California Cioppino Recipes

CALIFORNIA COASTAL CIOPPINO

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.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic, and cook 5 to 10 minutes. Add parsley, cilantro, tomatoes, tomato juice, clam juice, white wine, basil, oregano, thyme, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.
• Approximately 15 to 20 minutes before you are ready to serve the cioppino, stir in the fish, shrimp, mussels, clams, crab, and scallops. Continue to cook and stir approximately 5 minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and the clams and mussel shells have opened. Remove any unopened mussels or clams before serving.

CALIFORNIA CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Saute onion and garlic over moderate heat in olive oil until soft but not browned.
• Add parsley, tomatoes, tomato sauce, wine, water, vinegar and herbs.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes.
• (Basic sauce can be made ahead, cooled, covered and refrigerated. Heat sauce before adding to seafood.)
• While sauce is simmering, rinse all fish and seafood in cold water.
• Scrub clams thoroughly.
• Layer all seafood in large kettle, placing clams and mussels on top.
• Pour hot sauce over all.
• Cover tightly.
• Cook over low heat about 20 minutes, or until clams and mussels open and prawns turn pink.
• To serve, ladle hot sauce and some seafood into soup plates or large soup bowls.
• Lot of sour french bread.
• Enjoy.

SAN FRANCISCO CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Make the stew base. Heat a large stew pot or Dutch oven over medium heat with the olive oil. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits in the pot. Simmer the wine until reduced by about half. Add the tomatoes, peppers, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for 5 minutes. Add the stock or broths; bring to a boil, then adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook the base, with a cover slightly ajar, for 30 minutes. (The base may be prepared ahead up to this point, refrigerated for 1 day or frozen for 1 month).
• Finish the Cioppino. Bring the base to a simmer. Add the basil and the clams, and cook covered, over high heat, for 5 minutes, or just until the clams open. Add the crab and cook for 1 minute. Add the mussels, shrimp, squid, and scallops. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mussels open, the shrimp curl, and squid and scallops are just firm, about 3 minutes. Serve in large heated bowls with plenty of crusty bread.

CALIFORNIA CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Remove legs and claws from crab. Break body in half, reserving as much of the mustard-colored center as possible. Set crab pieces aside and force the crab butter through a sieve, set aside. Place clams in a pan, add one cup of wine, steam covered for 4-6 minutes or until clams open. Remove clams and discard ones that don't open. Strain stock and reserve. In heatproof 8 qt. pot, heat oil. Add onion, garlic and green pepper, saute until soft. Add tomatoes, paste and remaining 2 c. of wine, pepper, herbs and clam stock. Partially cover and simmer 20 minutes. Add fish, scallops, shrimp, crab and mustard. Simmer about 5 minutes or until all seafood is cooked. Add clams and simmer one minute. Serve immediately with parsley sprinkled on top.