Goldy's Cheater Cioppino

I've been craving Cioppino for a couple of months now.  If you're not familiar with this particular fish stew, it was created in California, with San Francisco and San Pedro both claiming the invention.  I vote for San Fran, because I'm from the Bay Area, and the main ingredient is Dungeness Crabs, which I would buy cracked from SF fishmongers and eat with a cold brew at my side while dangling my legs off the nearest wharf with a side of real sourdough.  Heaven on earth, I'm tellin' ya.

Anyway, I had been hoping to recreate the dish economically, as Dungeness tends to be very dear in the midwest, when I rediscovered the frozen seafood mix at Woodman's.  It's a 1 lb. bag of pre-cooked, mixed calamari (including tentacles), shrimp, cuttlefish, mussels, and maybe some scallops. It sells for $2.99.  This is a steal, but I've never been able to come up with a truly satisfactory use for this combo until last night.

Recipe for 4-6 people:

2-3 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
4 large cloves garlic finely chopped
2 jalepenos, seeded and minced
1/2 red bell pepper and 1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large bay leaf
1 tomato bouillion cube or 1 Tbl tomato paste
1/4 cup dry red wine (I used Timbuktu's Big Block Red)
14 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
10 oz can whole baby clams, juice reserved
1 quart vegetable juice (V8)
1 lb frozen seafood mix, thawed and rinsed
Basil or Oregano-infused olive oil to garnish
Crusty (Sourdough!) bread for serving

Dissolve the tomato boullion cube in the red wine and set aside.
In a very large soup pot, heat the olive oil over med-high until shimmering.  Add the chopped garlic, jalapenos, bell peppers, onion and bay leaf and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, ~10 min. 
Add the tomato boullion and wine mixture and cook, stirring until the wine is nearly evaporated 1-2 minutes.  If using tomato paste instead, add the paste first for 1 min, then add the wine for another minute.
Add the whole can of diced tomatoes and cook over moderately high heat until slightly thickened, ~5 min.
Add the vegetable juice to the clam juice to make a total of 30 oz of liquid and add to the pot.  Season lightly with salt and generously with pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer for approximately 20 minutes.  The broth will reduce somewhat.
Add the clams and the rinsed seafood mix to the pot, and return the stew to a strong simmer, making sure all the seafood is thoroughly heated before serving.
Ladle into deep soup bowls, drizzle with the herb-infused olive oil (optional) and serve with lots of bread.

DH and Rupert each had 2 bowls.  I had only one, but I was loading up on the bread.  There is more than a full bowl left (Mavis wasn't here for dinner), but probably not 2.  The flavor was deeply tomatoey, slightly fishy (as a fish stew should be), and zippy.  My mouth was just the right amount of happy spicyness at the end of the meal.  We drank the rest of the bottle of Big Block Red with dinner.

If this were real cioppino, with the crabs, you'd want at least 2 steamed crabs, and you'd quarter them so that each piece had a leg and portion of body after cleaning them.  Then you'd serve it in wide & shallow soup plates.  And you'd also have fresh clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, and fish.  But it's hard to get all those things here in Wisconsin, and be able to afford them all at once.  If you ever visit the CA coast, make sure to get the real thing.  It will be the highlight of the trip.

Pronounciation guide:  chu-pee-no

Super Bowl Party!!

It's kind of a family tradition. If we don't have an invite or in this case, can't really go anywhere, we have our own Super Bowl festivities.

Sometimes we get very elaborate with the menu.  This year we just went with the old stand-bys:

Queso Dip with Chips (Velveeta & Salsa in a fondue pot - and yes, this is the only permissable use of Velveeta in my household).  No guacamole this time, the avocados were pitiful.

Johnsonville Brats cooked in beer

Bratwurst Onions (those of you who've been blessed with these know what I'm talking about)

Hot Wangs (we haven't decided if we'll cook them tonite or save for tomorrow though)

New York Cherry Ice Cream with fixin's

Summit Extra Pale for me, Capitol Amber for DH, and Sprecher Root Beer for Rupert and Mavis.

Really, that's more than enough for 4 people, but I'm sitting here thinking I should have done a veggie tray, and Onion Dip w/ Ruffles, and those little smokie weenies in the crock pot, and and and...

Oh all right.  I'll just go eat some "cheese."  And man!  The commercials are killin me already!!  ROFL.  The Whopper Girls?  FedEx? !!!!!!!!!