Cioppino: Get a taste of Italia with Filipino seafood!
From mechado, adobo, and afritada, it’s just obvious that we are obsessed with stews! Let’s take our stew game up a notch with Cioppino!
Cioppino is an Italian-American fish stew dish which usually consists of crabs, clams, shrimps, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The dish’s name was coined from the word cioppin, meaning “to chop” or “chopped”, describing the process of making the stew.
You can cook cioppino like a pro with these steps:
Cioppino (Seafood Stew)
Ingredients
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup fennel, sliced
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 ground black pepper
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried chili pepper flakes
200 g Sarangani Bay squid rings
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
3 cups water
250 g Manila clams, soaked in salted water for 1 hour
250 g mussels, scrubbed and beard removed
250 g Sarangani Bay Vannamei Shrimps large tail-on
250 g Sarangani Bay Alaskan Pollock Fillet, cubed
Chopped parsley for garnish
1 loaf sour dough bread
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 cup butter, salted
Procedure
1. In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil. Saute onion, fennel, celery, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the minced garlic and red-pepper flakes. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is golden and fragrant.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and add squid. Cook, stirring occasionally, until squid is opaque and tender and the released juices reduce, 15 to 20 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, 1 minute.
3. Add wine, raise heat to medium-high, and cook until cooking liquid is reduced by half. Add tomatoes with their juice, dried oregano, bay leaves, water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, covered, 15 minutes. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Add clams, cover, and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the shrimp and mussels. Arrange the fish on top of the stew, cover, and simmer until shellfish opens and fish and shrimp are firm and opaque. Do not over cook. Fish out bay leaves. Garnish with parsley.
5. For the sour dough bread, mix the butter, parsley and lemon zest together. Spread the flavored butter on the bread. Bake bread for 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 F.
6. Ladle stew in a large serving bowl or individual bowls. Serve with warm bread.
