Zarzuela de Marisco #FishFridayFoodies

It's time for Fish Friday Foodies' first 2020 event. We are a group of seafood-loving bloggers, rallied by Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm, to share fish and seafood recipes on the third Friday of the month. And this month Sue from Palatable Pastime is hosting as we post Mediterranean seafood recipes.

Here's the line-up...

• Baccala Soup from Palatable Pastime
• Seafood Paella from Making Miracles
• Greek Seafood Rice from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Greek Bronzini Pan-fried Paleo Dish from Of Goats and Greens
• Zarzuela de Marisco from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Linguine Pescatore from Food Lust People Love
• Moroccan Chermoula Baked Fish Fillet for One from Sneha's Recipe
• Coquilles St Jacques from Caroline's Cooking
• Mediterranean Shrimp from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Zarzuela de Marisco

Compared to some, I guess we eat a lot of seafood. I whipped this up after a long day of robotics when my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece came for a quick visit.

"Do you eat a lot of seafood?" Abe asked, as he tried the soup.

Yes.

"Then we need to come visit more often!"

Definitely.

This particular dish - one filled with fresh seafood and a touch of herbs and spices - hails from the northeastern region of Catalonia in Spain. On the day that I served it, we were on the tail-end of a twelve hour day at robotics and I was exhausted. Hence the lack of photos during the process and the messy bowl of the finished dish. Sorry!

You can use whatever seafood you have available to you, but I used halibut, salmon, shrimp, mussels, clams, and crab. Yum!

Ingredients serves 6 to 8

• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
• 2 California bay leaves
• 6 C broth or stock (I used organic chicken stock for this batch)
• 1 C clam juice
• one 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• one 15-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 C white wine
• 1 T hot sauce or 1 t dried red pepper flakes
• 1 pound wild caught large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 pound wild caught salmon, deboned and cubed
• 1 pound wild caught halibut, deboned and cubed
• 1 pound clams 
• 1 pound mussels
• 1 pound cooked, cracked crab
• 1 T fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
• 2 t smoked paprika
• two pinches of saffron
• freshly ground salt, to taste
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Also needed: bread, for serving

Procedure

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pot. Add in the garlic, onions, and bay leaves. Cook till aromatic, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the red pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour in the stock, clam juice, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, white wine, and hot sauce. Whisk in the smoked paprika and the saffron. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

While stew is simmering, prep your seafood. Add the seafood to the pot, timing so that the ones that will take the longest to cook will be done around the same time as the ones that need to barely be blanched. I did shrimp, then halibut, then salmon, then clams, then mussels. Place the cooked, clean crabs on top, cover, and remove from the heat. Let steam for 5 minutes.

Discard any of the shellfish that don't open. Remove the bay leaves, fold in the oregano, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the soup immediately in large soup bowls with hunks of bread.

A note: If you want to save some time on the day you're serving this, you can make the broth the day before. Let cool completely, then refrigerate. Bring the broth to a simmer before adding the seafood.