Cioppino

I was watching Bobby Flay's Throw Down on Food Network last weekend and they featured cioppino challenging the owner of Phil's Fish Market in Monterrey, CA. I don't know about you but I have never had cioppino, not in the restaurant or somebody's home or much less my own home. Not until this anyway.

I've always wanted to make it, but I always seem to find an excuse not to do it partly because I am just plain grossed out by mushy fish. When I was a kid, the only ever way my Mom could make me eat fish is when it's fried or grilled. That fairly much stayed with me up to this very day. The other thing, well, it's pretty darn hard to find fresh fish in Vancouver Island. Yeah, a place surrounded by the ocean with several little cities in it claiming to be the salmon capital of the world. I have no idea why there is simply no good fish market in town. Anyway, I discovered that once I manage to overcome my fear of mushy fish, it was not very hard to make at all, thanks to Bobby Flay.



To begin with you'll need some good quality seafood. It's a soup made with the fishermen's catch of the day so I guess what's in it can vary depending on what's available. Here's how I made mine.

1 dungeness crab, boiled in salted water, (ideally I should remove the meat from the shell but I couldn't be bothered so I just cracked the claws and sliced it in half)
1/2 lb of wild sockeye salmon, sliced in bite-sized chunks
1/2 lb of prawns, peeled and deveined
1 can of peeled Roma tomatoes, crushed (keep the juice, you'll need it for the soup)
1 cup of clam juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 small red or yellow pepper, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 bouquet garni (2 sprigs of thyme, 1 small sprig of rosemary, a handful of basil, 1 sprig of Italian parsley and 1 bayleaf tied together with a kitchen string)
oil for sauteing
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan to taste (1 tbsp per serving)
1 tsp of chili pepper flakes
1 tsp of anchovy paste

First I made the tomatoey soup base. I sauteed the onion, pepper and garlic in oil for about 5 minutes then added the anchovy paste and the tomato paste and cooked it for another 3 or 4 minutes and deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup of the wine. I added the crushed canned tomatoes with the juice and the clam juice then tossed in the bouquet garni. I seasoned it with salt, chili pepper flakes and freshly cracked pepper and cooked it for about 30 or so minutes until all the flavours are well blended and tasted just like a tasty tomato soup. Keep it hot.

Then just like Bobby Flay did, I pan fried the salmon until just opaque in a little bit of olive oil, added the crab to warm it up and the prawn and cooked it till light pink. Here I stopped copying Bobby Flay, so I deglazed the pan with the remaining 1/4 cup of white wine and reduced it scrapping the bottom for flavourful browned bits. Then I copied Bobby Flay again and poured in half of the soup and let it boil slightly. I stirred it a couple of times to make sure the fish won't fall apart. Just before serving, I topped the bowl with extra tomato soup and then topped it with grated parmesan. Bobby Flay didn't add grated parmesan, it was my idea.

Not bad, thank goodness the fish didn't turn mushy. Maybe it's just the added oil but pan frying gives it more flavour actually. The deglazing the pan fried browned bits was maybe a bad idea because the soup tasted a bit winey because the wine didn't cook enough. Next time I'll just put it on the tomato soup base. I'm sure this will come in handy during the winter months.