CATAPLANA

CATAPLANA image

Yield 8 people

Number Of Ingredients 21

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Ingredients

2 lobster bodies/culls
Linguica or Chorizo sausage ~ 1 lbs, casing removed and broken up semi-coarse.
12 to 14 clams (smaller clams are better, like mahoganies. Let them stand for about 20 minutes in a cold water bath with a tsp. of white vinegar added, so they spit out their sand. )
1.5 lbs white fleshed fish (cod or haddock are best, hake marginally less so )
1 lb of cocktail-sized shrimp (shrimp shells add a nice flavor to the lobster stock, but shelling and deveining a pound of shrimp adds about 15 minutes -and an unquantifiable amount of hassle- to the preparation. So choose accordingly )
1 bag of Trader Joes seafood mix, defrosted (or, a 1/3 of a pound each of uncooked calamari, and small scallops.)
1 bottle dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes (or 5 golf ball sized vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped in a food processor)
.5 small can of tomato paste
2 medium yellow onions, cut to medium lyonnaise
1 medium yellow onion, medium dice
2 medium shallots, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, crushed and diced fine
3 tbsp. Olive oil
3 tbsp. Chili powder
3 tbsp. Paprika
3 tbsp. Cumin
2 tbsp. Herb de Provence
1 tbsp. Savory (or dried and powdered rosemary)
2 lemons, juice one (about 1/4 cup of juice will suffice) and cut the other into wedges.

Steps:

Put a medium (1.5 gal.) stockpot on a medium-low flame, add olive oil and sauté the diced onion until soft, approx. Soften onions, add lobster bodies, shrimp shells (if using) salt, pepper, a clove of garlic and 2 tbsp. herbs de Provence. Sauté until pink. Add 1/3 of the white wine. Allow to boil off alcohol and deglaze pot bottom, then add ~6 cups of water. Turn flame to high and bring to boil, then reduce flame to medium low, and simmer for ~ 1 hour. Skim surface periodically. When stock is reduced to about 3 cups, pour off through a colander and reserve. Discard all the lobster bodies and cooked-out vegetables. Heat 2 tbsp. in a heavy bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven over a medium flame. Add the onions and sauté until they begin to release moisture and soften. Add the shallots, sauté with onions for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic. Add the spice/herbs. Stir into onions, and sauté briefly. Add the sausage. Allow it to render and brown a bit, roughly 5 minutes, but stir occasionally to keep the onions from burning. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir initially, allowing the juice to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Saute about 2 minutes. Make a bed of the onion/sausage mixture with your spatula or spoon, and place the cod/haddock on top of the bed. Turn the flame to medium low, cover and allow the fish to cook briefly, about 2 minutes. Add the remainder of the wine. Turn flame back up to medium. Stir gently. Once the wine has cooked off a bit, about a minute, add the lobster stock, chicken broth and the lemon wedges. Turn the flame to high and bring the broth to a boil. Once a rolling boil is achieved, add clams. Cover and boil for about 3 minutes. Once about half the clams have opened, add shrimp, the seafood mix, and lobster meat. Turn flame to medium, cook until seafood just cooked. Add lemon juice.