Baja Seafood Stew

**Tinkerbell**'s Note:

From Betty Crocker's Southwest cooking, chock full of fresh flavors & delicious seafood! Posted for Zaar World Tour 5.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 medium onion , chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• ½ cup green chilies , chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon orange peel , grated
• 1 ½ cups orange juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro , snipped
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes , undrained & cut into halves
• 24 soft-shell clams , scrubbed (steamers)
• 1 ½ lbs raw shrimp , medium sized and shelled
• 1 lb cod , cut into 1-inch pieces (sea bass, mahimahi or red snapper fillets can be substituted for cod)
• 1 (6 ounce) package frozen crabmeat , thawed, drained & cartilage removed

Directions:

1. Cook & stir onion, chiles and garlic in oil in 6-quart Dutch oven until onion is tender.
2. Stir in remaining ingredients except for seafood.
3. Heat to boiling, reduce heat & simmer uncovered 15 minutes.
4. Add clams; cover & simmer until clams open, 5-10 minutes. (Discard any clams that have not opened.).
5. Carefully stir in shrimp, cod and crabmeat. Heat to boiling, reduce heat, cover & simmer until shrimp are pink and cod flakes easily with fork, about 4-5 minutes.

Reviews

[Debbie R.]

Very delicious and fresh-tasting. It tastes much more orangey than anticipated, and I only used about 3/4 t. of freshly grated orange peel. I used a poblano pepper for the green chili. I also accidentally thawed out bay scallops instead of cod, so that's what went in there instead of fish. I had to use canned clams and crab because that's all that was available. It was a very good soup. I enjoyed eating it with a slice of asiago cheese bread to dunk in it. Despite there being 2 cups of wine in it, it doesn't taste overly wine-y at all and would be safe to serve to people who don't care for wine as a dominant flavor. I think next time I would use some crab surimi instead of real canned crab or even frozen. Cut up into chunks, it would be really nice.