skills.
RECIPE AND FOOD STYLING POLLYANNA COUPLAND PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON
Ahandful of prawns, a few squid rings and a bag of mussels can be transformed into all manner of luxurious dishes – but serving them in a simple broth or sauce has always been my go-to. It’s a failsafe way to cook seafood to perfection, it works in the height of summer as well as the depths of winter, and it means you can make use of the discarded shells (which are packed with flavour).
Of course, seafood stews vary hugely depending on where in the world you are. There’s creamy cullen skink from Scotland and the rich chowders of New England; tomato-based bouillabaisse and cioppino from the Mediterranean (the latter via San Francisco); the fragrant coconut-laced moqueca of Brazil, Sri Lankan fish sothi and many more. Here, rather than focusing on one specific type of seafood stew, I’m cheekily cherry-picking ingredients and techniques from all my favourites to bring you my ultimate version.
MAKING A TOP STOCK
Any stew lives or dies on the quality of its base sauce or stock.
If you can get that packed with flavour, the rest is easy. While I love creamy sauces ( both coconut and dairy), they can sometimes overpower that fresh, sweet brightness you get from seafood. An infused stock-based broth allows all the flavours in your stew to shine.
Many European seafood stews (notably bouillabaisse) use a fish stock that’s slowly simmered, then put through a food mill – fish bones and all – for maximum flavour. This is absolutely delicious but takes time and effort. Instead, because I’m making more of a shellfish-based stew, I do a similar thing but with prawn heads and shells. It’s quicker, easier and you get freshly peeled prawns for your stew at the end of it. The pigment in the shells also gives your stock a beautiful orange hue. It knocks any shop-bought fish stock out of the park and, while it takes a little longer to peel the prawns yourself, it’s a zero-waste technique that rewards you with bags of flavour. Win-win!
CHOOSING YOUR SEAFOOD