Cioppino

"This is the best soup we make," said Jeff, soaking up some lovely broth with a chunk of crusty bread.  My poor husband had just spent a frustrating afternoon/evening dealing with my car's battery.  We've had some bitterly cold days and nights lately, and yesterday I decided to see if my car would indeed start.  It has a history of not starting on the first day of school after Christmas vacation, and it had no intention of breaking with tradition on Saturday. 

Triple A: called.  Guy: came out.  Temperature: 7.  Time it took The Guy to start car: 30 headbashing minutes.  Tip for The Guy: $10.  Time The Guy advised me to let car run before turning it off: 45 minutes.  Time: passed.  Jeff's advice: "Try starting it again after you turn it off."  Did it restart?: no.  All of my single-woman-living-alone-automotive-trauma flashback buttons: pushed.  Jeff's presence: supremely comforting.  Cats: barely paying attention.

Clearly I needed a new battery, so we drove to town in Jeff's less-sexy-but-always-dependable car and picked one up, and noble Jeff went to install it in the fading daylight as soon as we got home while I worked on dinner.  I say this as a self-reliant, right-on sister who rarely plays the wife card: it is truly miraculous to me that I now have someone who loves me enough to help me with my car.  It is truly miraculous to me that this person has the tools and the know-how to make repairs, and he does this because he genuinely takes pleasure in making my life better.  And I get to live with him!  He is not far away!  I am looking at him right now!

(Excuse my lack of gearhead knowledge throughout the following paragraph.)  So Jeff went out in the kind of cold air that simply inspires rage and attempted to take out my dud battery, except the bolt holding it in place was profoundly tight.  Apparently the shop that installed that one (battery #2 for my car) bolted it down in such a way that loosening it at home was near-impossible.  Jeff called The Guy, telling him about the situation, hating the fact that we would have to pay The Guy $100 to do a job that Jeff should have been able to do himself.  The Guy felt bad for Jeff and gave him a tip on how to loosen that bolt.  One again Jeff went outside--it was now dark.  He loosened the bolt, but as he was removing it, the top half snapped off and the rest stayed inside.  So it was impossible for Jeff to get the remnant part out and secure the new battery.  I was taking out the trash when this happened.  Jeff was justifiably angry and profoundly frustrated.  He set the new battery in the space anyway, hooked it up, and my car started up immediately and with gusto.  So the battery works, but it's just sitting in there loose, and the car is unsafe to drive.  We plan to bungee the heck out of it later today and drive it about eight miles to a mechanic we trust to see what he can do with it. 

So that was our Saturday.  We had planned to spend the afternoon making cioppino (we pronounce it cho-PEE-no), which is a gorgeous seafood stew, but I ended up doing it myself.  The recipe is from the same checkout-lane mini cookbook that this soup came from, except it was written as a slow-cooker recipe.  I wanted to cook it on the stove instead, and I changed it so much that I'm calling it my own now.  There are a lot of ingredients, but it's mostly a throw-together kind of thing, and pretty inexpensive considering the amount of food you get and how awesome it is.  We'll probably have it as a pre-feast lunch at Birthmas.  Feel free to play around with the seafood amounts and types; we really love what I've listed here, but you might not. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 C chopped onion <-- this was one huge Vidalia onion, but it's more like two regular ones
• 1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 medium stalks celery, finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (8 oz.) bottle clam juice
• 1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
• 1/2 C chicken broth
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 t Italian seasoning
• 1/4 t sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 lb bag frozen scallops
• 1 lb uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined <-- and I like to remove the tails, too, and they can be cooked if that's all you've got
  
• 1 (6.5 oz or so) can baby clams, undrained
• 1 (small, sardine-like) tin of mussels in spicy red pepper oil <-- this was like $2.50 and is not a dealbreaker if you can't find it, but it adds a spicy sense of luxury
• 1/4 C chopped Italian parsley
• salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in a large dutch oven or similar soup pot.  Add the onion, red pepper flakes, celery, garlic, and a little salt and pepper.  Saute until the vegetables are soft.

Add the diced tomatoes, clam juice, tomato paste, chicken broth, red wine vinegar, Italian seasoning, sugar, and bay leaf and heat through.  You can let it simmer for a while if you've got other things going on.  The sauce will thicken a bit.

Add the scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels, and parsley.  Let everything heat up and adjust salt and pepper, if necessary. 

You can eat this immediately or you can let the flavors marry for as long as you like on the stove.  The shrimp will become a little chewy the longer you cook them, of course, and I don't really know a way around that unless you add them at the last minute.  But frankly we don't mind the chewiness.  

Serve with bread in front of a crackling fire!  It's been a messed-up day!

Your cat will become very, very interested.

Isolate a few clams to feed her bit by bit as you eat or else this will happen:

If you have a cat like Bun, it will happen no matter what you do.  You may also wish to serve some lime Jell-O enlivened with a handful of blueberries because your friend L. dared you to make some after you posted a rilly cute video on Facebook:

And she required photographic proof, so here ya go, L.  Jeff loved it, by the way. 

Comments

[Irene]

Wow the ciopinno looks so yummy! I am def. going to try this recipe, bummer my husband is allergic to shrimp but oh well! : ) First time I've left a comment, just wanted to tell you it's such a pleasure reading your blog! Pls keep the yummy recipes with pics, and posts coming!

[bj]

Without a doubt one of the most beautiful wedding photos I have ever seen.
The ciopinno looks good too!:-)
A belated Christmas and happy new Year!