Recipe: Cioppino

Today is already the 7th day of the Lunar new year! It's ?? (Human Day) and that means, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE! :)

How have the celebrations been for everyone? Anyway, I had steamboat for 6 days in a row since the eve of CNY in hopes to be able to try and finish up all the food that my family prepared for the lunar new year. And I'll admit very frankly that I'm seriously getting a little sick and tired of the perpetual taste of a traditional steamboat.

Somehow, I am looking forward to another way to clear all the seafood I have at home and I thought about the Cioppino that Deserved one prepared last Christmas! :D



The Cioppino is a fish stew that originated in San Francisco but it was derived from the various regional fish soups and stews of an Italian cuisine. And traditionally in San Francisco, the Cioppino is made from the catch of the day, which typically consists of a combination of dungeness crab, clams, shrimps, scallops, squid, mussels and fish cooked with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce and served with toasted bread like sourdough or baguettes.

Other stews that are similar to the Cioppino includes the bouillabaisse, burrida and bourride of the French Provence, suquet de peix from Catalan speaking regions of coastal Spain or even the cacciucco and brodetto from Italy.

But here's our version of the Cioppino...


Ingredients:
Approx. 150-200g fillet of any 3 types of fishes sliced or chunks
(We used Sea bream, Sea bass and Wolf herring)
12-15 Prawns
10-15 Green lipped Mussels
500g White Clams

Butter or Olive oil
1 cup Red Onions chopped
6 cloves of garlic minced or chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Chicken powder
1 tbsp chilli flakes (or to taste)
1 cup Parsely finely chopped
1 cup Bay Leaf finely chopped
3 cup Red Wine or more to taste
1 can (13 oz.) of tomato paste
2 can (14 oz. each) diced tomatoes (available with mixed herbs)
1 cup lemon juice
1 Green Pepper Diced
Black Pepper Corn (to taste)
Sugar (to taste)

Method:
1) Melt butter or heat up olive oil into the skillet on low/ medium heat.
Add green pepper, red onions and parsley and saute them until red onions turns soft and golden.
Add garlic until garlic turns golden brown.
Saute for another 2mins or less.

2) Pour the saute mix into a 5-6 litres pot.
Add in diced tomato, tomato paste and lemon juice.
Followed by adding chicken powder, salt, sugar and black pepper corn.
Bring it to boil and simmer it for 20mins, stir occasionally.
Add water (approx. 3-4 cups) and additional seasonings to taste.

3) Add in sliced fish and prawns into the pot together with chilli flakes and leave to boil for 5mins. Add in mussels, crab and clams boil for another 2-3mins or until all clams shell opens. Stir occasionally to check.


Seriously, this has got to be the most delightful pot of seafood stew I ever had.
It has got such a rich flavour that the taste of the stew still lingered on my taste buds every time I look at the pictures up till today!

And by the way, hope you will enjoy our version of the Cioppino as much as we did and hopefully it's a good solution to end that steamboat marathon of yours too!

I'm outa here for now!... :)