Recipe #6 - Portuguese Fish Stew

This weeks recipe comes by request from one of my many followers.  As of the last blog, I couldn't decide what to make so this was suggested.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/portuguese-fish-stew-recipe/index.html

I've never cooked Portuguese food, never been to Portugal, don't know any Portuguese, but I do know where the country is on a map.  So knowing that was enough to give this recipe a try.  If you don't know where Portugal is, it's part of Europe on the Atlantic ocean, bordering Spain.

Spain has lots of airports.  Who knew?!  Maybe Spaniards do.  Are people from Spain called Spaniards or Spanish?  I'd prefer Spaniard and then I'd carry around a sword, grow a curly mustache and wear a hat with a feather it.  It's settled, I'm going to Spain.

Artists rendition of me as a Spaniard.  Where's my sword?

So there's your geography lesson for the day boys and girls.  Now on to the recipe.   

This is labeled as an "Easy" recipe and I'd have to say I'm categorize as such as well.  Let's start with the ingredients.

Bag o' clams, bag o' kale, sack o' taters, and package o' linguica are the main ingredients.  Also not pictured is fillet o' cod.  Package o' peeps have still not been eaten.

The instructions say to use a 4-6 qt pot so I pulled out my new Lodge cast iron 5 qt jobby job.  I cut up the linguica, onions, and garlic and got them all sauteing in the pot.

So far so good.  Mixing it up in the 5 qt pot.  Note the white background.

Then you add the potatoes.  Mix it up and cook for a few minutes.

Still in the 5 qt pot.  Starting to fill up.  No need to peel the potatoes.  Just wash and scrub them before slicing.

Now comes the 3 qts of chicken broth.  So if you're a math wiz like moi, the 3 qts of liquid are being added to a 5qt pot which should leave you with 2 qts of space for all the other stuff.   And we've already added the linguica, 2lbs potatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs.  So we probably have about 1qt of space left after adding the 3qts of broth and we still have to add the kale, clams, and fish.  So unless you want an overflowing pot I suggest you start this recipe with at least a 7 or 8qt stock pot or you'll end up have to switch pots in the middle of cooking like so.

Added 1.5 qts of chicken broth.  No way another 1.5 would fit comfortably in there. 

Here's the 8 qt.  My largest pot in the arsenal.  Look at the puny little red pot in the background.  You are not manly enough to handle the Portuguese stew that Tyler has envisioned.   You are so pretty but cannot handle the mammoth amount of stew that this recipe calls for.  Sometimes you have to chose function over fancifulness.

So I was a little pissed at Mr. Florence for saying you could use a 4-6 qt pot.  Maybe a 6 could squeeze it in but a 4 qt?!! Are you effing kidding me!  To help calm my recipe rage, I turned to my old friend, McCallan.

Macallan 12 year scotch whiskey, straight.  Smoky, oaky, burny, and delicious.

Now that we have the ingredients in the correct size pot you can add the chopped kale.

Chopped kale.  Not much to it.  Make sure to wash it well as it might contain dirt and things from the ground.

After the kale cooks for about 10 minutes or so you can add the clams.  Make sure they are scrub a dub dubbed, about 2 dozen clams in a tub.  No one likes a sandy clam so make sure your clam is clean.  And while I'm on the subject of clams, I was so concerned about finding this ingredient that I had a dream about them the night before I cooked.  Seriously, I would not make up such a thing.   I can't remember all the details but it had to with not being able to find little neck clams and lo and behold it took me 3 stores to eventually find them.  Thanks to Johnny's Foodmaster, the clams were discovered, bought, cleaned and cooked.  While the dish could have been made without them, I think they add that fishy quality to the broth and flavor profile of the dish.

The clams cook for about 10-15 minutes or until they open.  Then you add the fish.  I used cod fillet.  Drop the whole fillet in there.  It will break apart when it is cooked.

And for my next trick, ladies and gentlemen, I will pull a cod out of a pot!

  After the cod has cooked, you are ready to sit down to some Portuguese Fish Stew.  Tyler says to pair the stew with his Rustic Garlic Bread.  I also made this and it was excellent.  Only issue I had was slicing the loaf in half whereas the recipe says to cut a slit in the top and pour in the oil and herb mixture.  I spread the mixture on and cooked it that way.  Still quite excellent.

Serve in a shallow bowl to maximize your surface area of goodness.  I love how the linguica has found it's way into the clams.  Perfection!

Garlic Herb Bread.  So many herbs, so little bread.  Actually quite a lot of bread too but more herbs than I would have thought to use. 

In conclusion, I have to give this recipe excellent marks even though I will deduct half a plate for having to switch cooking vessels.  So if you do take on this Portuguese adventure, heed my advice and use a large pot or face the wrath of "small-pottedness" (Small-pottedness can be cured with a large pot and some Scotch or any preferred alcoholic substitute).   The flavors work well together, pairing the linguica and potatoes with clams and cod.  It's like a Portuguese party in my mouth and only some people are invited due to the amount of servings (6-8).   If you do not finish the stew it reheats well, but I advise eating all the clams since I'm not sure how they'd do in a microwave or even reheated in the pot.  Got to keep your clams fresh, cause once a clam goes bad.....ok enough with the clam jokes already.

Awarded 3.5 plates

3.5 plates.  I couldn't find a 3.5 plate graphic so pretend 1/2 plate is missing

and an angry cat

This is Ollie.  He was sitting across from me while I ate.  Not sure if he wanted some or just liked to stare me down.  Either way, he didn't look happy. 

Next up:

Chicken Frances (is this from France or made by a person named Frances?)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-francese-recipe/index.html