Rosie Wants Seafood Soup.

It was one of those cold, gray Spring days and Rosie wanted seafood soup.

And if you know Rosie, you know she's going to start at the very beginning.

 Rosie will show you how to make a shrimp stock, which will then be used in a rich seafood soup with a triumvirate of shrimp, cod, and clams.  It's gonna be good.

First, let's make the shrimp stock.

 Shrimp Stock

shrimp shells from a pound or so of shrimp

1 onion, skin on, coarsely chopped  (More flavor in skin.)

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped

herbal bouquet (a bunch of parsley, thyme, oregano, and bay leaves all tied together)

1 TB peanut oil

1 TB unsalted butter

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Pour a tablespoon or so of oil into hot pan over medium high heat.  Add in butter and melt until sizzling.  Add in shells, squishing with a wooden spatula, until they turn pink.  Add in vegetables and continue cooking for about 5 minutes, stirring.  Season with maybe 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper.  Pour in water to cover - about 2 quarts - and add in bouquet, pressing down to submerge.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to bare simmer, and cook about 20-30 minutes.

Let cool, then pour through cheesecloth-lined sieve.

Refrigerate until ready to use, within 2-3 days, or freeze it.

 Coarsely chop the vegetables and tie up the herbs.

 Cook the shells, vegetables, and herbs in butter and oil.

 Pour in water to cover, bring to simmer, and cook down a bit.

  

 

Shrimp stock!

Now, I'm ready to make my seafood soup.

Rosie's Seafood Soup

unsalted butter 

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1 onion

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 quart homemade shrimp stock
2 1/2 cups cream
1 cup skim milk
sherry to taste
1/2 pound cod filets
10 oz. baby clams
8 oz. shrimp

Prepare equal amounts of chopped carrot, celery, and onion. About 1/3 - 1/2 cup each.
Sauté vegetables in 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter 3-4 minutes over medium heat.
Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Add another tablespoon of butter and 3 TB flour.  Cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes, until flour is cooked and you don't have that raw taste.
Turn heat to medium low and add about 1 1/2 cups shrimp stock, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.  You want bare bubbles going on here.
Add in a cup of cream.  Simmer and let thicken, about 3 minutes.
Immersion blend.  If you don't have an immersion blender, do batches in a regular blender until smooth.

 Add in rest of cream and milk.

Season cod and shrimp with a sprinkling of pepper and a dusting of paprika and Old Bay seasoning.
Heat 1 TB each peanut oil and unsalted butter over medium high heat until butter sizzles.  Add in cod and shrimp and cook 30 seconds or so.  Pour into soup mixture.

 Deglaze skillet with 1/4 cup sherry.  Pour in the sherry with the pan off the heat.  Return to heat and tilt pan to flame it.  I love a good flambé!
Pour deglazing mixture into soup.  Pour in clams and juice.  Heat through.  Taste test.  Add a splash of sherry.  Perfection.











Serve with sliced scallions and thyme sprigs from the garden, a sprinkling of paprika.
Slice some toasted slices of homemade ciabatta.

Jauntily erect toast slices in the soup bowl.

The next day, I reheated my seafood soup and added some sautéed mushrooms in it.

Throw some croutons on top and you're good to go.

And Rosie used store-bought croutons!

Good soup!

Rosie Prepares Oysters Rosiefeller.

 Oops.
Rosie just found this hidden draft of a post.
 Enjoy while you can still get oysters!
























You know how the Hawthornes love their oysters. 

 We had to get more.

And Rosie scored some most excellent oysters.

Just to let you know what the Hawthornes have to go through (le sigh!) to procure their oysters, here's a pictorial idea of their travails.  We went on an Adventure.  A Wanchese Adventure.



 I love COLORS!

 

 

 Love the blue and white.

    Gosh! Golly!  What the Hawthornes must endure..

 We had to eat at O'Neal's.

Fried oysters.  These were perfect fried oysters.  Perfect!

 And fried onion rings.  And French fries.

 We were #31.
I love places like O'Neal's.
Nothin' fancy.  Just good food.  Real good food.

 Now, let's get on to Rosie's Oysters.

I'll be making an herbal/tarragon/celery topping for my oysters, sprinkle on panko breadcrumbs, then pour some anise-scented melted butter over my little pretties.  The oysters will take a quick trip under the broiler,  then I'm going to accent the oysters with a Hollandaise sauce spiked with tomato paste, or Sauce Choron.

I went out in the yard and picked some parsley, onion chives, and barely there tarragon which had somehow made it through a few frozen nights down here.

I sliced up some fennel heart and celery.

Minced the herbs.
Chopped up the celery and fennel.

A little lemon-infused olive oil went into the herb/celery/fennel mixture.
Then process.

And I ended up with this pretty green, herbalicious goodness.

Next, I melted some unsalted butter with star anise over low low heat just long enough to infuse the anise flavor in the butter.  Set aside.

While the butter was melting, I started on my Hollandaise sauce.

Vigorously whisk two yolks over low heat.

When the first wisps of steam come up...

...start whisking in a pat of cold butter at a time until incorporated.
I used about 3/4 stick of unsalted butter for this.

Next, I whisked in a tablespoon of tomato paste.

Whisk until smooth.

Top oysters with greenery.

Sprinkle on panko breadcrumbs.

And drizzle the anise-scented butter over top.
Place under the broiler for about 7 minutes, until lightly browned.

Accent with Choron Sauce.

This was delightful.
Even though my Hollandaise turned into more of a mayonnaise after the addition of the tomato paste.
Need to keep the Choron Sauce more saucy than mayonnaisey.

I loved the flavors.

Enjoy!