This is the first time I’ve done this. I had a lot of seafood stocked up in my freezer and I needed to free some space. Since I didn’t have the time to buy veggies to cook some chop suey (not to mention how tedious prep can be), I decided to make it easier on myself and whip up a dish based on what I had in the fridge. The result was something everyone loved. I’m writing this down so that I can remember how I did it.
Ingredients:
1 kg mussels/clams, shell on
300 g shrimps, shelled and deveined [save the heads to make into a broth]
500 g baby squid ( or sliced regular-sized squid)
200 g fish, 1-inch cubes (you can use salmon)
200 g scallops
3 large potatoes, cubed
5 stalks celery, sliced
2 carrots, cubed
200 g bacon, finely chopped (for toppings)
1 stick butter
2 cups cream
500 ml seafood stock
4 tbsp flour
1 onion, minced
1 head garlic, minced
salt or patis and black pepper to taste
Optional:
1/2 tsp paprika
2 red bell peppers, minced
1 tbsp taba ng talangka
Instructions:
- Boil 1 liter of water. Add mussels/clams. Once the mussels/clams are opened, take it out. Add shrimp heads and then strain it after simmering for 10 mins. Save the stock.
- Remove mussels/clams from the shell, set aside.
- Cook bacon till brown. Remove and set aside. Cook scallops in bacon drippings. Remove and set aside. Cook shrimp in bacon drippings. Remove and set aside.
- Cook squid in bacon drippings. Drain the water/juices. You can’t use this because it will overpower the taste of the mussels/clams.
- In a clean pot, lightly fry the potatoes. Remove and set aside.
- Saute garlic, onions, celery, carrots and red bell peppers for 5 mins. Pour stock and taba ng talangka. Add potatoes and bring to boil for 20 mins. Season to taste.
- Add all the seafood (shrimps, mussels/clam meat, scallops, fish, squid, and cream, bring to a boil and simmer for an additional 3 minutes.
- If the broth is too watery, you can either create a roux [heat butter, add flour. Keep stirring till it is brownish, add broth then pour into the soup] or add cream.
- The bacon’s for garnishing.
Notes:
- The celery made a lot of difference. In fact, it took out a lot of the fishy taste [lansa].
- Adding the paprika and red bell peppers changed the taste too. Again, this is optional. Like a faint hint of Jambalayaness. ha ha
- Adding the taba ng talangka also made the soup very tasty [and sinful]. Also optional.
- Between adding roux and cream, I added more cream since that was what I had. I ran out of pots to do the roux.
- A friend suggested using oats or quinoa to thicken the sauce instead of using a roux. I tried using oats on a smaller portion. It became a meal in itself. You don’t need bread anymore. In fact, it turned into ‘seafood porridge’. It was good. Sounds strange but tasted really good.
This was how watery it was. I had to add cream to thicken it up.
