Cioppino?...why not?

Hello everyone! So a little about me real quick before I begin. I'm a mom to my pride and joy Jason(7), event director, and do weddings on the side. Some call me passionate about my work but I see it mostly in my cooking...especially for people. It comes from my culture and if you haven't eaten in a Filipino house well I suggest it and maybe after reading some of my entries you will just want to come over ;)

Lucky for me that I have lived up and down California so I've had the great pleasure in meeting wonderful people from different cultures that I now call my friends. It's so amazing how much you can learn about a person and their family by listening while their cooking. I'll share stories along away and you'll see what I mean.Oddly enough I'm starting this blog with a new dish that I've never made before but it's good...promise!

So, last night I was craving some Cioppino from one of my favorite places in the world Phil's Fish Market in Mosslanding, CA. Sadly I'm almost three hours away from there so that wasn't happening. I looked around in my freezer and saw I had cod, shrimp, and mussels..SCORE! Ideally you'd want fresh but this works too. I get on Google and start my search for a recipe, I see tons, but going through some I notice they are similar. I find one that's fairly simple on www.allrecipes.com by chef john (i've made some of his recipes before, good stuff). Here it is:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, diced 1 stalk celery, diced 1 pinch salt 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups white wine 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree 2 cups water 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 5 thin lemon slices 12 ounces cod, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 Dungeness crab, cleaned, cooked, and cracked 1 pound medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined 1 pound mussels, cleaned and debearded 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (optional) salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

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

Only thing I did a little different was not have crab which was sad but the dish came out great anyway. Tip...don't short cut the cooking time of each step it does make a difference for the end product.

I wouldn't say it was up to par with Phil's but it was darn good! Next time...i'm using his recipe and making it for my boyfriend and his roommates. I will not always have borrowed recipes just so happened that this was the dish that got me thinking of sharing. Thanks for reading, hope you come again :)