[magkelly]

Cioppino - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I had to make it myself because no one knows how to make this shiz the way I like it here but this is what I had for lunch today. I made mine with King Crab, shrimp, tilapia and a bit of lobster tail. No squid or octopi, no mussels, clams, oysters etc. I don't eat those creatures. Don't like them and they don't agree with me much besides. Mine has red potatoes, carrots, sun dried tomatoes, onions, corn fresh from the cob and I cheat a bit in that I don't use the shellfish in the shells like you are supposed to. I know it's better for the broth but I have to watch that because there's too much of this one chemical in certain shellfish shells that can really mess with me if I am not careful. I have my ways around it. Stuff I throw in that makes it taste about right anyhow. I probably pushed it with the crab and lobster actually but you just cannot make this stuff sans them, IMHO. I ate it with about 3 pieces of good crusty garlic bread, and it was just YUMMY....

Here's hoping I can walk tomorrow though. This thing was a bit of an experiment to see if I can get away with eating some King Crab or not. Last time I ate Dungeness I ended up with what the doc said was an unexpected gouty reaction of some kind. Technically I don't have gout but that's what it was like he said. I guess I'll know though if my whole foot swells up. Right now you ask me and I'd probably tell you it was worth it but it actually happens and I probably won't think so...

[Na Horuk]

I think the main question is.. did you take a photo of it?

Also, yeah, I hope it won't cause problems for you. I have a fairly strict diet to ensure I'm feeling great.

[RioRico]

Cioppino means one thing in my Sierra Nevada house -- blizzard with power outage. It's like this:

Every month or two we drive a zillion miles to the capitol of either California or Nevada for some major shopping, beyond what can be had a bit closer. Those outposts of civilization both host Trader Joe's stores. TJ's sells a nice frozen cioppino. Come autumn, we buy a few packs, which we freeze. Then when the blizzards hit and we lose power, we light candles (for warmth) and quickly grab some cioppino from the electric freezer, to heat up on the propane stove. I hand-crank the emergency FM radio and tune it to the local classical musical station. We sup on this seafood stew whilst listening to Brahms and watching the snow bury us. It's a tradition.

Right now we're still on the Arizona-Sonora border; no snow for a couple weeks. I tried making some cioppino here but it just wasn't the same. It's not the same in Guatemala either. Bummer.

[magkelly]

I think the main question is.. did you take a photo of it?

Also, yeah, I hope it won't cause problems for you. I have a fairly strict diet to ensure I'm feeling great.

So far so good though I took an allergy pill just in case because I was too chicken to eat it and not. I'll let you know tomorrow about the feet. As for taking photos I was way too busy making it and then eating it to even think about it, laugh. It's prettier for that when you put the clams or mussels and squid in. I like my version just fine but it's not nearly as photogenic I will admit.

The aroma wafting down the hall had both the roommates coming out of their caves to ask what I was making though. I shared. They ate and rhapsodized. Eating from frozen though? The idea just does not appeal. The whole point of the stuff is that the ingredients are supposed to be from that day's catch!!!! I got as close to that as I could. No previously frozen ingredients.

Online I read and it's says that this is just an Italian/CA thing but it's not. I've definitely seen it done on the docks in CA but I can also remember going fishing up in New England and the Mid Atlantic states with the parents as a kid and they'd make it there too in these big huge pots that simmered for hours. The fisher folk would come in, go to clean and sell their catch, drop stuff on the table to go in the pot. 3 hours later there would be a huge picnic and we'd all be passing big bowls of the stuff down to the pot, grabbing stuff out of it to crack and eat with our fingers, eating it with all the good bread we could hold. The crabs were blue not Dungeness and more often you'd see clams or oysters in there rather than black mussels or squid, but it was the same stuff basically...

[DeliaRana]

While I don't care for seafood, your post did inspire me to make a vegetable and beef soup for dinner. Just what I needed to help kick this cold I have.

[magkelly]

I've been in a major cooking mood for a week now. Besides the seafood stew I made a nice thick pasta sauce with ground beef, Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, garlic, sundried tomato paste and the usual spices for today. Gnocchi too. I made Cajun food earlier in the week, red beans, sausage and rice, and I also made a real pizza, and some stuffed pork chops so I've got leftovers from about 6 meals now in the fridge plus I put away plenty in the big freezer for later. I do that a lot make my own frozen dinner plates so I eat right even when I feel too lazy to cook real food.

I cook a lot actually because I don't just cook for me but for my 3 elder folk. It's either that or they live on Stouffer's and junk food all the time which of course isn't too healthy. Personally I like having a lot of small bowls of food ready to go in the big freezer. I'd rather cook and store than cook every night or eat take out. I do like the odd fast food meal once in a while but generally speaking I don't like eating too much junk and cooking in bulk is less expensive besides. I always have spaghetti sauce and several kinds of homemade soups in the fridge ready to go. Usually a few bowels of stew or chili or something like too.

I really hate canned and packaged meals and won't eat them much at all if given a choice. I'd rather make it fresh than open a can any day. Canned soup is just plain gross to me.