Portuguese Fish Stew by Tyler Florence

I am an Aquarius. My due date to be born was December 24th, but I held in there until January 26th. I tell my mom I was just making sure I could be born an Aquarius. She is not amused. Can't blame her really, I wouldn't be amused to be pregnant a MONTH longer than necessary just to then give birth to a 10 pound baby who grew to be an incredibly sarcastic and strong willed child. But I digress.

The reason my astrological sign is mentioned is because it was my birthday recently. For a gift a few of my friends got me what they knew I would love the most, an amazon gift card. With that gift card I purchased the beautiful masterpiece you see here:
No, amazon did not sell me a pot of soup, but I did get the fabulous pot it was made in. That is pure Lodge Logic enameled dutch oven greatness. In green, which happens to be my favorite color.

I could not wait to get cooking with it. Funny how I have made about a million recipes that call for a dutch oven, at which point I would bust out our hilariously huge 12 quart camp one, and curse that I did not have a smaller one. So of course when I finally get a smaller one I cannot find a single recipe to break it in with. So I searched The Food Network website and found one.

My only regret about the recipe I chose is that I did not take step by step pictures as I usually do. Once it was ready to serve I saw the error of my ways and managed to at least snap a few before eating it.

So here it is:

Portuguese Fish Stew courtesy of Tyler Florence (who I happen to kind of be infatuated with)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 pound linguica or chorizo sausage, sliced in chunks
5 sprigs fresh thyme sprigs
1 handful fresh oregano, hand torn
2 bay leaves
2 pounds potatoes, sliced
3 quarts chicken broth
1 pound kale, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
1/2 pound perch, cod, or bass fillets, skin and pin bones removed (I used cod)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 Recipe Rustic Crusty bread, for serving, recipe follows

Directions
Heat the oil in a heavy 4 to 6-quart pot over medium flame. Add the onions, garlic, and sausage; cook, stirring with wooden spoon, until the sausage renders out some of its fat and the onions are soft. Toss in the herbs and then the potatoes, stir that around for a minute to coat in the oil. Pour in the chicken broth and bring up to a simmer. Add the kale, season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are nearly tender.
Uncover the pot and add the clams; simmer, covered, for 15 minutes until the clams open. Add the fish and continue to cook for another 3 to 5 minutes until the fish is cooked. Serve with crusty bread.

There you have it, a soup pot to heaven.
Pardon the shadow, I was jittery with the excitement of sitting down to this fabulous feast. I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it because... well why the hell not?

Now for a random picture. This was the scene out of our master bedroom window a few weeks ago. Unusually dry winter + high winds + a brush fire = this madness. We were incredibly fortunate that it didn't reach us. Anyhow. Make this stew and love it as I did. You certainly won't regret it. It is even better a few days later. YUM.

Now fellow foodies, please tell me, what is your favorite piece of kitchen equipment?

Gumbo Soup-courtesy of Maxine

Today I have a recipe we got in the mail from Brad's mom, Maxine. I love trying new recipes, and I also know that Maxine has great taste. When Brad saw this recipe he was adamant that I cook this as soon as possible.

This recipe was really easy to make, and we happened to have all but a few of the ingredients on hand already. I did have to go to the store to get the clam juice, and gumbo file. Well, I had no idea what gumbo file was. In a case of true iPhone fail, I did not look it up on my phone, and instead left the store without that ingredient. Turns out, gumbo file is the powdered leaves of the sassafras tree. Well, you learn something new everyday! Here are some of the ingredients lined up.

Ingredients:

1 quart clam juice

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup of rice (I used jasmine)

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/2 lb of cut okra (I used frozen okra that I thawed)

2 stalks diced celery

1 small chopped green onion

1 diced red pepper

1/2 diced onion

1 diced green bell pepper

1 tsp gumbo file (which as you read above, I did not use. I will definitely add it next time)

1 cup cut up shrimp (I used 31-40 size shrimp, cut each in half)

1 cup cut up scallops

1 mahi mahi fillet, cut up (You can really use any fish for this. I used mahi because I figured it would hold together better than salmon or tailapia)

Put the clam juice in a pot over medium-high heat to bring to a boil. While that is heating, in a medium bowl, add the tomatoes,

Rice,

Tomato sauce,

Yummy, slimy, cut okra,

Green onions,

Red bell pepper,

Onion,

and green bell pepper. This is where you would also add the gumbo file.

The juice wasn't quite simmering, so I started in on the shrimp. I had to shell them, re-clean them to get the remaining vein, then chop them in half.

At that point the juice was bubbling nicely, so I added the tomato and veggie mixture.

That's when I got back to the seafood. Making sure all pieces were roughly the same size to ensure they'd all cook at the same time.

When the rice was a few minutes from being done, I added the seafood.

At this point the recipe says to ass 1 tsp of tobasco. Well, I really like spice in my food, so I added one tbsp of red pepper flakes, and a healthy squirt of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. Mmmm, MMM! Also add salt and pepper to taste.

Then cook for about another five minutes, giving time for the fish to cook. I then covered it, took it off the heat, and let it sit so the flavors could blend together a bit more, though you could surely serve it at this time.

Gratuitous cat spam. The cat loves this sweater of her dads. Any time it is left out in the open she has to lay on it. Think it's safe across the back of a bar stool? Not so. I could hear her purring like mad and walked around the counter to find this.

She is not amused by my interruption. But she is not amused by much, except for that sweater of course.

Then it was time to eat. I served this with and artichoke on the side. Because... well... since when does anyone need an excuse to eat a delicious artichoke!?

This soup was hearty, filling, and absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend you try it. This is a good company meal as well. It is impressive and looks a lot more complicated than what it is.

Enjoy!