Growing up in a culturally diverse place like Orange County (CA), one starts to take for granted the markets in Little Saigon and Koreatown, which are always brimming with fresh, if not live, seafood. One tends to forget what an incredible deal it is to find live Dungeness crab on sale for $3.99/lb or live Maine lobster for $8.99/lb. One forgets how hard it is generally to find fresh, live, seafood until one moves to a place in the desert where a lot of one kind of people move to escape from all the alien people of other kinds who eat weird things like fresh seafood. And also to find parking spaces big enough for their VERYBIG trucks.
For the time being, I live in just such a place. And between the big box chains, a single Trader Joe’s and the Wednesday so-called farmer’s market, the only live fish I’m likely to find is swimming in a guppy bowl at Petco. And since I don’t eat those, I am SOL for fresh seafood during the week.
But on the weekends, we make the 90 minute drive to visit my parents in OC, and when we make a grocery run, I feel like a kid in a candy store perusing all the produce, spices, condiments and proteins - especially the ones from the sea – that I’ll never find at the Ralph’s or Super Walmart down the street.
Truth is, even if I still lived in OC, I wouldn’t buy the crab and lobster all that often. In my own quirky logic, I think there is a discipline to being easily pleased. And that such discipline is practiced in part by making an occasion of indulgence and a habit of restraint, even when it comes to the food about which I am so passionate. But occasions do arise, like Mother’s Day a couple weeks ago, and there seemed no better time to indulge in some seafood so fresh it was still breathing, crawling and pinching.
My mom had bought some baguettes from the boulangerie earlier in the morning, so a rich broth in which to dunk that crusty bread was definitely in order. I made a tom yum inspired soup as a base so I could ladle off a bowl for Joey, who loves tom yum but hates seafood (hopefully this is a temporary malfunction of an otherwise well developing young palate), and steamed the goods in the broth, making this Spicy Thai Seafood Stew.
I also made some Spicy Basil Fried Rice with Shrimp but forgot to take measurements. Oops.
SPICY THAI SEAFOOD STEW
For 4 adults, I used:
- 1 whole Dungeness crab, shelled and quartered for fast steaming
- 4 very large Cherrystone clams – Wash your clams well. Sand in your food sucks bivalves.
- 16 medium sized Manila clams
- 2 pounds of crawfish (live ones are in season now, but a pound of good sized shrimp will work even better now that I think about it)
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1/2 cup chopped shallots (6 or 7)
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- 6 or 7 thin slices of fresh ginger
- 2 or 3 Thai bird chilies, in 1/4-inch slices (or more if you like it XXX spicy like I do :))) )
- 2 to 3 stalks lemon grass pounded to release the oils and cut in 2 inch segments (If you can’t find lemongrass, a teaspoon of lime or lemon zest will work in a pinch. Not quite the same, but a good approximation.)
- 6 or 7 stems cilantro, chopped in 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 4 cups unsalted chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 cup coconut milk
1) In a large pot, sautee shallots in butter and oil over medium high heat until they become translucent and some bits are golden brown.
2) Add in garlic, ginger, chilies, lemon grass, cilantro and curry powder, and sautee another 2 minutes or so to give those elements a roasted flavor.
3) Add in chicken stock, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and coconut milk, and bring to a gentle boil. Then turn heat down to medium and simmer for about 5 minutes. At this point, the broth is ready to serve as a soup.
4) Add seafood, turn heat back up to medium high, and cover to steam, about 15 minutes, depending on what you're steaming and how much.
When your clams are open, and the shellfish have just turned a bright red/orange color, you are good to go. Protein from the sea usually cooks very quickly and can go from tasty to rubber in no time.
 |
| Everything I photograph in my mom's kitchen looks sooooo ORANGE. And no, I don't want to Photoshop it. :) |
You may find that you need to adjust the broth for the natural salt that will come from your seafood. If so, try adding 1/4 cup of water and a pinch of sugar to mellow out the salt.
Serve with some crusty bread or some steamed jasmine rice or the fried rice I don't have a recipe for:
Off to make tonight’s empanadas. :)
shinae
No comments:
Post a Comment