The Adnostic

Traif - Hebrew/Yiddish for "not kosher." Includes cheeseburgers, pork, shellfish, and lesbianism.

In this entry I am referring to an Italian seafood stew that I made the other night. Sorry boys. No euphemisms here.

Anyways, I took some minced garlic and parsley, and a chopped bulb of fennel and a chopped onion and softened it all in a large pot. I then took three cans of diced tomatoes, 1/3 cup of tomato paste, two cups of white wine, two cracked and cleaned crabs, and twelve clams and mixed it all together in the same pot. I brought the mixture to a boil and them let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then I added a pound of shrimp, some red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil. Then I boiled and simmered the mix again for 10 minutes.

It turned out great. Very hearty and tasty, but expensive as hell. A nice filet mignon would have been far cheaper, but it did make a lot of food and I felt like celebrating after an enjoyable week at my new job. So it all evened out in the end.

It was also messy. Shelling and eating crab by hand is usually a very sloppy endeavor to begin with, but my experience was compounded by the fact that I had to improvise a shell cracker with a garlic press. Not ideal, but it worked.

Final impression - I probably won't make it again. It was just too expensive. I may break it out if there's ever a boy with a weakness for shellfish who I feel the need to impress, but I would never make it again for just myself.