1st official Post

After being urged by many people that I know in and out of the culinary field, I have decided to give the idea of blogging another try. When I first decided to give it another go I sat down trying to figure out what exactly I had to offer people in a blog, and much to my own surprise... I was stumped!! Why would anyone want to hear what I have to say about anything, since my experience with blogs and bloggers, is that they are very opinion driven and I didn't want to be that guy at all. After a week of brainstorming I decided to approach things in a way that I would like to hear or read about something. I am sticking to what I know, writing good recipes, that are easy to follow, introducing techniques that translate well to home kitchens, food and dish history,and talking about what I like to eat and drink (i.e. This Blogs title).And lightly sprinkle my opinions on sports and music... With all that being said,I have had numerous questions about some of the food I prepared for this year's Superbowl. Mostly my Superbowl Cioppino...

Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco developed in the late 1800s by Italian fishermen who settled in the North Beach section of the city . It is considered an Italian-American dish, and is related to various fish stews of Italian cuisine like Cacciucco and brodetto Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish's place of origin is typically a combination of dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, and served with toasted bread. But like every dish you make, you have to use what you got on hand, so It is easier for me here on the east coast to find things like crawfish, blue crab or king crab legs. This recipe in particular uses crawfish, King crab, and local clams instead of squid, scallops, shrimp, and dungeness, and i choose to spice mine up just a bit but that is a a personal preference. Feel free to exclude the heat or crank it up, thats the beauty of a dish like this. You can caterer it to you and your guest, without compromising the integrity of the actual idea.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
  1 onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
  4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
  3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
  1/4 cup tomato paste
  2 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
  1 1/2 cups dry white wine
  1 cup dry vermouth
  4 cups clam stock (clamato Juice is fine, look for it in the juice aisle)
  1 bay leaf
  1 pound Long neck clams scrubbed
  1 pound mussels, scrubbed, cleaned
  2 pound cooked king Crab legs
1 pound cooked whole crawfish
1 1/2 pounds fish fillets such as halibut or cod, cut into 2-inch chunks
Fresh Basil Chopped (use as needed)
Cracked Black Pepper
Directions
  Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, and salt and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and sauté 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, vermouth, and clam juice and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes. Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the crab legs, crawfish, fish filet. Simmer gently until the fish is just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, about 5 minutes longer (discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Season the soup, to taste, with more salt, red pepper flakes, cracked black pepper, and fresh basil. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

This dish can always be made a day or so ahead if you just make the broth, and do not cook the seafood until right before you are ready to serve. The broth also freezes very well so feel free to make alot of broth. freeze some, and just by the seafood as you need it if cooking for just your self.

There it is my first attempt I hope to all who asked about it i hope it helps you, and for those who didn't I hope it helps you to... Don't be scared to play with it and make it your own,  Change up the ingredients, using fish and shellfish that you like or are familiar with. Play with the heat, kick it up, or take it down. Add some cooked spicy Italian sausage, or andouille. Make this your own cioppino.

Bon Appetit!

Chef Corey

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