Winging It Ciopinno

Thawed a package of TJ’s frozen seafood medley in the fridge overnight. Brought about 5 cups of water and 2 bay leaves to a boil and steamed the medley of crab legs, scallops, lobster and shrimp for about 10 minutes. Peeled and shelled all the seafood once it had cooled (this was the most time-consuming and laborious part) and then put that in a container back in the fridge.

Kept the pot of water that I used to steam the seafood and added shells to it, about a cup of fresh parsley (chopped), 3 chopped scallions, ½ a chopped onion, a large bunch of dried thyme, 3 ribs of celery, 2 chopped carrots and some salt and pepper. I added some more water to all of this so that my pot was about 2/3 full (maybe another 5 cups). I don’t know if I’m going to need this much broth for my final ciopinno, but I can always freeze the rest I suppose.

Let that simmer for an hour or so.

I’ve never made a stock derived from animals before. And while I seldom cook fish or seafood at home, and handling it does always make me question the exceptional status I’ve given this category of non-vegetable matter in my otherwise vegetarian diet, it is satisfying to make full use of the creatures, that nothing has been wasted. I’m not sure if I’m more comfortable eating these animals because of nostalgic childhood connections to them.. ripping apart boiled lobsters my grandmother would bring from Boston on her Christmas visits to us. The frequency of fish my mom cooked derived from family traditions shaped by living near the Adriatic. The 7 fish Christmas dinner.

Once I had the stock and strained it, I sautéed 3 cloves of garlic and one small diced onion in some olive oil at the bottom of my heavy stock pot. Once that was translucent, I added all the stock I made (a little overly ambitious perhaps). Then I chopped up the pound of snapper I had and threw that in there with a can of diced tomatoes that were already seasoned Italian, a cup of red wine, a can of anchovies, ½ c of chopped parsley, 1 T of tomato paste, and a 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes that I chopped up. This all cooked together for about 10 minutes and pretty soon the snapper was looking white and opaque and done. I threw in the seafood I had steamed earlier to warm through with the rest of the stew for a final couple of minutes and then it was ready to be eaten!

Verdict: tasty.

Next time: more fish and less stock in the final stew, slightly more garlic and wine, maybe some cayenne pepper.