Mediterranean Fish Stew - a step by step guide

gm and happy new year! Today, @pamarias and I are going to kick off a little New Years Eve tradition and pull out the cookbook for a delicious recipe.

We'll be using this book. What to cook and how to cook it by Jane Hornby to make a mediterranean fish stew.

Book cover transparent.png

Aside from having tons of delicious recipes, it walks you through every step with easy to understand images and instructions.

The very fist thing was to get all the ingredients. For this recipe you'll need

2 onions
3 large garlic cloves
2 red bell peppers
2 tbsp olive oil
1 orange
1 star anise or a handfull of clove
2 bay leaves
1/2 tbsp of crushed dried chilies
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup of dry white wine
2 cups of chopped tomatoes
2 lbs of chunky white fish fillet
14 oz of clams or mussels
7 oz of shrimp
1 handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
salt and pepper

Let's see if we got everything...

Start by thinly slicing the onions. We didn't slice them by hand really, we used a mandoline slicer

Slice 2-3 garlic cloves and the celery

Slice the bell peppers into chunky strips

Heat a large pan over low heat and add the oil.

Add the vegetables and cook gently for 20 minutes , until softened, but not colored.

It should go from this...

to this

This next part is VERY important!

Make the best use of your 20 minutes and pour yourself and your cooking partner a glass of your favorite beverage. I went with Whiskey on the rocks, and Pam will be drinking chardonnay. May I also recommend putting on your favorite music to make cooking more enjoyable.

Cheers!

During this step you can also scan the horizon for any New Years Eve parties. and raise your glass to them. Our dog, Compadre was having a great time watching the celebrations

An optional side quest you might want to consider is to get some snacks. Being on your feet for a couple of hours on an empty stomach is no fun. We took advantage of the crushed tomatoes to make a very easy and traditional Catalonian snack called Pantumaca.

After getting properly hydrated and the 20 minutes is up, continue the process by paring a strip of zest from the orange.

Toss it into the pot.

Add anise or clove and the dried chilies. We used chile guaque, which is commonly found at the market as well as grocery stores around here.

Add the bay leaves to the pot and cook uncovered for another 10 minutes.

Turn up the heat to medium, stir un the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes.

Pour in the wine and let it bubble down to almost nothing in the bottom of the pot. Add the tomatoes and let it simmer for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened.

During this step is when we added a fish head per person. This will add amazing flavor to the stew.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce cooks, cut the fish into very chunky pieces. Add the chunks of fish and shrimp. Bring to a boil and cover. Leave it to simmer for about 2 minutes and then add in the mussels or clams and cook for another 6 minutes.