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Seafood/Fish Soups and Stews


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On a recent trip to the Maritime Provinces I had an absolutely awful seafood chowder*, which left me wanting something a little more refined, delicious, and warming, but also wary of being burned again, so I stayed away from such things for the rest of the trip.

Please post any recipes (or links to) that you particularly love, whether it be for a chowder, bisque, cioppino.  Any continent, any ethnicity, any style.  I'm really not interested in discourse on whether the inclusion of ingredient X renders dish Y inauthentic, but I am interested in preparing something delicious for dinner later this week.  Thanks!

*Seafood chowder is what a cheap restaurant makes with leftover scraps.  This large bowl had gobs of cream, was roux-based with floury lumps, about four tiny cubes of potato, a single piece of tough lobster, and some flakes of unidentifiable fish.  It was truly one of the worst dishes I've ever ordered in a restaurant.

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Cioppino is one of my alltime favorite dishes.  Well, any type of seafood stew for that matter (I am drawn to this on any restaraunt menu!).  Cioppino in my experience is very easy to make, and in my opinion its the clams that give it a nice depth.  I am pretty sure that I have used this recipie in the past as a "starter" and adapted it in some way:  http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/judiths-dungeness-crab-cioppino.

On a related note, I think I saw that Tadich Grill is opening here in DC, although it looks to be delayed from the "1st Quarter 2014" opening date.  I had their version once when I was in San Fran and it was pretty darn good.  http://www.tadichgrill.com/location-dc.php

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Love seafood stews and I'll follow this thread with interest. One of my favorites to make comes, I believe, from Jacques Pepin and starts by frying potatos in the fat rendered from sliced Spanish chorizo. From there I often wander off in different directions but I really enjoy that as a base.

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Eliz-- get thee to A&H Gourmet Seafood, now with the new name Pesca Deli. Santi makes and sells fish stock and lobster stock, by the quart, cheap. If they've got shrimp with heads, buy some of those, or any shrimp with shells. At home, remove the heads, shells and tails, and simmer them in the defrosted stock with some white wine, onion-carrot-celery, lemon zest, and aromatic herbs, for 20 minutes to half an hour. Strain out the solids.

While at A&H/Pesca, also get some monkfish or halibut or rockfish, clams, mussels, squid, maybe scallops.

Back at home, saute onion-leek-garlic in olive oil, add tomatoes in some form, and the wonderful seafood broth you have made. Add a splash of some anise liqueur. And let that simmer, uncovered, with a bay leaf for a good half hour. Add your shellfish, fish cut into chunks, and once the clams and mussels have started to open, any scallops, squid and shrimp and cook just until they are opaque.

Squeeze in a bit of lemon and a shower of fresh chopped parsley/basil/cilantro whatever you've got that is fresh and green.

Serve with some crusty bread on the side.

You have already thanked me.

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Eliz-- get thee to A&H Gourmet Seafood, now with the new name Pesca Deli. Santi makes and sells fish stock and lobster stock, by the quart, cheap. If they've got shrimp with heads, buy some of those, or any shrimp with shells. At home, remove the heads, shells and tails, and simmer them in the defrosted stock with some white wine, onion-carrot-celery, lemon zest, and aromatic herbs, for 20 minutes to half an hour. Strain out the solids.

While at A&H/Pesca, also get some monkfish or halibut or rockfish, clams, mussels, squid, maybe scallops.

Back at home, saute onion-leek-garlic in olive oil, add tomatoes in some form, and the wonderful seafood broth you have made. Add a splash of some anise liqueur. And let that simmer, uncovered, with a bay leaf for a good half hour. Add your shellfish, fish cut into chunks, and once the clams and mussels have started to open, any scallops, squid and shrimp and cook just until they are opaque.

Squeeze in a bit of lemon and a shower of fresh chopped parsley/basil/cilantro whatever you've got that is fresh and green.

Serve with some crusty bread on the side.

You have already thanked me.

Need to try this!

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We just started using A & H as a wholesale supplier.  Their manilla clams were fabulous and they have head on Florida shrimp that were also wonderful.  Their mussels were not very good so we did not buy any of those.  We will be exploring more of their offerings shortly.  

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Bettyjoan asked us at the picnic what was the best dish we ever tasted, & I thought about a fish stew I had years ago. I was working at a convenience store on Topsail Beach, they were just developing it,( which meant stacking trailers together & calling them condos). The construction guys cooked a puppy drum fish stew out on the beach, on an open fire. They brought me some in, & it was simple- fish, water, onions, potatoes, minimal seasoning- but it was definitely the best thing I've ever eaten, probably because the fish was SO fresh.

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So, no entries from the New England chowder style group?

How about Manhattan style? I've been using this recipe as a base: http://tinyurl.com/omtpwd9 I don't use the chicken broth and clam juice. Not having time to prepare my own fish stock, I use the Kitchen Basics brand that comes in a carton (quelle horreur!). I plan to try the stock from Pesca Deli that Zora mentioned. I haven't bothered with the pernod, though I would like to try it some time. And I don't use only scallops. I just add whatever fish and shellfish suits my fancy, which almost always includes a couple dozen clams and some pieces of salmon previously trimmed from fillets and stored away in the freezer.

Thanks for starting this topic. Chowders, bouilliabasse, zuppa di pesce, and gumbos are among my favorite dishes.

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A cream or milk-based "New England-style" chowder is most often made with a base of bacon, onion, potato, celery, fish or shellfish broth, cream added and then fish or seafood added after the potato/other veg are tender. The issue is whether it is thickened or not. Personally, I prefer it thin, but in the past, I have made it thickened with a flour and butter roux, with a cornstarch or tapioca starch slurry, or with mashed potatoes. What makes it good or not is the quality of both the stock and the fish, clams or other seafood in it. The ratio of liquid to thickener in a thickened chowder is more a matter of mouth feel than flavor.

And then, of course, there is bisque--lobster, crab or shrimp--made with shells.

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So, no entries from the New England chowder style group?

This is a more or less perfect recipe for fish chowder, from Jasper White.

Here, you can see Jasper making the fish chowder with Julia Child. (Be warned: Although it's from public television, they force you to watch a commercial for Goldman Sachs.)

No thickening, just potatoes in chunks. I'd leave out the crackers, because I don't like them and they mess up the unity and appearance of the chowder. If you have smoked bacon but no salt pork, I'd recommend blanching before rendering it. If you want to make a "seafood chowder" just throw in some scallops and shrimp along with the fish. I like the all-fish version better.

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How about Manhattan style? I've been using this recipe as a base: http://tinyurl.com/omtpwd9

You had me at "fennel".  This recipe sounds like a good place to start - I can use it as a template and riff at will.  I almost never actually follow recipes (except for baking and pastry).

FWIW a few times this past summer I've made a vaguely Portuguese-style seafood stew based on my memories of a similar dish at BlackSalt and some tips from Zora.  IIRC I used shrimp stock and fennel stock, linguií§a sausage, fennel, tomato, lots of fresh thyme, saffron, bay leaf, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and whatever fish struck my fancy.  Most people would cook such a dish with lots of onion and garlic, but I can't tolerate them well so generally don't cook with them.

The Hersch wrote: "This is a more or less perfect recipe for fish chowder, from Jasper White."  -This sounds excellent.

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone!  Will post again once I've made something.

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FWIW a few times this past summer I've made a vaguely Portuguese-style seafood stew based on my memories of a similar dish at BlackSalt and some tips from Zora.  IIRC I used shrimp stock and fennel stock, linguií§a sausage, fennel, tomato, lots of fresh thyme, saffron, bay leaf, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and whatever fish struck my fancy.  Most people would cook such a dish with lots of onion and garlic, but I can't tolerate them well so generally don't cook with them. 

This sounds excellent, but I would definitely miss the garlic. Although, if I am not mistaken, linguica has a fair amount of garlic in it--probably dehydrated. Are you better able to tolerate roasted garlic or garlic powder?

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Your Manhattan-style chowder may be a thing of beauty, but I generally agree with what Don said here. In fact, I don't think I've ever tasted a Manhattan-style chowder that I thought was fit to eat.

I can see where you and Don are coming from, but I think the fennel kicks it up a notch from the usual vegetable-soup-style Manhattan chowders. And getting the seafood flavors to show themselves is essential (steamed  clams, funky fish, seafood stock).

You had me at "fennel".  

The author of that recipe was obsessed with amping up the fennel flavor. And I do enjoy it. At some point I'll cave and invest in a bottle of pernod  :)

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This sounds excellent, but I would definitely miss the garlic. Although, if I am not mistaken, linguica has a fair amount of garlic in it--probably dehydrated. Are you better able to tolerate roasted garlic or garlic powder?

Roasted garlic, not really.  Garlic powder, I have no idea.  Never really cared for the taste so it's not something I keep in the kitchen.  I can tolerate garlic in small amounts.  I think you're right that linguica has a fair amount; it doesn't seem to bother me.

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Commercial sausages are often made with pre-blended spices that include dehydrated garlic. To me, good quality dehydrated garlic (yes, there is such a thing) tastes very much like roasted garlic. Cheap garlic powder, found in processed foods and snack crackers, is abominable.

Where would you find such a product?

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So here's what I came up with.  Didn't measure anything, sorry - I enjoy improvising.  And I was in the mood to be fussy; this recipe could be simplified.

First I made a rich fennel broth, because I found fennel with huge tops at a FM, with carrot, a little onion, celery, bay leaf.

Set some of that aside for a different soup in a few days.

To the rest I added shrimp shells and simmered/steeped that for a long time while I prepped other things.

Diced some bacon, rendered the fat, removed the bacon.

Added a little chopped onion to the fat to soften, then potato in large chunks and small, and chopped carrot and fennel and a little garlic.

Strained the stock and added that, too, plus some white wine.  Seasoned with salt, white pepper, thyme.

Cooked until the potatoes were tender, then added largish pieces of tautog and some shrimp, and heavy cream and ribbons of sorrel and minced parsley; removed from heat while I cooked mussels and cockles separately.

Got the mussel and cockle meat into my bowl (Mr. P won't eat them).  Fished out most of the shrimp into his bowl.  Fish evenly divided.  Reheated the soup, ladled into each bowl, sprinkled with the bacon pieces and more parsley.

The broth was thin; I was hoping the small pieces of potato would break down enough to thicken it, but they didn't.  Next time maybe I'll puree some to get a thick soup.  It needed more aggressive seasoning and more acid - I'd hoped the wine would be enough, but it wasn't; it needed some lemon.  The sorrel added a nice tang, though not in every bite.  I wanted a hearty dish but ended up with something delicate; still, the flavors were great, and no one flavor predominated.

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Last night, I made this cioppino recipe that appeared in the WaPo Wednesday food section: http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipes/cioppino/14319/ It turned out fairly well. At least my two diner companions enjoyed it. I thought it was worth the effort, but nothing special. I made a few minor modifications:

  • tripled or quadrupled the amount of olive oil (1 tablespoon didn't seem enough for all the aromatics)
  • used 20 littlenecks
  • threw in 3/4 pound bay scallops that I'd saved in the freezer
  • used 8oz. Atlantic salmon, on sale at WF, in place of halibut (why use expensive halibut in a stew?)

If I made it again, I think I would increase the red pepper dose or maybe just put a bottle of hot sauce on the table so everyone can choose their own heat level.

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What's misleading about the recipe is the "fish stock."  Not sure what this means.  For me it means fish heads and frames and cooking these in a stock pot.  For others it can mean something frozen purchased in a case at Whole Foods.  The difference is night and day.  I must also add there will be a difference in the fish "stock" depending on the fish heads and frames used.  I'm also assuming these are truly fresh.

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