Seafood Muddle - Chef Kip Peters, Executive Chef, South Bend Country Club

Is it a soup, or a stew?  It's certainly delicious.  Adapt this recipe to the seafood you have available in your area.   Chef Peters used grouper, shrimp, clams and mussels since we had them available for one of his cooking classes.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 rib of celery, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 potatoes, diced to 1 inch squares
4 cups fish fume or clam juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch of saffron
12 clams, scrubbed
1 lb. lean fish cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
12 small mussels, debearded and scrubbed
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Heat large soup pot over medium heat. Add oil, then onions, carrots and celery and saute until transparent.  Add garlic and continue cooking for about 1 minute.  Add potatoes and tomatoes and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add fish fume or clam juice and saffron and simmer until potatoes are cooked.  Add seafood and cook until shells open on clams and mussels.  Discard any that do not open.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Divide seafood and broth among soup bowls and garnish with parsley.  Serves 8.