Soup kinda day

I moved aboard again last night.

Not really, I mean, not in the ‘given up the apartment, shaken the land dust off my sandals, I’ll never spend another night ashore’ sense. I have 4 weeks before my long-term dock lease is up, and I need to get a lot of work done on the boat before I no longer have shore power and water handy. So I’m mostly staying aboard the boat from now until then.

Too bad the weather is in a wet cycle now. I mean, all the work I need to get done on deck really needs dry days – removing deck hardware and rebedding, stripping and refinishing wood trim, etc. And most of the below-decks work either involves chemistry needing good ventilation (like more varnishing), or crawling from one locker to the cabin and back to the lockers, rinse, repeat (rewiring, replumbing, rebedding, etc.) Cold and wet weather makes me want to curl up in the berth with a good book and the heater kicking out some good BTUs.

And comfort foods, like the family’s Sort-of Italian Seafood Soup, known for its flexibility of ingredients so it can be made with whatever we manage to scrounge up seafood-wise. It started out as a fish soup from a Gorton’s recipe book, but sometimes we’ve had to improvise. For this particular version I’ve aimed at being able to do it aboard the boat, in one pot. This should be enough for two people; I wanted to cut it down for one person, but it’s kind of hard to figure out what 1/4 of a can of tomatoes would be. If I can find small cans of tomatoes, I’ll practice this one a bit aboard and update the recipe.

• 1 Tbls butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped coarsely (or shallots or dried onion flakes reconstituted)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (dried ground garlic could be subst, but I don’t know how much = 1 clove)
• 1 oz/30 grams bacon, rind removed and diced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (or 1/4 tsp celery seed, or subst 1/4 cup diced fennel)
• 1/2 14 oz/398 ml can chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, chilled (or substitute rose or red wine)
• 2/3 cup fish stock (subst vegetable or chicken stock with a splash of fish sauce or clam juice or water + 2 tsp salt)
• 2 Tbls fresh basil shredded (about 2-3 large leaves) (or 1 and 1/2 tsp dried whole basil or 1 scant tsp dried ground basil, or subst marjoram)
• 1 Tbls fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped, divided (or 1 tsp dried or subst 1/2 Tbls green onion tops or chives or skip it if you don’t have anything you think would work)
• 1/2 lb/225 g firm fish fillets, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces OR somewhat less in cleaned shellfish, preferably a variety.
• 2 oz shrimp or scallops or other sweet shellfish

Melt butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan/dutch oven. Add onion and garlic and cook until just clear and soft. Add bacon and celery and cook, stirring often, about 2 minutes until bacon is clear but not browning.

A note about the bacon: Hard cured slab bacon can keep aboard the boat without refrigeration, but it has a rind which would need to be cut off before use in this recipe. Any other bacon or side pork can be substituted, or ham, capicolo, prosciuto, etc. It needn’t be diced; if it’s already sliced, cut into small bite-sized pieces.

Add tomatoes, wine, stock, basil, and half of the parsley (skip this if using green onion or chives). Season to taste with salt and pepper (and whatever else you think it needs, but simpler is often better here.) Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remember to put the wine back on the ice to keep it chilled.

Now make your toast, if you have a broiler. Any thick sliced bread, with something rich on top like butter and shredded cheese. Put it into the bottom of the bowls.

Add the fish and cook until just opaque, 3-5 minutes or so. Add shrimp and heat very gently (or remove from heat if pre-cooked) about 3 minutes. Immediately ladle into bowls over the toast, sprinkle with remaining parsley (or green onion or chives) and serve with generous glasses of chilled white wine.

The only reason the white wine was chilled was for serving with the meal. Very important though.