CAPE ANN SEAFOOD STEW

By BobD

Ingredients

• If there's time, bring fish and mussels to room temperature before adding to avoid bringing down the temperature of the stew and prolonging the cooking.
• 1 small bunch fresh kale (4 cups chopped and tightly packed)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, halved, thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded, thinly sliced
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1/2 pound mussels, scrubbed, debearded
• 1 1/4 pounds haddock or cod fillets, cut into 2-inch chunks

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from cooking.com

Preparation

Step 1

Strip kale leaves from stems; discard stems. Place leaves in pot of water and agitate well to remove grit. Chop well; set aside.

Pour oil into 4 1/2 - to 6-quart slow cooker. In the following order, layer onion, kale, pepper, mushrooms, garlic and bay leaves in cooker. Working over slow cooker, break tomatoes up with your hands and add them to the slow cooker. Add tomato juice from can, salt, basil, wine and clam juice. Cover and cook on low setting for about 8 to 9 hours or high setting for about 5 hours.

Spoon a little of the broth into a small bowl. Stir in tomato paste then stir back into stew. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add parsley and mussels, pushing mussels down toward the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add haddock and bury slightly in broth. Turn to high setting and cook about 1 hour longer, gently stirring fish about midway. Discard any unopened mussels when serving.