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Seafood Chili

There’s only one secret to making sensational seafood chili, and that’s to not take it too seriously. You’d be surprised how well a little chili powder and taco sauce compensate for less-than-perfect execution, and how thoroughly good cheddar masks any mistakes you may make along the way. Improvise at whim; seafood chili is such an anomaly, no one is likely to know if you’ve made it correctly—but they will know that you’ve made something good.

The Base:

• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed and minced
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro (plus
  more for garnish)
• 1 red bell pepper, roasted, cored,
  seeded, and sliced
• 1 Anaheim chile pepper, roasted, cored,
  seeded, and minced
• 1 jalapeno chili pepper, roasted, cored,
  seeded, and minced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. crumbled dried oregano
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• 1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded and
  chopped (about 2 cups). Use canned if
  fresh are not at their best.
• 1 tsp. green salsa (green taco sauce)
• 2 tsp. white wine
• Salt

The Rest:

• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1/2 pound bay scallops
• 2 pounds clams, steamed and shelled (about 1/2 lb meats)
• 1/2 pound firm-fleshed fish, such as halibut, monkfish or red snapper, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese, or mixture of cheddar and Jack cheese (optional)

Garnish:

• Sour cream or plain yogurt
• 1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced

Cooking Instructions:

Heat the oil in a wide, deep skillet. Sauté the red onion, white onion, garlic and cilantro until the onions are soft and translucent.

Add the bell pepper, Anaheim and jalapeno chiles, chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne and stir well to combine.

Stir in the tomatoes and the green salsa, and cook over low heat, stirring often, until the tomatoes break down into pulp. When the mixture starts to stick to the pan, add the wine and stir vigorously to loosen it and make a dense sauce. Season to taste with salt and additional minced fresh cilantro.

At this stage you can remove the sauce from the heat, let cool and store for later use, two nights refrigerated, up to three months frozen. (You can also let sit in refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to mellow.)

Reheat the sauce over moderate heat. Stir in the shrimp, scallops and fish. Simmer gently until they are thoroughly opaque when cut into, about 12 minutes. Add the clams and simmer another 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, if desired. Serve at once, garnished with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and the diced avocado.

Servings per recipe: 4

Per serving: 442 cal. / 55g prot. / 27g carbo. / 1g sat. / 5g mono. / 3g poly. / .6g om-3 / 173mg chol. / 523mg sdm.