Fish Stew

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, a bowl of fish stew, and thou

(By Jim)
I'm helping out Barbara again. Right now she's busy with a lot of work at the library, plus we may be renovating our kitchen due to a water leak from our dishwasher.

Yesterday I was in the mood for fish stew. I rummaged through recipes on Epicurious, and found one that involved tomatoes, parsley, onion, and white wine (See here for more details). However, since our dishwasher is out of commission, I wanted something that would be more like a one-pot meal, with a starch in it so I didn't have to clean as many pots.

I decided to merge in some more recipes with potatoes and garlic. We had leftover lemongrass, so I threw some of that in. And some crushed red pepper, because any recipe is improved with a little spice. Granted, it made more of a mess than a one-pot dinner should, but it was tasty and easy to clean up after. And we had enough to have leftovers tonight. I'll add pictures when I get the leftovers plated up with Barbara gets home.

Fish Stew

Olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the Dutch oven)
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 peeled, seeded, and chopped Roma tomatoes
1.5 cup white wine
1.5 cup water
2 pounds fish or seafood (I used 1.5 lb monkfish tail chopped into 1 in steaks and 0.5 lb shrimp)
6 medium white or Yukon gold potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 stalk lemongrass,
2 pinches dried thyme
2 pinches salt
1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Dredge the monkfish steaks in corn starch. When olive oil is just starting to smoke gently lay the steaks in until they brown on both sides. Remove the fish to a plate. Dump in onions and sweat until translucent. Peel lower part of lemongrass, chop off the tops from the lowest 6 inches, then split the lower part lengthwise. Discard top of lemongrass. Add garlic, tomatoes, lemongrass, crushed red pepper, salt, and thyme, and potatoes. Add fish. Pour in wine, and add enough water to cover (about 1.5 cups). Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and simmer for 30 minutes. When potatoes are tender, bring back to a boil and add shrimp. Boil for 3-4 minutes, or until done. Turn off heat and stir in parsley. Serve with a baguette or other crusty bread for dipping.