Shellfish – Writing With My Mouth Full

Cioppino with Harvest of the Sea Seafood Medley

I love making seafood dishes at home, but sometimes it becomes cost prohibitive when you need multiple kinds for stews like this cioppino. Enter Harvest of the Sea’s frozen seafood medley pack. One bag contains a generous combo of Asian shrimp, Indian-wild-caught calamari, Argentine scallops, and Canadian Prince Edward Island blue mussels. They’re available at Costco in the Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Texas; soon they’ll be in the New York area too. With Harvest of the Sea’s seafood medley, all you really need is your imagination to bring in your favorite restaurant seafood dish home.

Ingredients:
olive oil
1 onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 28-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of dry white wine
6 cups of fish stock; but chicken broth will do
2 bay leaves
1 bag of Harvest of the Sea seafood medley, thawed
half a bunch parsley, roughly chopped
salt, pepper

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue sautéing for 3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste and stir until it changes color.
2. Add the tomatoes with the juice to the pot, along with the wine. Let the wine reduce by half, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and bay leaves; season and bring to a simmer.
3. Stir in the seafood and simmer gently for another 8 minutes. Stir in parsley and turn off the heat.

Flash-Fried Squid

I wanted to eat shrimp tonight but picked up a pound of squid instead from Whole Foods that called out my name. My intent was to eat light for dinner with the least amount of time spent cooking. I got just that with this Asian-flavored salad.

I used the Chinatown-bought wok here that I inherited from my brother. He said he couldn’t really control how hot it got so he didn’t become a fan. I didn’t mind a new toy in the kitchen as long as it’s lightweight and could be stored inside the stove.

Flash-frying in a wok can be super rewarding. They key is to keep it moving, so while you’re adding the rest of the ingredients, you’re sautéing and tossing the squid pieces at the same time. All you need is about 3 minutes for the pound of squid here; any longer and the squid will be too tough and chewy.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 lemongrass stalk, coarse outer layer peeled, softer inner core, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
a small knob of ginger, peeled, sliced into thin matchsticks
2 Thai red chiles
1 lb squid, cleaned, patted very dry, mantles sliced into rings and tentacles separated
2 scallions, sliced diagonally
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsps, Shaoxing wine
salt, pepper

1. Heat a wok until almost smoking. Add peanut oil. Turn down the heat to low-medium. Sauté lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and the Thai chiles.
2. Before the garlic gets brown, turn up the heat back to high, add and flash-fry the squid for 1 minute.
3. Toss in the scallions, sugar, Shaoxing wine, and season with salt and pepper. Keep flash-frying for another minutes until the wine practically disappears.

Shrimp on Couscous and Summer Vegetables

This is from Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food with a few adjustments. If you’re out of luck and need to use frozen and cooked shrimp, make sure they are completely thawed and dried with paper towels before you mix them in with the marinade. (I’m sorry, by the way.) Leave them soaking longer so that the flavor penetrates.

Ingredients:
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stripped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 good pinch of saffron
1 lb shrimp, deveined, peeled, tail-on
1 orange
1/2 cup couscous
1/4 cup peas
half a bunch of asparagus
1 zucchini, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 fresh red chile, seeded, chopped
3 fresh mint leaves, julienned
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp plain yogurt
salt, pepper

1. Using a mortar, pound the rosemary leaves and the garlic into a paste with a pinch of salt. Muddle in 1 tbsp of oil, the paprika, saffron and a swig of boiling water to make a marinade. Cut the orange in half and toss one half with the shrimp and the marinade. Mix well and set aside until almost ready to serve.
2. Put all the vegetables in a serving bowl with the lemon juice and the other half of the orange. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
3. Put the couscous into a bowl and just cover with boiling water, then pop a plate on top and leave to fluff up. Uncover after a 3 minutes and toss with the vegetables.
4. Put a large non-stick frying pan on a high heat. Add the shrimp, marinade, and orange wedges and cook for up to 5 minutes, or until the shrimp are browned, then arrange on top of the couscous and vegetables. Top with yogurt.

Black Tagliatelle with Hot Sausage and Littleneck Clams

I wanted to take on making pasta again at home so I stopped by Buon Italia’s joint in Chelsea Market to buy cuttlefish ink to make black pasta. My heart broke when my dough refused to form so I ended up throwing everything including the 10 egg yolks required. It’s a very expensive hobby, pasta-making; I don’t know why I can’t seem to do it myself. I was fine while I was taking the class at Rustico Cooking; perhaps it’s time to retake the class just to get the feel of the dough again.

The good thing is that I bought black tagliatelle as well for backup. I didn’t want to spend more money buying Nduja sausages so I just picked up regular hot sausages. The clam shells were heavy but were a great addition to this dish. It was very pretty at the end and I highly recommend making this when you have a night to tuck it in with a nice glass of red wine.

Ingredients:
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 sweet onion, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
20 littleneck clams, rinsed and scrubbed
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 hot Italian sausages, removed from casing
1 tbsp tomato paste
black tagliatelle pasta
fresh lemon juice
2 tbsps butter
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
breadcrumbs
2 scallions, sliced thinly

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic until light golden brown. Add the onions and sweat until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the bay leaves, clams and half of the wine. Cover the pot and steam for 5 to 7 minutes, removing the clams as they open. Strain the cooking liquid and set aside in a bowl. Remove and reserve the meat from the clams and roughly chop; discard shells.
2. In a skillet, cook the sausage pieces and render the fat. Crush the sausages into smaller pieces with the back of your spatula while cooking. Deglaze the pan with the remaining wine and reduce by half by simmering in low fire. Add tomato paste and reserved clam juice and bring to a simmer.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in another pot of boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the sausage. Add the reserved clams and butter and toss over medium-high heat until the pasta is well coated, about 2 minutes. Stir in the pasta water a little bit at a time so it has a nice consistency. To finish, toss with the lemon juice and parsley and garnish with the breadcrumbs and scallions.

Mussels with Chorizo and White Beans

New Yorkers got respite from the summer heat this week when temperatures dropped to 70 degrees. There was soft rain and a chill in the air–the perfect time to tuck in a bowl of mussels with a 2012 Rosato di Cabernet Franc from Channing Daughters.

Ingredients:
olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
about 4 inches of dried chorizo, diced
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
red pepper flakes
salt, pepper
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained
2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and sauté the garlic until light brown. Add the chorizo, the cherry tomatoes and red pepper flakes, and season with salt and black pepper and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add the cannellini beans, mussels and 1/2 cup of water, cover and cook over high heat until the mussel shells open, about 3 minutes; discard any mussels that don’t open. Turn off the heat and toss in the parsley and mix well. Transfer everything in deep serving bowls and serve with crusty bread.