meats. Add peeled shrimp tails, last piece of fish, calamari and peeled crab legs. Top with chopped parsley, cover and serve. Serve with lemons and Spicy Rouille sauce on side.

Steps:

• Combine butter and olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat.
• Stir in onion and celery with a pinch of salt; cook until onion is soft and golden, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.
• Stir wine into onion mixture; increase heat to high and bring to a simmer.
• Stir in tomato puree, water, bay leaf, oregano, red pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer 35 minutes.
• Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Stir in lemon and cod, return to simmer, about 2 minutes.
• Stir in crab, shrimp, and mussels. Cover and simmer until all mussels are cooked and open, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in fresh parsley and basil; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Steps:

• Coat bottom of large wide saucepan with oil and heat at medium. Add garlic, bay leaves, onion and fennel. Stir often until onion very soft (8-10 min). Sprinkle with oregano, chillies, salt and pepper. Increase heat to med-high, then stir in tomato paste and cook for one min. Add wine, bring to boil. Reduce to simmer. Stir until wine reduces by half. Pour tomatoes (including juice) into pan and add basil. Stir fish stock (except one cup) and bring to a boil, cover and simmer 15 min. (can refrigerate for 2 days at this point) Just before serving, pour remaining 1 cup fish stock into another saucepan. Bring to boil and add clams and mussels. Reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer stirring occasionally until shells open. Scoop them out and set aside. Return stock to gentle simmer. Season halibut with salt and pepper. Add fish to saucepan. Adjust heat to barely bubbling, cove and simmer until halibut cooked through, 6-8 min. Scoop out and set aside. Pour cooking liquid into soup. Take half the mussels and clams out of their shells. Using a fork, gently cut halibut into small pieces. Bring soup to a boil then add shrimp (or scallops) and crab. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 2-3 min so shrimp cooks through and crab warms. Stir in all the mussels, clams and halibut. Ladle into warm bowls and garnish with parsley.