Crab Cioppino Recipes

SAN FRANCISCO CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a deep skillet or ductch oven over medium heat.
• Add the fennel, onion, shallots, and salt. Saute until the onion becomes translucent about 5-7 minutes.
• Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and continue to saute for 2 minutes.
• Add the tomato paste, plum tomatoes and all juices, wine, chicken stock, and bay leaf.
• Bring the sauce to a light boil, then reduce the heat to simmer and allow to cook for one hour, stirring occasionally
• While the sauce is simmering using another saute pan, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sear the shrimp, scallops (and fish pieces if used) on both sides, making sure not to fully cook them (about half way is fine)
• Remove the seafood from the pan and place it on a plate until needed. If you did use the fish pieces you can add them to the sauce now. *do not add the shrimp or scallops at this time
• In the same pan add a little more oil, the clams and mussels. Cover and steam them until they open. *If any of the mussels or clams are open before cooking discard them, they're dead and aren't safe for consumption.
• At about the 45-minute mark of simmering the sauce, add in the crabs, mussels and clams with all the pan juices. Continue to simmer.
• If you are serving your Choppino over pasta you may begin getting the water ready at this time.
• With five minutes of cooking time remaining, add in the shrimp and scallops.
• Taste the sauce and re-season as needed.
• If you cooked pasta serve over pasta. If not, enjoy this delicious stew with a loaf of crusty bread.

CRAB AND SEAFOOD CIOPPINO

Steps:

• In a large stockpot over high heat, add olive oil and slowly cook onions and garlic until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the basil, parsley, oregano, thyme and black pepper. Season with salt. Add dry red pepper, if desired. Add canned tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Add stock and wine and reduce heat to a simmer.
• About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, start to add seafood. Add the crabs as they will take about 15 to 18 minutes to cook. About 3 to 5 minutes after the crabs are added, add the clams and/or mussels. About 10 minutes later, add the prawns. After 2 minutes, add the scallops and fish fillets and cook for 3 minutes, or until the clams and/or mussels open. Discard any unopened shellfish.
• Serve in bowls with bread.

CRAB CIOPPINO

Steps:

• In an 8-quart kettle or pot, heat the olive oil and saute the onions until transparent. Add the garlic and saute until it begins to brown. Stir in crab butter and let cook slowly for 2 minutes (crab butter is saffron yellow in color and adds a distinctive rich flavor). Next, add the wine, and reduce. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, broth, and live crabs.
• To simmer at low heat for about 5 minutes. Add shrimp, clams, mussels and cook for 2 more minutes. Serve in a bowls and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste.
• If your crab is cooked ahead of time, add it to the recipe at the same time you add the clams, shrimp, and mussels. *Fresh crab usually has yellowish matter under the shell in the center of the body, called crab butter, or fat, or mustard. It is edible and considered quite tasty.
• Warm heavy skillet on medium heat. Add olive oil and diced onion. When onion becomes transparent, add the garlic and cook until lightly brown. Add tomatoes, basil leaves, salt and pepper, and simmer for 45 minutes.

CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion, shallots, and salt and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and saute 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, fish stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes.
• Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and fish. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, about 5 minutes longer (discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Season the soup, to taste, with more salt and red pepper flakes.
• Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Toast the star anise by stirring frequently in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
• Make the marinara base: Add the onion, garlic cloves, bell pepper and olive oil to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. (Or, finely chop the vegetables by hand, then add to the pot along with the oil.) Add the mixture to a large pot and cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until soft, translucent and light golden in places, about 5 minutes. Add the Bloody Mary mix, canned tomatoes and juices and tomato sauce. Get every last drop from the cans by swirling a splash of water into each one and tipping the remnants into the pot. Add the toasted star anise, oregano, basil, thyme, sugar and bay leaf, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring often so the bottom of the pot doesn't burn. (Makes 7 1/2 cups; see Tip.)
• While sauce simmers, roast the garlic: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Slice the whole garlic heads in half crosswise. Divide garlic, cut-sides up, between two pieces of aluminum foil, large enough to wrap the garlic up like two presents. Drizzle with olive oil, then wrap tightly. Set the foil packets on a baking sheet and roast for 1 hour, until the garlic is light brown and tender all the way through.
• Make the garlic butter: Once cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic cloves out, discarding the skins. (You should have about 1 cup of roasted garlic.) Add to a food processor along with the softened butter and pulse until smooth and creamy. Or, smash the garlic to a paste and mix with the softened butter. (Makes 1 1/2 cups; see Tip.)
• Make the garlic bread: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread 1/2 cup garlic butter on the cut sides of bread and season with salt and pepper. Set the bread, buttered-sides up on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until toasted and golden in spots, about 15 minutes. As soon as the garlic bread comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with dried oregano and the Parmesan. Cut into large pieces, then wrap the foil from the baking sheet around them to keep warm.
• While the bread bakes, make the cioppino: In a large Dutch oven or wide, heavy pot, add 4 cups of the marinara sauce, plus the clam juice, thyme sprigs and red-pepper flakes. Season generously with salt and pepper and heat over medium-high until simmering, about 5 minutes.
• Separate the legs and claws from the crab bodies. Once the sauce is simmering, gradually add the seafood, starting with the crab bodies. Cook for a couple minutes, then add the crab legs and claws to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
• Add the clams, nestling them into the sauce around the edges, like numbers on a clock, cover with a lid and cook for about 6 minutes. Give the mixture a stir then add the mussels, in the same fashion as the clams. Cover and cook for another 3 minutes. Once the clams start to open, add the fish, gently nestling it into the sauce, and set the shrimp right on top to let them steam gently. Add 2 tablespoons of the garlic butter, put the lid back on and simmer until the fish cooks through and the shrimp get plump, about 5 minutes.
• To serve, transfer the cioppino to a deep serving bowl, being careful not to break up the delicate cooked fish. Perch the crab legs and claws on top and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with warm garlic bread on the side.

CHEF JOHN'S CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Combine butter and olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat.
• Stir in onion and celery with a pinch of salt; cook until onion is soft and golden, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.
• Stir wine into onion mixture; increase heat to high and bring to a simmer.
• Stir in tomato puree, water, bay leaf, oregano, red pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer 35 minutes.
• Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Stir in lemon and cod, return to simmer, about 2 minutes.
• Stir in crab, shrimp, and mussels. Cover and simmer until all mussels are cooked and open, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in fresh parsley and basil; season with salt and pepper to taste.

OLD-STYLE SAN FRANCISCO CRAB CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Using a TALL 8-10 quart pot, cover the bottom of the pot with a good virgin olive oil, about ¼ cup. Add the chopped onion, sage, garlic, parsley and celery and sauté slow and stirring often until tender, approximately 20 minutes. If it gets too dry, add a little more olive oil. Add tomato sauce and cayenne pepper. Reduce to lowest simmer and cook for approximately 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it gets too dry, add a little water.
• Add 10-12 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Begin adding the seafood. Raw crab first (if not raw, then cooked is an ok substitute.) If you get raw crab, cleaned and chopped, it will be much better). Return to a low boil, then lower to low-medium heat for 15 minutes.
• Then add clams and mussels. Continue to simmer 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and scallops, simmer for 10 minutes, along with a cheese glass of white wine (6 oz.) before serving. Ok if this sits on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Add the fish 5-7 minutes before you are ready to serve. Any longer than that, take it off the heat and reheat gently before serving. Ladle into large bowls and have a few extra bowls on the table for shells.
• Have plenty of garlic and olive oil basted sourdough bread, finished with shredded parmesan cheese and your favorite California Chardonay. Offer the usual complement of crab tools, crackers, pickers, etc.
• Left-overs should be refrigerated and eaten next day or two. After eating, offer your guests a warm hand towel with fresh lemon squirted on it, with a little water, microwave on high for 30 seconds.