Spicy Seafood Stew

(Don't let the length of the recipe dissuade you. This is one of my absolute favorites and it just came to me serendipitously.  No other recipes were used as the basis for the creation of this dish, but honors Emeril's "2 beer rule." ) BAM!!

Ingredients…
Part One: The Roux (30-40 minutes)
2-3 T butter; 1 T olive oil
1/3 c flour

Part Two: The Trinity (20 minutes)
1 large white onion, finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
1 1/2 – 2 bell peppers, a combination of red, yellow, or orange, diced
pinch of salt

Part Three: The Stew (30 minutes)
2-3 bay leaves
1 T fresh thyme, chopped
3/4 t cayenne pepper, ground
¼ t cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
1/8 – ¼ t cinnamon
3 cloves garlic
1 carrot, diced
1 box organic vegetable broth
zest of 1 lemon
2 small Yukon gold potatoes, diced (optional)
28 oz can diced tomatoes
black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

Part Four: The Seafood (8-10 minutes)
1 lb bay scallops
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb salmon, no skin
(or 3 pounds of your favorite sturdy seafood)
fresh lemon juice or red wine
pinch of salt, pepper to taste

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Cooking Instructions

TO AVOID BURNING THE ROUX, START BY PREPARING THE TRINITY -- DICE THE ONION, BELL PEPPER AND CELERY AND SET TO THE SIDE OF THE POT. NO KIDDING. YOU CAN DICE EVERYTHING ELSE LATER WHILE YOU ARE COOKING, BUT YOU MUST CONSTANTLY STIR THE ROUX AND SHOULD NOT BE TAKING A BREAK OR TURNING DOWN THE HEAT TO CHOP. (and, yes, I am "yelling at you" here)

PART ONE – THE ROUX
Bring a heavy bottomed large stock pot to medium temperature. If you don’t have a cast iron (either plain or enameled pot) or a high quality stainless pot (something like All-Clad) you will need to lower the heat and the roux will take a bit longer to cook. Add the butter, oil, and flour and whisk into a paste. Heat and stir continuously and watch the color change…use the “two beer rule” – you should be stirring gently for about 30-40 minutes as the mixture changes from blonde, to almond, to chocolate, to brick colored. Use common sense and turn the heat up or down to cook the roux without burning it. You burn it, you start over. However, if you are easily amused and patient about cooking, you will absolutely love this...

Have a nice beverage or two to drink, good music and good company and the time will pass quickly. This step is immensely worth the effort. I’ve made lighter roux with whole wheat flour, and it may work for a dark roux, but I’m not sure. You do NEED a darker roux here. You can move forward with a minimum of a brick red roux, but a dark chocolate color is by far the best. To my amazement, these roux proportions become nice and liquid as they are cooked – don’t worry about that.

PART TWO – THE TRINITY
Once your roux is to color, add the trinity and a big pinch of salt. Pinch with all of your fingertips. This is about 1 teaspoon or so, but the food will taste better if you get your hands (clean, of course) into it. The salt causes the veggies to weep, which has two important effects – blending the flavors and adding to the volume (and the vegetable flavor) of the cooking liquid.

You may increase the heat if you feel you should. If you are using a heavy pot, you probably have enough thermal mass and therefore enough heat; if you are using a typical pot, you will most likely need to increase your heat a level or two.

A typical soup base is onion, celery, and carrots. In French cooking, this is called a mirpois. In Cajun cooking, “the Trinity” is onion (2 parts), celery (1 part); bell pepper (1 part). You may add the carrots along with the standard Trinity, but be gentle or you will have too much sweetness.

PART THREE – THE STEW
After the diced vegetables of the trinity have softened (maybe 10 minutes), add the spices, remaining chopped veggies, liquids and seasonings to the pot. Increase the heat and bring to a simmer. Everything should simmer together for about ½ hour.

PART FOUR – THE SEAFOOD
By this time, you or your sous chef should have prepared your fresh seafood for cooking. You may need to peel and devein your shrimp, remove skin from the salmon, take the foot off sea scallops…You may add a tiny bit of salt, black pepper or crushed red pepper to the raw fish. Be gentle with the salt. I don’t add any at this point.

Don’t bother searing bay scallops; they’re too small. Sear fish and shrimp or large scallops. Of course, you won’t sear mussels or clams or something in a shell. Fish in shells will cook in the stew. You can tell they’re done when they open. You wouldn’t sear crab, either.

Heat a skillet or grill pan to searing hot. Yes, I mean heat it to searing hot before you put any food in it; maybe you want a tiny bit of oil, but it’s not really needed. Place the shrimp and fish n the skillet to briefly sear the seafood. Don’t crowd it; cook it in batches. Once the first side is slightly seared, turn each piece over and sear the other side. Each side should take about 30 seconds or so for the shellfish – you’ll see the color start to change; two minutes for salmon. Pile the partially cooked, but seared seafood on a plate as you go. Once you have finished the last batch, squeeze ½ of a fresh lemon and/or a little red wine into the pan to deglaze it and scrape all of the remaining bits loose from the pan.

After searing all of the seafood, dump all of your seafood (seared and other) and the pan juices into the simmering stew, cover and let simmer for 4 minutes…no more; no less.

YOU MAY SKIP SEARING ALL TOGETHER – in that case, add the fish, about 4 minutes later, add the shellfish and squeeze ½ lemon into the stew. And cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Your spicy seafood stew is DONE!! Serve and enjoy with friends. (2-3 hours)