Ab - Crab Cioppino... kinda. 8>}

Recently my daughter, the biggest ab lover in the family, decided she wanted something other than deep-fried ab.  She pulled up an ab chowder recipe from the net.  I put in over a pound of 1/4 to 1/2" cubed, tenderized, fresh ab, and the recipe was pretty standard white chowder - potatoes, onions, ab and creamy sauce dominating it.  It was very good - girl #1 didn't care for it!  Sometimes you don't know how spoiled you may be on Dad's perfect deep-fried goodies!   

So last weekend she wanted to try another recipe with some of the big 10.5" meat.  She pulled up this abalone stew recipe:

- 1 pound cubed, tenderized abalone
- 1/2 c. onion
- 1/3 c. bell pepper
- 1/3 c. butter, unsalted
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 oz. tomato sauce
- 2 c. water
- 3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/3 t. cayenne pepper

In a large saucepan melt the butter and saute the garlic, onion and bell pepper until the onion is transparent.  Add the bay leaf, water, tomato sauce, potatoes, salt and cayenne pepper then cover and simmer about 15 minutes.  Add the abalone and simmer 4 to 5 minutes until tender.  Serves 8.

Well, we varied it a bit...  We used standard butter and I got the 15 oz. tomato sauce and my wife mistakenly put all of that in.  We simmered it a hell of a lot longer than 15 minutes, both before and after adding the ab.  The extra tomato sauce was not too strong at all.  It was delicious.  We were having some fresh Dungeness at the same time, so I started adding crab meat to the stew and it tasted like the best cioppino I'd ever had with an ab-bonus.  Ooo la la!   

A couple of nights later I made a double batch with the last of the ab and crab and varying amounts of the other ingredients.  It turned out deadly - if you don't eat something like that with bread and plenty of liquid you're in for a ride!