Seafood stews a rich meat stand-in

Seafood is considered by many to be the food of Lent and thus is associated by some with deprivation. To others, eating seafood doesn't seem like a sacrifice at all. For discriminating diners, a seafood stew is the elegant entree par excellence. No wonder a seafood stew was the opening act of President Barack Obama's inauguration luncheon.

On restaurant menus, seafood dishes tend to be the priciest items. At the supermarket seafood usually costs more per pound than everyday cuts of meat. Fortunately, this is the season when markets have seafood specials, so it's a good time to add them to meals.

For nutrition-conscious cooks, who know that health professionals recommend eating fish twice a week, this is the time to enjoy good value.

Seafood stews can vary greatly on the scale of casual to formal. There is a big difference between Good Housekeeping's old-fashioned codfish stew, made by cooking frozen cod with canned potatoes, canned tomatoes and ketchup, and the elaborate presidential seafood stew, prepared in the classic European style, of lobster, shrimp and scallops in a vermouth cream sauce, baked under a crown of buttery puff pastry.

Seafood cooks quickly, which means you can get a seafood stew on the table much faster than one made of meat. Often fish stews are easier to prepare, too. You don't need to brown the pieces of fish; simply cook them gently in the sauce.

Make your choice

Choose fish that doesn't easily flake apart; monkfish or sea bass are good options. Fish steaks are a good choice, as they are thick and tend to hold together well. However, you can also use thin, delicate-textured fish fillets like salmon, sole and tilapia, as long as you cook them carefully. Add them to the sauce just before serving and cook them for only a few minutes.

Shellfish lend themselves readily to stewing, as they don't tend to fall apart. Shrimp are the easiest to stew; even stirring them vigorously won't cause them to break up. Scallops and crayfish hold together well, too, but like shrimp they overcook easily and should be added to the sauce for the last few minutes of cooking.

Mussels and clams also hold together well and can be cooked directly in a stew, if you don't mind the shells and if you have cleaned them well. To avoid the risk of making the sauce sandy, however, many chefs prefer to cook these bivalves separately and then add them to the sauce with a little of their strained liquid.

Don't forget rule No. 1 for cooking any seafood: Use it promptly so it is as fresh as possible, whether you have purchased it fresh or whether it was frozen and thawed.

Remember, too, that many kinds of fish give off liquid as they cook, which makes the sauce thinner. Some chefs remove the fish from the pan after cooking it, and then boil the sauce to thicken it and concentrate its flavor.