Caldo de Siete Mares

Seven kinds of seafood, each going in at its own moment — the dish is a running order, not a stock.

Fish, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, fish stock, shellfish.

Ingredients

the broth

• 2 litres fish stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 500 g tomatoes
• 3 guajillo chillies, soaked and drained
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt

the seven

• 200 g octopus, pre-cooked until tender
• 2 crab claws, cracked
• 250 g clams, scrubbed
• 250 g mussels, scrubbed
• 300 g firm white fish, in large chunks
• 250 g raw prawns, shell on
• 150 g squid rings

to serve

• lime wedges
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• a handful of coriander, chopped

Method

1. SEVEN KINDS, EACH GOING IN AT ITS OWN MOMENT -- THE DISH IS A RUNNING ORDER AND NOT A STOCK. The name is a count, and the only difficulty in the dish is that seven things want seven different lengths of time and all have to arrive at the table together. Written down and worked backwards from the moment it is served: octopus already cooked and only warmed, crab five minutes, clams and mussels four, fish three, prawns two, squid ninety seconds. That is the whole method. Tipped in together, something is always wrong -- the clams unopened or the squid like elastic -- and there is no recovering it in a shared pot.
2. THE BROTH IS FISH STOCK AND CHILLI, AND THE SHELLS ARE NOT USED. This is the opposite choice from a caldo de mariscos, which builds its broth out of fried prawn shells. Here the broth is deliberately a clean, light background, because seven kinds of seafood each have something to say and a heavy shellfish stock would flatten the differences between them.
3. THE OCTOPUS IS COOKED SEPARATELY AND IN ADVANCE. It needs forty-five minutes to an hour at a simmer to go tender, which is twenty times longer than anything else in the pot. Cooked in the soup, everything else would be ruined waiting for it. It goes in at the end simply to warm through.
4. THE PRAWNS GO IN SHELL ON. They hold their shape and stay juicier, and the shells give a little to the broth in those last two minutes. It makes the bowl messier to eat and that is the trade.
5. ANY CLAM OR MUSSEL THAT HAS NOT OPENED IS THROWN AWAY. Not prised open, not given longer -- discarded. A shell that stays shut after four minutes in simmering liquid was not alive when it went in.
6. The oil heated in a large pot and the onion and garlic cooked 5 minutes.
7. The tomatoes and soaked guajillos blended smooth and added with the oregano and bay. Cooked 10 MINUTES until darkened.
8. The fish stock and salt added and simmered 20 MINUTES. TASTED and corrected now.
9. The octopus cooked separately in simmering water 45 to 60 MINUTES until a knife goes in easily. Drained and sliced.
10. THE RUNNING ORDER WRITTEN DOWN before anything goes in. The broth brought to a gentle simmer.
11. The crab claws added -- 5 MINUTES.
12. The clams and mussels added -- 4 MINUTES.
13. The fish chunks added -- 3 MINUTES.
14. The prawns added SHELL ON -- 2 MINUTES.
15. The squid and the cooked octopus added, and the pot taken OFF THE HEAT after 90 SECONDS.
16. Served at once in deep bowls, each given a piece of all seven, with lime, onion and coriander. Unopened shells discarded.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes