Fish Schlop (Ship-Schlop)

One of these days, I want to make a simple Irish stew, Fish Coddle. If you've ever seen pictures of it, it's beautiful! But it's supposed to be super messy to eat as you use whatever seafood you have around...and it tends to include oysters, mussels, lobster claws, crab legs, etc. Yes, a lot of shell fish. And it's served up WITH the shells!

I don't have shell fish just laying around like that. And I'm not going to pay that much more to stock up on crab, lobster & oysters to make it. Not right now, anyway.

I still love Dublin Coddle (click for my recipes I've done HERE), but we had some frozen fish that I wanted to use. We are trying to pick up eating seafood a bit more habitually, so I wondered how this would turn out.

This would also be awesome for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th), too (like what I've done before HERE)! So would the Fish Coddle, but if "...nobody ain't got money for that," maybe give this a try! I used the Fish Coddle as a base (HERE), and here's what I did:

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FISH SCHLOP

(SHIP-SCHLOP)

Ingredients:

1 carton vegetable or seafood stock/broth
1 big splash lemon juice or juice of 1 lemon
2 medium carrots, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 small potato (russet, sweet, etc.)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp pepper (black or white)
Seasonings of choice (parsley, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, chives, etc.)
1/4 pound-ish of shell-less seafood: fillets, shelled shrimp, shelled crab meat, etc.


Directions:

* pour contents of the broth/stock carton into a large saucepan

* add in the lemon juice, salt, pepper & seasonings, bring mixture to a boil

* add in carrots, celery & onion to the pot, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until veggies are tender

* During the last 5 minutes, add in the seafood & allow to cook thru...but do NOT over cook! 5 minutes is about as long as you need.

* Top with a sprinkling of parsley flakes/leaves & serve with bread of choice

Yield: 4-6

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Super easy to make, especially if you want to use up that little bit of frozen seafood you have in your freezer. It's really light, and good for you! Did I mention the nourishment? Well, you get that, too!

Great for a lunch on a cool day, for sure. I sure liked it!

ENJOY!

Smokey Mexi-Mocha Chili

My hubby makes great chili! I know a lot of guys (even gals) claim they have the best, but my hubby's is kind of different & so good. He makes a chili that's sweet & spicy.

OK...he tones down the spicy so I can eat it, but he puts in his own special ingredients. And I'm a sucker for the sweeter side of foods. Creamier, too. And his chili is more of a stoup (a Rachael Ray term for "thicker than soup & thinner than stew"). It's got a good, bold flavor that is sweet & savory.

It's important to know this about my hubby's chili, but let's jump to my own  ingredient search:

I love chocolate. No really...I. Love. Chocolate. And I will try all kinds to see if it's to my liking or not. One day, as I was searching the candy aisle at the grocery store, I discovered something that began my brain's wheels to start turning on overdrive. Lindt has a dark chocolate bar that contains chili pepper in it! Did you know that? And I questioned why...

Quite some time later, I learned that there are people who have added cocoa to their chili recipes. wha-WHA?? I know, right?

Then I got thinking about that chili chocolate bar from Lindt...
I had already been adding a square of it to my Spicy Mexi-Mocha (recipe HERE).

My hubby has talked about trying a Tex-Mex seasoning in his chili, and I remembered him saying that...so I got thinking about the whole spicy chocolate in chili, much like my Mexi-mocha. And, mocha includes coffee...so I thought I'd throw in some coffee, too! Because...well...I also LOVE coffee!! I. Love. Coffee.

Then a friend of mine put her vegan chili recipe out there. Imagine my shock when it, too, included coffee!! Since then, I had seen where a couple of chili recipe demos, on news segments, that also included coffee.

But...none of those recipes had included both chocolate AND coffee!! I had even tried to research other recipes that had those ingredients. Guess what I found! Nada...nothing...zip...zero. So, I was on my own.

I also love a smokey flavor to my chili, along with a lot of other soups & meats. So I thought I'd include it here, too.

So, after some research of spices & other chili recipes, and finally getting all the ingredients I needed for what I wanted to use, here's what I came up with:

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SMOKEY MEXI-MOCHA CHILI

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or turkey; browned, drained & rinsed
1 14.5 oz cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1-2 can(s) black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained (I used a can with no salt added)
1-2 sweet red bell pepper, deseeded & diced
1 beef bouillon cube
1½ cup dark roast/strong coffee, brewed
½ cup minced onion or 1 small sweet yellow onion, diced - divided
½ chili dark chocolate bar; broken into much smaller pieces
3 T cumin
2 T parsley
2 T oregano
3 T flour
3 T cinnamon
1 T nutmeg
1cup brown sugar
2-3 T vinegar
3 T liquid smoke
3 T smoked paprika
3 T chili powder
3 pinches ground cayenne pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes
garlic powder to taste
3 T honey
3 T vanilla extract
½ tsp anise extract (you seriously don't want too much of this, but just enough to give umph)
2 tsp cardamom
2 T each: unsweet cocoa & dark cocoa
2 T sugar
1 T salt
1 T ground black pepper

Directions:

~ in a large pot, brown meat thoroughly, adding half the onions; drain, rinse & add back into the pot

~ turn heat to mid-high heat, then add the beans, corn, bell pepper, the rest of the onions, and tomatoes (sauce, diced & paste) to the meat; stir

~ add in the coffee, liquid smoke, honey & extracts, then stir

~ begin to add all the other ingredients, stir & allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes

~ stir again & take a test taste to figure out where you might want to adjust seasonings & such, depending on how spicy, sweet &/or smokey you want it, then allow to simmer again to get those flavors all blended

* if you cannot live without a couple shimmy-shakes of tabasco sauce or chipotle seasoning, put it in...they are very fitting for this dish
* serve with cornbread or tortilla chips; sprinkle the top with cheese &/or sour cream, if desired

* use it as a hearty dip at your next fiesta

*serving suggestion: ladle the chili into a pottery mug (or any mug)...cuz...mocha should be in a mug

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This a different, yet yummy flavor for a chili. Perfect for a cold night (cuz...uh...chili) &/or for something like Cinco de Mayo, Dios de los Muertos, or even a different twist to for your Navidad fiesta...or any other night.

There are some surprising ingredients in this chili, but I really did take lead from my hubby's chili & a yummy Mexi-mocha. I even used the mocha idea as the basis for my Mexi-cocoa cake, too (recipe HERE)!

I mean...in ancient times, cocoa was mixed with spices & peppers before sugar & cream. So this is right on track with all of that!

As for the pepper, you can also mix it up by adding orange &/or yellow to make it more festive, too.

ENJOY!