Spicy Seafood Stew

One of the benefits of living in coastal Virginia is the availability of a wide array of fresh seafood.  Plus, if a particular seafood isn't available locally we are close enough to get it shipped fresh and still maintain a high quality.  This brings us to mussels.


The good wife and I got introduced to mussels while stationed in Germany.  After all, they weren't very common in Tennessee when we were growing up.  Once we got back to the states we found that we'd have to get fresh mussels and prepare them ourselves if we wanted them since their use is not common in most American restaurants.  That said, when we find mussels for a good price we snatch them up and indulge ourselves.


Normally, we do mussels in a white wine sauce with some good crusty bread.  However, the good price we found was for a 10 lb bag so I get to play around more.  Since it is getting cold soups and stews feature prominently in our menu so it was only natural to use the mussels in a soup or stew.  I looked around at various recipes and thought about what else I had available and came up with this recipe.

Harvest tag indicating where the mussels were harvested

Be sure to clean the mussels before you put them in the stew.  Cleaning mussels is fairly simple, make sure there is no loose sand on the shell and pull off the beards.  Also at this time discard any that are gaping open and won't close when handled.


2 lbs of mussels, cleaned and ready for the pot

1 lb each of cod and shrimp, ready for the pot

Spicy Seafood Stew


1 lb hot Italian sausage
1 lb cod or other firm white fish
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed optional
2 lbs mussels
1 large onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup dry white wine
6 cups fish broth
6 cups chicken broth, optional
3 Tbs fish sauce, optional


Brown sausage in a deep pot and break it up to desired size.  If you get sausage in casings remove the casings.  Remove the browned sausage from the pot.  Put the onion and garlic in the sausage grease and sauté until translucent.  Add the tomato paste and stir together.  Cook until the tomato paste has darkened a bit then add the diced tomatoes.  Cook until the tomatoes start to simmer then add the wine and fish broth.  Bring to a simmer.  If you don't have or can't find fish broth you can use chicken broth and the fish sauce to make a substitute.  Once the liquid is simmering return the sausage to the pot.  Stir to mix and return to a simmer.  Add the cod, cut into 1 inch pieces, and cook for 1 - 2 minutes.  Add the mussels and gently stir and cook for 1 - 2 minutes.  Add the shrimp and gently stir then cook until the shrimp are done.  The shrimp should be done in about 3 minutes.  Ladle into a bowl and serve with crusty bread.  This makes 4 - 6 servings.

A nice bowl of spicy seafood stew

This stew ends up being nicely spiced but not so much that the seafood is over shadowed.  The broth is excellent sopped up with the bread.  I think an excellent substitution would be using Spanish chorizo in place of the hot Italian sausage.  You would just need to add some olive oil to the pot so you'd be able to sauté the onions.


The next time you're wanting a good stew then give this one a try.  Too many stores have decent fish markets now not to try it.  If you do try it let me know how it turns out.


Uncle T