While doing my weekly sweep of the Whole Foods seafood case, my eyes wandered across a tray of glistening octopus that looked like it had come straight off the boat. I’d never seen fresh octopus in these parts, so I checked the label, and sure enough, it was “previously frozen”. It did look good though, and at less than five dollars a pound, I figured I had nothing to lose.
I’ve never cooked octopus before, so I figured it was worth looking up in my food Bible (a.k.a. On Food and Cooking). Because octopus meat is primarily muscle and connective tissue, it starts out chewy when lightly cooked, turns tough when moderately cooked, and goes on to become tender went cooked for a long time. Further research also revealed that frozen octopus tenderizes much faster than fresh octopus. Score! continue →
Cioppino with dungeness crab, shrimp, manila clams, and sea bass.
Christmas for our family is a holiday for all of us to come together and share an entire day of food; it also happens to be my mother’s birthday. Since she’s more of a pescatarian than a carnivore, traditional Christmas dinners like ham and goose aren’t really her cup of tea.
That’s why I decided to do a Cioppino for her this year. It’s a seafood soup similar to bouillabaisse and brodetto that grew up in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. While more colourful creation myths credit the name to a heavy Italian accent and the phrase “chip in” (as in “chip in your seafood”), the more widely accepted theory is that the name comes from a nearly identical Italian soup from the port city of Genoa called “Ciuppin”. Whatever the case, the use of live Dungeness Crabs (which are currently in season), makes this a dish that’s uniquely San Franciscan. continue →
No Recipes feed
No Recipes email updates
