Paul Phipps Mussels or Clams in Fish Broth

By á-5765

When served this dish at Paul's house, both my wife and I told Paul, "We need a copy of this recipe." As you will see below, he graciously wrote it up.

Ingredients

• Four dozen clams or mussels
• One half yellow onion diced
• Four garlic cloves minced
• Four Roma tomatoes double quartered
• One cup each white wine and fish broth
• Salt and pepper
• One quarter cup olive oil

Preparation

Step 1

In a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients, saute the onion until clear. Add the garlic and saute until golden. Add the clams, salt, pepper, wine and broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the clams are all open. Add the Romas and cook until they are soft. Divide equally among four bowls and serve with crusty Italian bread.

The Fish Broth

Fish broth can be made a lot of different way and you can even use clam juice (expensive) and sometime you can get fish broth cubes, powder or paste. This is what I do and it is not a very exact recipe because it really is not a very exact thing. It is really more work than the clams or mussels themselves.

In a pan, saute some diced onions in some olive oil. Add diced celery and carrots. Cook until fairly tender.

Put all this in a pot along with some inexpensive fish, bone, skin, head and everything that came with the fish (except for the insides if that happens to be there).

Add water, salt, pepper and also some vegetable broth powder (from Wild Oats bulk section). Just a guess but I would say about 1 pound of fish per half gallon of water. Simmer (not quite boiling, just below it) until everything is falling apart. This is usually about 45 minutes to an hour.

While it simmers, use a spoon to take off any scum that comes to the top. At the end of this time, the fish will be completely off the bones and the bones will almost be falling apart. Use a strainer to drain off the liquid. That is the fish stock. Throw all the solids that were strained out away. It usually helps to let the fish stock be undisturbed and let any remaining solids fall to the bottom. Then pour off the clearer liquid on the top for use and discard the stuff at the bottom. Again, not very exact and not too critical.

If you are going to do this, it is just as easy to make a gallon as a cup so you might as well make more and freeze what you do not use.