Portuguese Seafood Stew

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. olive oil
• 2 tbs. garlic, chopped
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed, finely diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 3.5 tbs. ground cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbs. fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 tbs. fresh oregano, chopped
• 2.5 lbs. fresh squid, cleaned, tails cut in rings
• 1 qt. red wine, preferably Burgundy
• 8 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 c. tomato paste
• 3 qt. fish stock or clam juice
• 2 lbs. codfish filet, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 6 Idaho potatoes, medium-diced
• 1/4 c. Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. medium shrimps, peeled
• about 1/4 c. roux (equal parts butter and flour), or cornstarch-water mix to thicken.

Steps:

1. In heavy stockpot, heat olive oil; saute garlic and onions until clear. Add jalapenos, bell peppers, cumin, bay leaves, thyme, and oregano. Add squid and saute for 5 minutes. Add red wine, tomatoes and paste, and fish stock. Simmer for 25 minutes on low heat.
2. Add codfish, and continue simmering for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, and continue cooking until tender.
3. If making roux, melt butter and add the flour. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until flour and butter are smooth and evenly mixed.
4. Add hot sauce, salt, and pepper, to taste, and finally the shrimp. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Thicken with roux or cornstarch-water mixture. Remove bay leaves.

Notes:

• Recipe recommends letting stew sit overnight, refrigerated, then return to room temperature and reheat to serve. I did this, but I'm not certain that the 2nd day soup was better than the 1st.
• For fish stock, this is what I did: start with a small bottle of clam juice, then fill with water to 3 qt. Added 2 cubes of fish bouilion (good for 1 qt.), a packet of dried bonito flakes (normally used for Japanese dashi), the shells from the shrimp, about 1 tbs. dried anchovy, half a onion, a bay leaf, and 8-10 black peppercorns. I simmered this for about an hour, then strained it. Came out pretty good, albeit slightly salty. I wasn't worried about winding up with less than 3 qt., since I only had a 750ml bottle of wine. I wanted a thicker soup, anyway. I made roux to thicken: probably more than was called for. The stew thickened up very nicely.
• I only used 1 tbs. Frank's Red Hot Sauce (and 2 jalapenos), which did not make the stew noticeably hot.

Keywords: Portuguese, Soup.