Cioppino "imperiale"


My own interpretation of this San Francisco (not Italian) classic.

At least once, it was the best thing I ever made.

I based this recipe on a number of different sources, pulling what I thought were good ideas from each and combining them. The anchovies come from Rose Pistola, the warm spices from The Gutsy Gourmet. The trick with the jalapeño is from Michael Chiarello's quick tomato sauce recipe.

The approach I took with this recipe serves me well when I'm re-interpreting a classic:
1) Search for every recipe I can find.
2) Abstract the common core of all the recipes.
3) Synthesize the core with the idiosyncratic cool ideas.

Search; abstract; synthesize. I need to give it a catchy name.

Here's the recipe, which I've made six or seven times. It serves 8.


SOUP BASE:

olive oil – 1/2 cup
pancetta — 1 thick slice (optional, but everything is better with hog)

jalapeño – 2

onion – 2 (diced)
garlic – 6 cloves (minced)
fennel – 1/2 bulb (diced)
carrot – 1 large (diced)

chili-garlic sauce (Sri Racha) – 1 T
tomatoes, whole peeled – 2x28 oz. (crushed by hand; drained; reserve juice)
red bell pepper – 1 (roasted; skinned; chopped)
anchovies – 2 oz. (drained; chopped)

fish stock – 4 cups
wine, dry white – 2 cups

oregano – 2 sprigs (stemmed; chopped)
basil – 8 large leaves (chopped)
rosemary – 1 sprig (fried 30 sec in oil; blotted dry; stemmed)
thyme – 2 sprigs
bay leaf – 3

red pepper – 1 t
saffron – 1/2 t
allspice – 1/2 t
cinnamon – 1/2 t

red wine vinegar -- 2 T
salt
pepper


SEAFOOD:

flour
rock shrimp – 1 lb. (cleaned, drained well)
swordfish – 1 lb. (cubed for large bite size)
crab meat – 12 oz. (drained well; reserve juice)

shallot – 1 (minced)
garlic – 1 clove (minced)
basil – 8 large leaves – finely chopped

butter – 3 T
olive oil – 6 T

clams or mussels – 32 (scrubbed)

herbs for garnish: basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme


1. Heat oil at medium-high flame. Add whole jalapeños and tip the pot to deep fry until the peppers are lightly browned. Set aside the peppers for the time being.

1A. Brown pancetta in the oil. Remove and blot on a paper towel.

2. Add onions. Reduce heat to medium-low; sweat for 5 minutes. The goal is translucence, not browning.

3. Add garlic. Stir until aroma rises, about 1 minute.

4. Add fennel and carrot and cook another 5 minutes or so, until the hard roots hint at softening or the onions start to change color (whichever comes first).

5. Add the chili-garlic sauce, tomato solids, red bell pepper and anchovies. Stir and fry for a minute. Turn heat up to high after adding these ingredients.

6. At this point, start seasoning as you go with salt and pepper, just a pinch at a time. Continue this throughout the long simmer to follow.

7. Add tomato juice, fish stock, wine, herbs, spices, vinegar, pancetta, and the jalapeños. If there’s any juice from canned seafood, add that too. Bring to a boil and then cut back to a healthy simmer.

8. Simmer for 30 minutes. Carefully skim the fatty scum and stir once every 5 minutes or so. Keep track of the volume: some reduction is important, but remember that in the end you want 16 cups or so. Once you get to the desired volume, there’s no reason that you can’t keep the lid on between skims, as long as the wine alcohol has cooked out by then.

Meanwhile…

9. Lightly dust the fish, shrimp and crab meat with white flour. Keep the meats separate, as they will be browned separately. Season with salt and pepper.

10. Combine the shallot, garlic and basil; divide this mixture into three little piles.

11. For the three batches of floured meat, do the following: In a pan on high flame, heat 2 T of the olive oil. When hot, swirl in 1 T of the butter. Add a third of the shallot mixture and swirl (quickly; the danger here is that the garlic will burn). Add the meat and brown to suit your taste. Set the meat aside and go on to the next batch. If the residual garlic starts to burn, wipe out the pan between batches. In the end, if there’s a crystallized residue (which there won’t be if you use a non-stick pan), deglaze with half a cup of white wine, reduce until the alcohol is cooked out, and add it to the soup.

12. Remove the jalapeños and bay leaves from the soup. The peppers can be skinned, deveined, deseeded and minced for use in a relish; tune the heat by mixing in roasted green or yellow bell pepper, and season with salt and lemon juice.

13. Hand blend the soup to the desired consistency. Tune the seasoning with salt, pepper, chili-garlic sauce, and vinegar.

14. Get a low boil going and add the browned meat, following by the clams. When the clams are open, the soup is ready. It is easier to plate to the soup if the clams are removed as soon as they’re cooked; otherwise they really get in the way.

15. Plate 2 cups of soup per serving, topped with 4+ clams and garnished with basil chiffonade, chopped oregano leaf and fried rosemary. Serve with baguette slices, aioli, and the jalapeño relish if you made it.

16. Tell your seven guests to kiss your ass because you’re the king of the world.


Notes:

I don't really think the saffron makes a difference in flavor. I include it for symbolic reasons. Someday when I am rich I will try adding a lot more.


Posted: Fri - January 28, 2005 at 04:02 PM          

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