California Coastal Cioppino

  2.0 – 2 reviews  • Mussel
Level: Intermediate
Total: 2 hr 15 min
Prep: 1 hr 5 min
Cook: 1 hr 10 min
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  1. 2 ounces extra-virgin olive oil
  2. 4 anchovy fillets
  3. 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped onions
  4. 3/4 cup roughly chopped celery, and a few leaves
  5. 3/4 cup roughly chopped carrots
  6. 12 basil leaves
  7. 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  8. Pinch chili flakes
  9. Cheesecloth sachet, filled with 1 rosemary sprig, 1 oregano sprig, 1 thyme sprig, 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon fennel seed
  10. 1 1/2 quarts peeled, seeded ripe tomatoes, chopped
  11. 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  12. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  13. 2 cups red wine
  14. 2 cups white wine
  15. Pinch saffron threads, crushed
  16. 3 cups fish stock
  17. 6 cups tomato sauce base
  18. Spot Prawns and Seafood
  19. 10 cups cioppino base
  20. 18 (1-ounce) medallions white sea bass
  21. 2 dozen manila clams
  22. 2 doze black mussels
  23. 6 claws, 6 legs Dungeness crab, cooked
  24. 12 spot prawn tails, vein removed
  25. 18 tentacles, 3 small tubes calamari, cleaned, tubes cut in 1/2-inch pieces
  26. Rice bran oil
  27. 12 spot prawn heads
  28. Potato starch, for dusting
  29. Pinch kosher salt
  30. Freshly ground black pepper
  31. 1 1/2 cups French bread cubed, no crust
  32. 1/2 cup cold fish broth
  33. 6 livers from shrimp heads, lightly sauteed
  34. 1/2 teaspoon garlic, chopped
  35. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  36. 1/2 teaspoon togarashi spice (also known as Japanese 7 spice)
  37. 1/2 teaspoon chili sauce (recommended: Sriracha)
  38. 1/2 teaspoon yuzu juice
  39. 1 egg yolk
  40. 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  41. 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  42. 6 thick slices sourdough bread
  43. 1 clove garlic, cut in 1/2
  44. 1 tablespoon butter, melted
  45. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  46. 1 teaspoon chopped parsley leaves
  47. Pinch salt and freshly ground black pepper
  48. Cioppino Sauce
  49. Cooked Seafood
  50. Rustic Crostini
  51. Pinch chopped Italian parsley leaves
  52. 6 lemon halves
  53. Spicy Shrimp Rouille

Instructions

  1. Tomato Sauce Base:
  2. 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.
  3. Cioppino Base:
  4. 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.
  5. Spot Prawns:
  6. 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.
  7. Main Dish:
  8. 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.
  9. Spicy Shrimp Rouille:
  10. 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.
  11. Rustic Crostini:
  12. Rub bread with cut garlic clove and brush with melted butter and olive oil. Sprinkle with
  13. parsley, salt and pepper and toast to golden brown in oven or toaster oven.
  14. Cioppino Assembly:
  15. 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.

Reviews

Valerie Olsen
The recipe must be in error. The cioppino base calls for 10 cups of cioppino base. Could that possibly mean cioppino sauce?

 

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